OXFORD, Ohio–Jesse Ventura was sworn in as governor of Minnesota this month in the most refreshingly declasse inauguration since 1829, when Andrew Jackson's supporters wheeled a giant cheese into Washington as part of the celebration.
What one account called "Ventura's two-week long Power Bar-and-blues-fueled inaugural marathon" included the former professional wrestler releasing a bald eagle in his hometown of Brooklyn Park. (Ventura shaves his head.)
There was also a concert for 14,000 featuring teen-age guitar phenom Jonny Lang and honky-tonk hero Delbert McClinton. Ventura loudly exclaimed "Hooya!" after delivering his first official address.
"We wanted to include as much of Minnesota as we could," explained the Gopher State's new first lady, Terry Ventura, before the festivities. "We want everyone to come the way they're most comfortable at a party–tux, tennis shoes or biker leather."
NOW THE PARTY'S over and it remains to be seen if Ventura can deliver on the promises of his campaign.
But whether he actually accomplishes anything legislatively during his tenure, he has already achieved this much: He has discombobulated members of elites who actually mistrust the "common people" for whom they claim to speak.
Voters apparently responded to Ventura's combination of centrist substance and blunt style. Ventura has pledged to return budget surpluses to taxpayers and improve public schools, and his most memorable TV ad featured a Ventura action figure beating the bejeezus out of an "Evil Special Interest Man" doll. Yet the elites are more likely to see Ventura as simply one more lamentable manipulation of Boobus americanus.
CONSIDER Ralph Nader, founder of the consumer group Public Citizen and an advocate of regulating virtually all economic activity in the name of social justice (save for that of the trial lawyers who so generously support his various operations).
Although Nader has long employed classic populist rhetoric that advocates giving power back to the "people," Ventura's triumph using similar language inspired fear and trembling in the self-styled consumer advocate.
Not without reason: Ventura taps into the feeling that Americans suffer not from too little state presence in their lives, but from too much.
"Government cannot be your parent," the governor told voters who complain they can't afford housing and insurance.
"There's too many laws altogether," he told Jonathan Rauch of the National Journal, a weekly political magazine.
In a January column for the San Francisco Bay Guardian, a weekly newspaper, Nader mused over the implications of Ventura's victory, one of which was wrestler Hulk Hogan's subsequent (and splendidly dadaist) announcement that he was considering running for president.
"Was farce replacing tragedy?" wondered Nader.
While one might assume that a purported outsider such as Nader would cheer a significant success by a third-party candidate, Nader instead warned darkly, "There are potential voters in this country who might respond to a rough-hewn, no-nonsense candidate....Campaign consultants have used Madison Avenue techniques to create the slick images that sell their candidates."
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