Prairie fire

Garrison Keillor talks about why he is flamingly anti-Bush and pro-Democrat.

By David Talbot

Aug 21, 2004 | In the past, they were vaguely considered to be of the liberal persuasion, but unlike, say, Barbra Streisand, they chose not to wear their political passions -- or candidates - on their sleeves. But this is 2004, and a swarm of previously muted American notables -- from Bruce Springsteen to Howard Stern to Sarah Jessica Parker to, yes, Neil Diamond - have begun clamoring to tell the country exactly what they think of George W. Bush and what they would like their fellow citizens to do about him in November.

The latest to add his wry and humorous voice to the anti-Bush chorus is Garrison Keillor, bard of America's sensible flatland, who has just published "Homegrown Democrat: A Few Plain Thoughts From the Heart of America," an entertaining encomium to the progressive values he holds dear. In it Keillor, the host of public radio's "Prairie Home Companion," writes warmly of the homespun Scandinavian wisdom that informed his childhood -- "Don't Think You're Special Because You're Not," which is just the local way, he notes, of reminding people to take care of their neighbors. It's a basic human value, Keillor observes, that the party of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, John Ashcroft and Tom DeLay gleefully abandoned years ago. "They are a party," writes Keillor, "that is all about perceptions, the Christian party that conceals enormous glittering malice and is led by brilliant bandits who are dividing and conquering the sweet land I grew up in. I don't accept this."

We recently communicated via e-mail with Keillor, who once served as Salon's "Mr. Blue" advice columnist, from his home (we assume) in St. Paul, Minn.

By and large, you have not been known in the past for flaunting your political opinions. But now you've come out loudly and proudly as a die-hard Democrat. Why did you decide to reveal yourself this year -- and do you worry about alienating your Republican fans out there?

I've always been a Democrat. Never tried to hide it, never thought I had to. "A Prairie Home Companion" isn't a political show, and by and large I hate preaching on the show. I've done it a few times and never felt easy about it. The show ought to be entertaining in every sense of the term, to people of any political stripe, my people and also ignorant fascist bastards. Writing a book is another can of beans entirely. I wrote this out of pure conviction that the country I love is in grave danger of sliding away, and one does not stifle those thoughts. I don't know why Republicans should be alienated. Ricky Skaggs has been traveling around with President Bush, singing at his rallies, and I sure am not alienated by that. Ricky is a great artist and a good guy, and I hope I get to sing with him again.

The conservative loudspeaker system has largely succeeded in convincing the public that liberals are elitists, out of touch with their everyday concerns. But as you observe in your book, the progressive Minnesotans you grew up had humility and charity drummed into them. How did Democrats lose their image, at least in some circles, as the party of the common man and woman?

I don't know any common people personally, though I do know people living on a narrow financial ledge who work terrifically hard to keep from falling off. Young writers, artists, musicians, for sure, but also office workers trying to pay off college loans, own a car, lead a decent life with some music and fun in it, and not to drown in credit card debt. For them, the middle-class life -- the house, the kids, the leisure -- is not so attainable as it was for their folks. You can't swing it on $12.50 an hour. This is a great country for people who earn a quarter-million a year or more, and the others are getting gypped. Democrats were put on earth to speak up for them. We believe in the energy and inventiveness and wild ambition of the young, the marginal, the outsider, the dispossessed -- that's where the genius and soul of this country resides, and we should not crush it underfoot.

Last week I saw the new Millennium Park that Mayor [Richard M.] Daley put up on the waterfront in Chicago, where the Illinois Central tracks used to be. It's magnificent, and anybody can walk in. You walk past the Gehry pavilion and the sculpture and reflecting pool and the gardens, and you walk away with a sense of democratic grandeur and hope and purpose. That's why we defend the notion of first-class public schools and transit and libraries and affordable higher education: Like Teddy Roosevelt and the Victorian reformers, we believe in the divine spark within every last soul and celebrate that in public magnificence -- Yellowstone, Central Park, the land-grant universities, the meritocracy, the ideal of public service as a noble calling.

What some people call elitism is simply a belief that God grants gifts to people regardless of social standing, and a Democrat wants the bus driver's kids who have a God-given ability to be recognized and uplifted. I want the University of Minnesota to be a great institution so that a kid from Biwabik or Blue Earth or Ortonville can entertain enormous ambitions, not just be trained to be a serf in a cubicle. It won't happen with Republicans in power. These shysters slid into power on a grease slick and have to be run out. The moment we do, political wisdom will change and the conservative machine will be quiet for a few weeks and we Democrats will have a new image.

Next Page: Comparing this year's JFK to the original -- and yes, some Republicans have done good things

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