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Klobuchar is pretty much perfect for examining Minnesota Nice. Minnesota Nice unsettles people because it decouples an ethic of care—which Klobuchar has in spades—from liking someone—not her strong suit.
I disagree frequently with Klobuchar on the best way to take care of the people of Minnesota and the U.S. and sometimes with her vision of who these groups are, but I have zero doubt she's sincere about the work. She *feels* that responsibility.
A cultural Minnesotan* will keep you alive through the coldest winter in basic physical comfort. They might disappear in the spring, though, because it wasn't personal.
*Valid at the individual level only and dependent on who counts as a person to them.
*Valid at the individual level only and dependent on who counts as a person to them.
And yes, that can be unsettling if that isn't one of your cultural assumptions. How do you know who actually likes you as a person when anyone might go out of their way for anyone? What do people really feel?
Honestly, this can be tough. I attended a neighborhood party once with a former political bigwig, because he lived in the neighborhood. Everyone there was dismayed when he accepted the invite and turned up. Everyone was very polite.
But an invitation with a date attached is typically meaningful. Even more so if it's dinner at someone's house. If it snows, they might be stuck with you.
Really, we don't voluntarily increase our contact with people without a good reason. If you don't know the reason, we're probably doing it because we like you.
Minnesota Nice exists to decrease the intimacies of interdependence. It's courtly politics for people stuck in a tiny fishing shack, not Machiavellianism. We know how to stay distant. If we get closer, it's because we want to.
