Thomas Friedman’s Minnesota

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman traveled to the Stanford School of Business this month and spent a little time talking about his native Minnesota.

“I know the world is not Minnesota,” he said. “You cannot live a decade in Beirut and Jerusalem, and cover wars and massacres and believe that the world is Minnesota.”

He said the state, at least the one that he knew growing up, had civic leaders who felt a responsibility to do more than just make a buck, and had liberal Republicans in heavily Republican DFL congressional districts.

Does that Minnesota still exist?