In 1804 and 1805, Lewis and Clark made history with their trip up the Missouri River, but it’s the waters coming down the Missouri that will make history in 2011. People along the Missouri are thinking less of Lewis and Clark and more about Noah these days. Water levels in Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota are already at record levels, and all that water is pouring downriver. Dams can’t take any more water, and so the flow will only increase for cities and towns downstream.

It’s going to be a long, wet summer along the banks of the Missouri.

To the extent that there’s uncertainty in this economy, it’s because of one thing and one thing only: millions of consumers don’t know if they’re going to be able to stay in their homes, and how that will affect their jobs and their lives.

The people who benefit from the status quo will fight tooth and nail against movements to reform it. Any grassroots movement that tries to put the power back in the hands of regular people will inevitably be attacked by those who profit from having the power. As we have seen with the Nonpartisan League, its enemies smeared it, tried to subvert its message and stole its techniques.

At the turn of the 20th century, North Dakota’s population was mostly rural farmers, yet a small number of powerful corporate interests dominated the state’s politics and finances. The farmers took back political power with the founding of the Nonpartisan League. The Nonpartisan League started with a clear, precise platform that was simple to understand. The NPL asked supporters to sign a pledge to support the platform, and it expected them to support candidates endorsed by the NPL, regardless of political party, in order to create and maintain a tight association which could work toward a single goal.

Instead of providing necessary services at a reasonable rate of profit, a powerful oligarchy of financial interests, led by the Chamber of Commerce, used its political power to bend or rewrite the rules. They squeezed regular people for every penny possible. This corrupt system led many into bankruptcy and despair. This same parasitic capitalism, caused by corporate ownership of our political system, recently ruined our economy and the gulf coast.

The NPL was one of the most powerful political organizations in American history and the speed of its rise to power was unprecedented. The organization was formed in 1915 by two men sitting around a kitchen table. By 1918, it had taken complete control of the government of North Dakota and enacted much of its platform. Its success and failures hold a wealth of lessons for anyone interested in political organizations.

Conrad has been the biggest proponent of health care cooperatives, yet that’s exactly what “irresponsible” BCBS of North Dakota hopes to be under federal legislation.