REPUBLICANS often accuse Democrats of being socialists. But in North Dakota, socialism has been thriving for decades. It is the only state with a state-owned bank and a profitable state-owned grain elevator and flour mill, both of which the good people of North Dakota, who mostly vote Republican in presidential elections, embrace and value. Both institutions began embroiled in controversy. With all the vitriol about socialism and radicalism in the national debate today, is there anything we can learn from North Dakota?

All state revenues are deposited in the Bank of North Dakota, which promotes agriculture, commerce and industry in the state. It was the first bank in the country to provide a federally insured low-interest student loan; it supports new farmers in a state that has some of the toughest laws in the country limiting corporate farms; and through partnerships with local banks, it guarantees loans to commercial and industrial enterprises that directly benefit North Dakota. Before he became governor and then a United States senator, John Hoeven, a Republican, was the bank’s president. A Socialist Republican? That’s weird.

The high-tech grain elevator and mill towering above the prairies in Grand Forks is one of the largest and busiest in the country. The North Dakota Mill and Elevator Association competes with private grain elevators and mills but receives no taxpayer money to give it an unfair advantage and, like the bank, the association returns much of its annual profit to North Dakota’s general fund. Isn’t that socialism? What’s going on?

At the turn of the last century, North Dakota farmers were hurting. Their farmland was rich, but the farmers were poor. Out-of-state bankers owned their mortgages, Minneapolis financiers and industrialists owned all the elevators and mills, the railroad tycoons controlled freight costs, and together they thwarted competition for the state’s lucrative wheat market.