How can North Dakota attract business and investment by treating everything "out-of-state" as evil?

Anti-"out-of-state" protectionism is built into the DNA of every North Dakotan, and has been the basis for our politics since statehood. It is also a self-inflicted handicap to economic development.

Anyone who knows the history of North Dakota understands that the state has always had a chip on its shoulder when it comes to suspicion of “out-of-state” interests. It goes way beyond xenophobia because it applies to Americans that just happen to be from out of state.

The original NPL (Non-Partisan League) was created because of a legitimate problem at…