Battered Party Syndrome - I'm

Battered Party Syndrome - I'm starting to see the current realignment in Minnesota much as I would see a change in a long-term, dysfunctional relationship. And I'm going to look at it through the lens of today's Strib editorial.

The Strib editorial board has no doubt about it; when the DFL moses, Minnesota loses now that the DFL has capitulated on the budget.

The editorial starts off peevish:

It was no compromise that was struck Friday by legislators and the governor to balance Minnesota's 2004-05 budget. It was a case of conquest and capitulation -- conquest by Republicans hell-bent on shrinking government's contribution to Minnesota's shared life, capitulation by the DFLers who were its defenders.

Wow. No doubt about their sympathies there, huh?

Of course, neither the Strib Editorial Board nor any pro-tax activist has ever showed me where the tax cuts will "shrink government's contribution to our shared life" in any substantial way - they even hint at this in the editorial.

But it's not about accuracy. It's about power. When a dysfunctional relationship changes, the person losing power strikes back.

The editorial continues:

Politically, Pawlenty's victory is a remarkable achievement. Not for at least three decades has Minnesota seen a rookie governor get his way so completely. Not before in modern times has a governor attempted to close a double-digit gap in the state budget solely with spending cuts and one-time infusions of reserved cash.

Thirty years ago, Wendell Anderson had his Minnesota Miracle; Pawlenty is producing a Minnesota Retreat from government as this state has known it.

When someone in a relationship loses power, that person predicts dire conseqences.

The moment's been a long time coming, of course. As I wrote on Friday, this moment parallels one in national history - one that had similar symptoms.

Minnesota is running about 25 years behind the rest of the country in finally starting to tinker with the notion that happiness is something government can give you. And the Minnesota GOP is also 25 years late in rejecting the Rockefeller Republicanism that dominated the old "Independant Republican" party, the party of Arne Carlson and Al Quie. (And do you remember how the national establishment - the media and chattering classes - reacted to that?)

The old IR was "Independent" because it was far to the left of most Republican parties in the US (New Jersey's was one of few that are worse). They were Republicans in name only; they had Chamber of Commerce presidents in their leadership, rather than union activists and college professors, but the policies were nearly identical.

Why?

Because in a state where the entire public class - the educational, political and media establishments - were solidly pro-tax, pro-spending, pro-government intervention, to swim against the tide was to risk character assassination, abuse, to lose one's reservations at the metaphorical St. Paul Grill of acceptance.

And so the "opposition" became a codependent partner in a sick, skewed relationship, based on a few good things and a lopsided balance of power.

And the establishment used that power, not only to benefit Minnesotans (and even as a conservative I can allow for the benefits that the "Minnesota Miracle" spawned, even as I criticize this state's addiction to state-sponsored miracles), but to intimidate and browbeat those who could foresee a need to trim some of the fat, to become more competitive. The Strib's editorial board was always quick with the class envy...:

Several weeks remain before legislative inaction would risk a state government shutdown. That prospect apparently worried DFLers more than it did Republicans. As one DFL senator said: "It's usually the privileged who think shutting down government would be a heroic act."

...and with the establishment's parade of pet experts...:

It was only in recent days that leading economists and former governors called for state tax increases instead of deep cuts in public services, particularly for children.

The old IR couldn't handle that sort of opprobium. It craved approval, even as it went back on everything it was supposed to have believe in.

It was a codependent in a deeply dysfunctional relationship.

In the early nineties, the conservative wing of the party erupted under Alan Quist, a firebrand, unelectable Christian Conservative. The media feasted on Quist an his followers - you'd have thought Martin Borman had sprung from a field near Mankato and started leading an army in a march on Minneapolis, pledging to feast on children, gays and women who wanted abortions.

The media and the public class hated Quist. Hell, I disliked Quist; many of his grass-roots supporters were pro-life single-issue monomaniacs, illiterate about economics, the Second Amendment, conservatism beyond abortion. Today, those that didn't get more educated are calling talk radio shows to stump for Pat Buchanan.

But they took the flak. They convinced more Republicans and conservative Democrats that the sky wouldn't fall if the Star-Tribune editorial board shunned them. They learned to organize themselves. They learned how Conservatism was done in the real world. Talk Radio and the conservative internet helped a lot - it's no accident that the rise in Conservatism in Minnesota we didn't need the mainstream media to have a common voice anymore.

And they helped the rest of us break out of the trap - the trap that told us "you're nothing without us", the one that said "WE are the people. If you are against us, you're against The People."

And like a controller who senses power is being lost, the establishment is snapping back in anger:

The ultimate loser this session will be Minnesota. In more ways than most people expect, Minnesota's shared life will be painfully pinched as state spending is rolled back. Real cuts -- not just smaller increases -- are in store. They will fall with disproportionate severity on the poor, students, Minneapolis and St. Paul, outstate cities and cultural institutions. The most vulnerable will pay the greatest price.

That has not been the Minnesota way. Until now.

. "You're nothing without me!"

Minnesota is realizing; the party is not the people. The government is not the fount of all good.

We can expect a period where the formerly-dominant partner will wallow in impotent rage.

I think we're seeing that now.

Posted by Mitch at May 19, 2003 08:27 AM