Minnesota Caucuses - Minnesota went

Minnesota Caucuses - Minnesota went through its periodic "precinct caucus" ritual last night.

As predicted, conservative Brian Sullivan beat Tim Pawlenty by a wide margin in the GOP straw poll. This will be widely extolled by the left as a sign that the GOP in Minnesota is dominated by the "theocratic far right". The truth is, the caucuses are dominated by the theocratic far right. In fact, that is one of the more difficult things about going to the GOP caucuses; a group of well-meaning but utterly single-issue prolifers will spend most of the time introducing pre-printed resolutions from various prolife groups, all permutations of the same basic idea (no abortion, no stem cell research, no cloning, no euthanasia). Not such a bad thing (if you're even just opposed to the frivolous disregard for life that the extremes of teh "pro choice" movement espouse). However, all too many of these people are utterly illiterate about non-life issues; frequently, these people have no idea why tax cuts, tort reform, concealed-carry reform and preemption statutes and many other bedrock conservative issues are of any importance. If the "theocratic far right" has done the GOP any disservice, it's bringing this much illiteracy about the full spectrum of conservatism out in full force at caucus time.

In the meantime - I've been predicting since roughly about the time of Ventura's inauguration that he had no legs as a political force, and that the Independence Party would never elect a single candidate that wasn't already a major celebrity. Much of his support, at least in the Metro area, came from college students - further evidence that the voting age should be raised to thirty. However, the Minnesota Daily reports that attentance at the Dinkytown IP caucus was...well, about like sales of the Governor's last book.

Will the IP lose major party status? Maybe not this election - but if Ventura doesn't run, look for the IP to be somewhere down below the Libertarians again by 2004.