Someone – a relatively irritating person, actually – asked me a few weeks ago, “why are you a Republican?”

And it took me until after I actually responded to actually realize that there are two answers:

1. Because national security, limited government, prosperity, individual responsibilty and merit are my big issues – and since long before I became politically active, the Democrats have been systematically, aggressively wrong on every single one of those issues.
2. I’m not. 

And by that, I mean that “I’m not a member of the Minnesota Republican Party”. 

Except for a brief stretch where I was a co-chair of House District 66B, I never really have been. 

Partly it’s because of time.  People who are real serious party animals devote a lot of time to the party that I just don’t have. 

But part of it is that, while I’ve voted for maybe three non-Republicans in partisan elections in the past 20 years (and Jesse Ventura wasn’t one of them), I’ve gotten actually less involved with the party proper over the years.  It’s seemed like the party – at least, in my part of the state, the Fourth Congressional District – is more an obstacle to success than a vehicle to it.

In the Fourth, even though most of the voters are in Saint Paul and the northern subs like Roseville are hardly GOP strongholds.  It’s a situation that calls for some creativity, to say the least, given that St. Paul is saved from the distinction of being the most DFL-sodden city in Minnesota only by the existence of Minneapolis and Duluth. 

In election after election, the CD4 GOP pours its resources into the districts north of Highway 36, a “strategy” that leaves the party notoriously subject to the fickle sways of the mood in a bunch of purple districts (to Phil Krinkie’s chagrin last fall), while conceding the city in perpetuity to the Mongols DFL.  And whatever happens outstate or in the ‘burbs, this state will never really be a stable Red state until the GOP learns how to actually contend for the city itself. 

And it can be done!  Bret Schundler spent nine years as mayor of Jersey City, New Jersey (80% registered Democrats; 6% Republicans) in the nineties.  How is this done?  How did Schundler, in particular, do it?

Not by preaching GOP – but by preaching the first principles of the conservative movement; security; liberty; growth and prosperity; family; culture; limited government; how each of those affected the Jersey Citian’s property values, kids’ education, and odds of getting mugged or burgled.

So what does the Minnesota GOP not understand about this?

This is what attracted me to True North in the first place; to the best of my knowledge, it’s the only group blog around that’s dedicated – obsessive, indeed – about applying America’s first principles to government in Minnesota, as opposed to merely reiterating the GOP’s line, and doing for that idea what blogs in general do to things like the mainstream media; outflank them, obviate the need for gatekeepers, democratize things.  

And the Minnesota GOP desperately needs democratization. 

Not that most of us aren’t committed Republicans, or at least committed Republican voters – but the party is not the fount of all wisdom. 

That, of course, is why I so loudly applaud the various independent bloggers who write about affairs in their various GOP districts – SD63, SD35, SD44, SD45, the Chisago and Carver County GOP blog, some of them official party sites but most of them individual pundits who are working to change things from the ground up, starting at the GOP’s grassiest roots.

If I can accomplish one thing with True North, it’ll be to convince someone in every GOP district in the whole state to start up a blog – completely independent of the party – and start tackling their district’s issues, one by one, one on one. 

This entry was posted by by Mitch Berg on Thursday, September 13th, 2007 at 7:46 am and is filed under Blogs, Minnesota Politics, True North. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.