One of the things that makes being a Republican in the city so interesting is that the entire place is such a tabula rasa; everywhere you go, there are people and institutions whose entire notion of who and what a Republican, and a conservative is is entirely formed by slanders they’ve gotten from the Tic media, their unions, their tic parents, or whatever. It makes every victory you win (and those are measured by individual people in Saint Paul, not by offices or races or percetages of representation) all the sweeter. And there are victories.
One of the things that makes being a Republican in a place like Saint Paul so enervating is that too many Republicans – as opposed to conservatives – are like the guys in Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA; like dogs who’ve been beaten too much, who spend half their lives just covering up.
A little bird has told me a very disturbing story that, if true and in context, would indicate that way too many of my fellow inner-city Republicans are the latter; if true, the battle for the cities is going to get a lot harder before it gets easier.
More later.
I’m a Republican in Highland Park. I like and enjoy people from the whole political spectrum. I love conversation from everything including and excluding politics. Being conservative in the heart of the left wing beast, St. Paul, I have no choice but to co-mingle with plenty of people of the opposite political persuasion. But, the left leaning folks of St. Paul don’t have to co-mingle with people with the opposite political views. These folks are so isolated in their views they really have become goofy. Their vision of reality is so,so scewed. They really cringe like a leach when salted when any conservative views are expressed. They have convinced themselves in their little MPR world that they are mainstream and moderate, which they are not.
I keep fighting, I keep expressing myself, even though the battle seems tougher and tougher each day.