What are Minnesotans’ great strengths?<\/p>\n
We have so many; we’re resourceful (who else could live in such a cold place)?\u00a0 We’re smart – our test scores show it (although North Dakotans would seem to be smarter, by that measure); we’re communitarian, even without the heavy hand of government to drag it out of us.<\/p>\n
We’re self-starters; we’ve created things as varied as sandpaper and the artificial heart; the homing torpedo and instant cake mix; the supercomputer and solid dish soap…<\/p>\n
…and while government has had its role in many of those achievements, Minnesotans should stand up and take credit where it’s due; government at the very best merely got out of the way.<\/p>\n
But look at Mark Dayton’s entire campaign.\u00a0 Everything about it reads like a return to the 1970’s, from the goals – resurrecting and perpetuating programs like Local Government Aid – through the “eat the rich” language.<\/p>\n
Just as our companies, and our families, have had to change to meet the challenges that happen as times change, so must our government.<\/p>\n
There is one candidate that will make government adapt to the same changing times we all face.<\/p>\n
Tom Emmer has run a campaign that has not only focused on the positive – he even chided Ed Morrissey and I for calling Dayton “the opposition”, a stark contrast to the deeply, cravenly slimy campaign that Dayton has run – but looks to the best of Minnesota’s character. \u00a0His budget doesn’t scapegoat classes; it calls for some shared sacrifice on the way to a much, much better goal. \u00a0Mark Dayton’s campaign appoints others to be “Happy To Pay For A Better Minnesota”; Emmer puts the onus on all of us – and presents us all with the opportunity, not only to escape California\/Greek\/New York style stagnation and bankruptcy, but to share in honestly-earned rewards.<\/p>\n
Tom Emmer has run a principled campaign; he presents the state with a tenable plan to balance its budget while taking care of the people who need taking care of, and asking a little more out of those who don’t – like city governments.<\/p>\n
He appeals to Minnesotans’ better natures – our strength, our communitarian spirit, our intelligence, our vision. \u00a0Not our passive-aggressive venality.<\/p>\n
It’s just one of the reasons I’m voting for Emmer. \u00a0But it’s an important one.<\/p>\n
Four more to go before Monday. \u00a0Stay tuned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What are Minnesotans’ great strengths? We have so many; we’re resourceful (who else could live in such a cold place)?\u00a0 We’re smart – our test scores show it (although North Dakotans would seem to be smarter, by that measure); we’re communitarian, even without the heavy hand of government to drag it out of us. We’re […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,68,16],"tags":[312],"class_list":["post-14727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campaign-10","category-capitalism-v-socialism","category-conservatism","tag-mngov-2010"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14727"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47646,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14727\/revisions\/47646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}