{"id":20063,"date":"2011-05-18T11:00:18","date_gmt":"2011-05-18T17:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=20063"},"modified":"2011-09-01T07:36:28","modified_gmt":"2011-09-01T12:36:28","slug":"the-path-not-taken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=20063","title":{"rendered":"The Path Not Taken"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I’ve pointed out on this blog in the past, I’m a former liberal. \u00a0But for the grace of God and Doctor Blake, I could still be one today.<\/p>\n

But I also had a thing for getting the story right, even when I was a liberal. So I could see how, in an alternate world where common sense never intervened, I might be working as an editor for Twin Cities Ministry Of Independent Media (MiniIndiMed), the centralized editorial control center for all Twin Cities “alternative” media (I did say it was an alternate world, right?) where I”d be collecting a Soros paycheck (alternate worlds by their nature share some traits with our world) to take my red editorial pencil to the output of the Twin Cities’ “alternative” media community.<\/p>\n

With that in mind, I thought I’d take a swerve through a “What If”; if I had stayed liberal, and gotten that job with MiniIndiMed. \u00a0 Here might be my series of revisions – a “red pen”, which will be represented here with red type – to\u00a0 this Jeff Rosenberg piece on MnPublius<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been appalled by the MNGOP\u2019s absolute refusal to compromise. They have insisted that they either get every single thing they want or they will shut down our government. It\u2019s an outrage. \u00a0 [Jeff – I know “victorian vapours” is your gig, but they <\/em>are doing what they were sent to office,with a resounding mandate, to do. \u00a0Feigned outrage looks a little comical after a while – Ed.<\/em>]<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m even more outraged, though, when I think of exactly what it is they\u2019re fighting for. I said they insist on getting everything they want. But exactly is that? Here are a few of their top priorities:<\/p>\n

Over 100,000 Minnesotans thrown off health care \u00a0[Jeff, your link provides no source for this claim. \u00a0And when the undecided reader (you have some of those, right?) learns that what the GOP is really doing is transitioning able-bodied, single people off of benefits, and means-testing more, it might tend to undercut your narrative. \u00a0Please check into this <\/em> – Ed.<\/em>]<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Massive cuts to higher education \u00a0[More of the same here, Jeff; the “cuts” can be entirely made up by rolling administrative costs back to levels of a couple years ago; and just between and me, you know how much professorial deadwood there is a the U. Please check <\/em> – Ed.<\/em>]<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

A $1.4 billion property tax increase [Jeff, I keep telling you this; eventually, a Republican blogger is going to ask you to show us the bill where the property taxes were increased. \u00a0You know it’s absurd, of course – city councils and county commissions do that! <\/em> – Ed.<\/em>]<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

30,000 lost jobs [Jeff, you’re giving me a headache now. \u00a0This a number, very likely a random one – something someone at the DFL down on Plato pulled out of their ass to use as a chanting point. \u00a0Go ahead and use the number – but know that if you do, people will think <\/em>MNPublius is some sort of DFL press-release site or something. \u00a0You wouldn’t want that, would you? \u00a0Of course not!<\/em> <\/em> – Ed.<\/em>]<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s bad enough that the Republicans are so arrogant they don\u2019t believe they need to compromise. <\/strong>But look at their agenda \u2014 look what they\u2019re fighting for. These are absolute disasters for our state. Responsible policymakers would be working hard to protect us from the worst of these cuts. The Republicans, though, are actually fighting for them. [This, on the other hand, is good stuff. \u00a0The victorian vapors play well with our base <\/em>– Ed.<\/em>]<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Governor Dayton is trying to protect Minnesotans from the worst consequences of our budget deficit, while still making needed cuts. The Republicans are fighting tooth and nail to make sure the pain is as bad as possible. [It’s a good thing we don’t pay you to substantiate claims! \u00a0Whew! <\/em>– Ed.<\/em>]<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Every day, in every way, I thank God I took the path I took.<\/p>\n

Although that Soros check would be nice.<\/p>\n

Where are<\/em> those Koch Brothers, anyway\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I’ve pointed out on this blog in the past, I’m a former liberal. \u00a0But for the grace of God and Doctor Blake, I could still be one today. But I also had a thing for getting the story right, even when I was a liberal. So I could see how, in an alternate world […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[144,63,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-governor","category-lefty-alt-media","category-minnesota-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20063","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=20063"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22130,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20063\/revisions\/22130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}