Let’s look at two of the biggest fringe movements in Minnesota politics today:<\/p>\n
First;\u00a0 the “Ron Paul” faction in the GOP.\u00a0 Mostly in the GOP, anyway; they skitter back and forth between the GOP, the Libertarians, and the “Splendidly Above It All” party.\u00a0 (And bear in mind – I agree with 80-90% of what Ron Paul says).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then – the “Independence” Party; the party that has had precisely two elected officials and two unelected ringers in its entire history; Ventura and liberal-Republican Senator Sheila Kiscaiden,\u00a0who left the GOP in 2002, and skipped onward to the DFL in 2006 (In addition to Dean Barkley’s month in the US Senate, moderate Iron Range DFLer Bob Lessard joined the IP for his lame-duck term).\u00a0 The party hangs on to relevance – its “major party status” – by dint of the fact that it manages to eke out over 5% in at least one state-wide election every four years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The party was founded, essentially, by “good government” moderates; fiscal sorta conservatives and social\u00a0mostly\u00a0liberals.\u00a0 And that’s who they’ve run for office; among the endless stream of trivia questions that are the Indy Party gubernatorial candidates, we’ve had:<\/p>\n
So what does this tell us?\u00a0 Ventura – Libertarian In Name Only.\u00a0 Barkley and Penney – fiscal moderates who epitomized the IndyParty’s loooove of tinkering with the wheels and levers of government.\u00a0\u00a0Lessard and Kiscaiden – a moderate DFLer, and a liberal Republican who turned DFLer when the IndyParty ceased to amuse her.\u00a0\u00a0Horner:\u00a0 a big-government IR-era not-conservative-at-all Republican in the Arne Carlson mold.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It’s a party that – to the extent that it has principles – is all for “good government” (best described as getting the biggest bang we can for our ample tax bucks) and social liberalism.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But\u00a0in a scene straight out<\/a> of one of my dramatizations,\u00a0they’ve endorsed a Ronulan<\/a>; Hannah Nicollet, who after months of talking about running for Senate, stepped over to the Governor’s race:<\/p>\n “We anticipated we were going to have a Senate endorsement battle, but Hannah Nicollet recognizing that we did not have a candidate who was up for endorsement for governor talked to her family, talked to advisors and came to the leadership before the endorsement started and asked if she could seek the endorsement for governor,” said party chair Mark Jenkins.<\/p>\n Nicollet backed libertarian former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul for President in 2012. She saidshe still supports the majority of that party’s fiscally conservative, socially liberal platform.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So a “libertarian” “supports” the “majority” of a party whose platform traditionally reflects the desire of big-government wonks to play with the wheels and knobs of goverment – which is ostensibly anathema to Ron Paul and, supposedly, the libertarian-Republicans that the IndyParty is courting with bald-faced desperation?\u00a0<\/p>\n Now, this isn’t to say that I don’t personally find some resonance with some of Ms. Nicollet’s policy stances.\u00a0 I do.\u00a0 But then, I’m a libertarian-conservative, so that’s not a real stretch.\u00a0 What is <\/em>a stretch is that the Indy Party – founded by and for people who like to marinade themselves in the sweet smell of “good government” – have suddently had a sincere conversion to “libertarianism”.\u00a0<\/p>\n So what could possibly be behind this seeming change of political heart on the IndyParty’s part?\u00a0<\/p>\n I’m going to guess “a sizeable donation from Alita Messinger and her DFL-supporting deep-pocketed friends, suitably laundered to conceal the appearance of a paid spoiler”.\u00a0<\/p>\n That’s a guess.\u00a0 Nope, no evidence.\u00a0 Not yet.\u00a0<\/p>\n Just speculating, here.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n PS – there are some in the Twin Cities “libertarian” community – Ron Paul supporters and the “Magnificently Above It All” faction – who insist, sometimes with a straight face, that…:<\/p>\n To which I respond:<\/p>\n\n