In the early GOP field for 2010, a common theme has emerged — government should be smaller. Some candidates want to dramatically cut back on mandates and local funding, some would merge departments, reduce state workers and slash one out of every $5 the state is slated to spend. What they want, at bottom, is a government that not only does more with less, but which simply does less.<\/p>\n
The candidates are ambitious in their pledges to shrink government — “The sky’s the limit,” state Rep. Tom Emmer said at a recent forum — but haven’t yet worked out all the details.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
And that’s the good news.\u00a0 The GOP of Arne Carlson is dead and unlamented.<\/p>\n
“But wait!”, the likes of Lori Sturdevant and Nick Coleman will respond, “what about the GOP that sat down and worked with the DFL for a better Minnesota?”<\/p>\n
For starters, your idea of a “better Minnesota”is a Minnesota that looks, taxes and spends like Massachussets and California.<\/p>\n
Second – it was all baked wind and you know it.\u00a0 While the MNGOP – under its old guise, the “Independent Republican” Party – compromised to the point where it was indistinguishable from the DFL, the DFL never <\/em>compromised on anything unless the votes forced them to.<\/p>\nThird – this is the campaign. <\/em>This is the time when parties should present choices <\/em>to voters.\u00a0 The MNGOP during Arne Carlson’s era was nothing but the DFL in better suits with less chanting.\u00a0 Compromise and “working with the opposition” are for after <\/em>the election, when everyone is in office.<\/p>\nThe plans, still in their infancy, could run into political trouble, practical and legal problems and have even prompted disagreement among the Republican field. A smaller, leaner government — long a mantra for Republicans — could hold appeal in cost-conscious times but could alienate those who believe government must step in during economic low-points.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
That’s the point<\/em>.\u00a0 People who believe that government’s role is to spend money like crack whores with stolen Platinum Cards probably should <\/em>be in the DFL.\u00a0 It’ll make for a more honest conversation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Strib notes – wonder of wonders – that the GOP’s candidates are a conservative lot: In the early GOP field for 2010, a common theme has emerged — government should be smaller. Some candidates want to dramatically cut back on mandates and local funding, some would merge departments, reduce state workers and slash one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campaign-10","category-mngop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5623","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=5623"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5627,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5623\/revisions\/5627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}