{"id":61013,"date":"2016-11-15T11:00:03","date_gmt":"2016-11-15T17:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=61013"},"modified":"2019-10-30T07:01:35","modified_gmt":"2019-10-30T12:01:35","slug":"open-letter-to-the-house-and-senate-mngop-caucuses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=61013","title":{"rendered":"Open Letter To The House And Senate MNGOP Caucuses"},"content":{"rendered":"

To: \u00a0House GOP Caucus, Senate GOP Caucus
\nFrom: \u00a0Mitch Berg, ornery peasant
\nRe: \u00a0Focus<\/p>\n

Dear Cauci,<\/p>\n

Congrats on taking the majority. \u00a0I’m truly overjoyed.<\/p>\n

Now, let’s get real.<\/p>\n

Focus<\/strong>: \u00a0Ever watched someone doing karate? \u00a0When they do a strike, they focus all their energy, from their waist on down through their hands, into their knuckle. \u00a0One or two of them. \u00a0Because that’s how you inflict as much force as possible on your target – focusing<\/em> the energy.<\/p>\n

We’ll come back to that.<\/p>\n

Focus Some More: \u00a0<\/strong>When the Allies landed in Normandy in 1944, it took eight or so weeks of brutal fighting to break through the German defenses.<\/p>\n

And when the Allies forced that breakthrough, did they then pause, and redirect to the invasion of Denmark?<\/p>\n

No!\u00a0<\/sup> \u00a0They focused on driving to Berlin, and destroying any enemy that got in their way!<\/p>\n

They\u00a0focused\u00a0<\/em>on the mission at hand!<\/p>\n

No. \u00a0Really\u00a0<\/em>Focus<\/strong>: \u00a0You have the majority in both chambers of the Legislature (if only by a vote in the Senate).<\/p>\n

You got it for three reasons:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The Dems brought us MNSure, and you were able to tie it around their necks<\/li>\n
  2. The economy in greater Minnesota isn’t nearly as spiffy as it is in the Metro<\/li>\n
  3. Just like nationwide – the metro “elites” are utterly disconnected with the experience of Greater Minnesota.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    That is why you have the majority<\/em>. \u00a0Not to protect marriage. \u00a0Not to argue about who goes in what bathrooms.<\/p>\n

    Heathcare. \u00a0 Economy. \u00a0 Elites. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

    No more. \u00a0No less.<\/p>\n

    I Said\u00a0Focus<\/em>, MKay?<\/strong>: \u00a0It was six short years ago that voters last gave you both chambers of the Legislature. \u00a0Even with a DFL ideologue for a governor, it was a golden opportunity. \u00a0 You were given that majority because:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Obama overreached –\u00a0on healthcare<\/em><\/li>\n
    2. The economy in Greater Minnesota\u00a0sucked!<\/em><\/li>\n
    3. The DFL had made a hash out of the budget.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      What did you – or at least the previous leadership – do?<\/p>\n

      Well, good work on the budget, to be honest. \u00a0But that wonky triumph was overshadowed by the national, media-stoked furor over the Gay Marriage issue. \u00a0The legislature bet a\u00a0ton\u00a0<\/em>of political capital…<\/p>\n

      …on an issue that had nothing to do with you getting your majority<\/em>.<\/p>\n

      Nothing!<\/em><\/p>\n

      If you’re a North Dakota or Montana Republican, with a near-permanent majority and an opposition Democrat party that barely qualifies as a party at all, you can spend\u00a0political capital on anything you want, and there’ll be no consequences. \u00a0 It might even work (long enough to get struck down by the Supreme Court, anyway).<\/p>\n

      But not in Minnesota, the purplest of purple states.<\/p>\n

      Focus Focus Focus Focus Focus!<\/strong>: \u00a0This is not North Dakota. \u00a0Perhaps if you hold your majorities long enough to bring a quarter century of unbridled prosperity to Minnesota and we might become so lucky. \u00a0But we’re nowhere close to that yet.<\/p>\n

      You were elected by a fickle electorate over…what?<\/p>\n

      Let’s run the list again:<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. MNSure<\/li>\n
      2. The economy in greater MN<\/li>\n
      3. Our idiot elites<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        You have political capital – a mandate, indeed.<\/p>\n

        And like the Allies after D-Day, you need to focus that capital on\u00a0beating the enemy in front of us<\/em>; MNSure, taxes, regulations, mining-phobia.<\/p>\n

        And like Bruce Lee, you need to focus that energy straight to the metaphorical knuckle, as narrowly and overwhelmingly as you can to\u00a0win on the issues we, the voters, sent you there to win!<\/em><\/p>\n

        For The Love Of God, Focus!<\/strong>: \u00a0I’ve heard talk of legislators discussing floating some legislation:<\/p>\n

          \n
        • Rest Rooms: \u00a0Don’t be idiots<\/em>. \u00a0We already have laws making mischief in bathrooms illegal. And all it’s gonna take is one angry father or grandfather at some Target somewhere to make that issue pretty well self-enforcing. \u00a0It’s a private property issue, \u00a0\u00a0And it’s a distraction. \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Deal with the restrooms when the majority is rock solid safe.<\/li>\n
        • Abortion: \u00a0It’s an important thing. \u00a0I get it. \u00a0It’s also not why you were sent to Saint Paul. \u00a0Not this time. \u00a0<\/em>If you win long and big enough, you’ll get your chance. \u00a0This is not that chance. \u00a0 Do not screw this up. \u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n
        • Other social issues: \u00a0Stop. \u00a0Just stop. \u00a0Now. \u00a0Seriously.\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

          GOP legislators: \u00a0today, you control the agenda in Saint Paul. \u00a0It gives you a huge opportunity. \u00a0With the opportunity comes risk; if you take the GOP majority off beam, and bog the party down in a fight that has nothing\u00a0<\/em>to do with why you have the majority, fighting a veto you can’t win over an issue that does nothing but focus all of the Big Democrat Money, all their bottomless funding and masses of drooling droogs,\u00a0over something that the voters that sent you to Saint Paul don’t care about nearly as much as healthcare and the economy, you will deserve to lose again in 2016. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

          Focus.<\/p>\n

          Focus.<\/p>\n

          Focus focus focus.<\/p>\n

          Kill MNSure. \u00a0Kill regulations. \u00a0Lower taxes.<\/p>\n

          No. \u00a0More than that. \u00a0Focus focus focus focus\u00a0focus focus focus focus focus focus focus focus focus focus focus focus focus focus focus focus focus focus focus focus.<\/p>\n

          No. \u00a0More than that.<\/p>\n

          Sing along with me: \u00a0Kill MNSure. \u00a0Kill regulations. \u00a0Lower taxes. \u00a0Kill MNSure. \u00a0Kill regulations. \u00a0Lower taxes. \u00a0Kill MNSure. \u00a0Kill regulations. \u00a0Lower taxes.<\/p>\n

          Win the war we sent you there to win.<\/p>\n

          Oh – and focus.<\/p>\n

          No. \u00a0More than that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          To: \u00a0House GOP Caucus, Senate GOP Caucus From: \u00a0Mitch Berg, ornery peasant Re: \u00a0Focus Dear Cauci, Congrats on taking the majority. \u00a0I’m truly overjoyed. Now, let’s get real. Focus: \u00a0Ever watched someone doing karate? \u00a0When they do a strike, they focus all their energy, from their waist on down through their hands, into their knuckle. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[132,72,101],"tags":[282],"class_list":["post-61013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mn-legislature","category-mngop","category-what-the-hell","tag-idiot-elite"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61013","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=61013"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61026,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61013\/revisions\/61026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}