If you’re a conservative in Minnesota, you’ve got friends moving elsewhere. I personally have friends, including some of the regulars here, who’ve moved or are planning to move to any of the less-insane states; the Dakotas, Tennessee, Texas, Republican northwest Wisconsin, and of course Florida – a state where expats from Minnesota are almost as big a cliche as New Yorkers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And not John Phelan of the Center of the American Experiment<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Phelan gives his three reasons. I agree with ’em all – and I’ve got one of my own to add:<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’m going to start at the end of the list:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, and most importantly, Minnesota is still a wonderful place to live. Its scenery is beautiful, its weather varied (or challenging, depending on your view), and its people decent, none of which, of course, depends on high taxes. When you have something good it is worth fighting for even when you feel the odds are against you. Perhaps especially then.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n I’m from North Dakota. The weather in southern Minnesota is like a 12 month vacation (at least since I got AC in my car and bedroom). <\/p>\n\n\n\n The larger point? I was here first<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Second, even while its economy splutters, crime rises,\u00a0test scores fall<\/a>,\u00a0the lights go out<\/a>, and residents flee in numbers not seen in at least three decades, Minnesota\u2019s government is being lauded as an example by progressives around the country. NBC News, the Daily Beast, and the New York Times have all run pieces lately praising the state government and Gov. Walz in particular. It matters to the entire country that the sad truth about Minnesota gets out.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Because whether you live in Orono or Orlando, they are coming for you, like it or not. Might be next election cycle, it might be when your grandkids are married and having kids of their own, but they’re playiing the long game. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And here’s the big one (I’m adding emphasis):<\/p>\n\n\n\n First, the liberal grip on Minnesota is not as tight as it seems. In 2022, the DFL\u2019s party unit\u00a0took in<\/a>\u00a0nearly $24 million from all sources while the state Republican Party took in a paltry $1.3 million. Even so, and with the built-in advantage of a friendly media, the DFL took the state Senate by just one seat and\u00a0that by just 321 votes<\/a>. The DFL is governing like a party that just scored 60 percent of the vote, not because they did, but precisely because they didn\u2019t<\/strong>, and they want to ram their agenda through before Minnesotans cotton on to what they\u2019re up to.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Minnesota has eight congressional districts (for nine more years, anyway). <\/p>\n\n\n\n That’s 4-4 – and with the right candidate in the right year, 5-3. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, the DFL balllot-harvesting machine gives the DFL a huge lift with the metro vote – but if the legislature stays in play, that gives us gridlock. Not the eternal blue nightmare. And given how many Republicans stayed home last year, and how close the GOP candidates came in the Attorney General and State Auditor races, despair is premature. <\/p>\n\n\n\n They can’t overturn Roe <\/em>again, after all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And the DFL knows it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The DFL\u2019s awareness of this weakness is evident, too, in its attack on democracy by making it\u00a0practically impossible<\/a>\u00a0for third parties to get on the ballot in Minnesota.<\/strong> Not a single reporter asked a single legislator a single question about this.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n
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