I’ve been going to GOP precinct cauci and district conventions in Saint Paul for nigh on 20 years now. The ritual is always the same. There are only small variations.
In good years for Republicans – say, 1994, 1998 or 2002 – the GOP “Basic Political Organizational Unit” (BPOU – the lowest level of GOP organization) and City party conventions will whip up some enthusiasm for candidates for the House, Senate and City Council; money will be raised; impassioned speeches will be given; “this could be the year!”. Delegates will be elected that will go to the Congressional District (MN4, in this case) convention, who will in turn endorse a candidate for US House.
And on the first Tuesday in November, the candidates will all lose by 20 points.
On the other hand, during bad years for Republicans – 1996, 2006 – the City, BPOU and CD conventions will start with somber speeches about how the inner-city districts have to try to at least make a showing, to draw away some spending from the safer GOP districts out in the ‘burbs; to fight the good, futile fight, in other words. And the candidates – usually long-time party functionaries – will be endorsed, to put a warm body in a place on the ballot. And they’ll campaign, either with great enthusiasm (Obi Sium, the CD4 US House candidate last year, or Alan Fine over in CD5), or they’ll put in a dilatory showing of the flag.
They’ll lose by 30 or 40 points.
And yet, as I’ve said over and over again, the inner city is positively clogged with people who should be conservatives:
- African-American parents, for whom the failure of the inner-city schools to help make their kids competitive is a finger in the eye, an insult added to the injury of 400 years of slavery and racism in this nation, and who should know that the DFL stands foursquare behind the foetid status quo.
- Asian residents, whose commitment to free enterprise did what two generations of government programs couldn’t; saved inner-city Saint Paul.
- Legal immigrants, who are – according to polls – increasingly opposed to coddling illegal immigration.
- Hispanic residents who see that the DFL piddles on their Catholic/Evangelical social conservatism.
- Anyone who can see that three generations of “city as DFL social laboratory” have made parts of Minneapolis among the poorest, most dangerous inner-city enclaves in America.
- Oh, yeah – and all of us Republicans. And you might never know it, but we’re one of the biggest minorities in Saint Paul; 28% of the city registers GOP – and if the party could ever field a serious candidate, a fair chunk of the DFLers who are growing tired of the Tax ‘n Spend claque that has City Hall under its boot might be convinceable, too.
This, indeed, has worked for Republicans; Brett Shundler spent years as mayor of Jersey City, New Jersey, running on a platform of security, fiscal discipline, low taxes and common sense – in a city that’s even more hamstrung with Democrat tradition than the Twin Cities (6% registered GOP), and with a state Republican party that’s worth even less than Minnesota’s for supporting conservatives anywhere, much less in the inner city.
So why not here?
Why, indeed, is “inner city Minnesota GOP” almost as big a synonym for frustration as “Vikings in the Super Bowl?”
Chalk it up to infrastructure.
No, not bridges and roads…well, actually, yes – the political equivalent of bridges and roads and fixing potholes.
Bear with me, here.
The DFL has spent three generations or more in complete, unquestioned power in inner Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Over those decades, the DFL has insinuated itself into every aspect of life; it runs the schools; it controls the city councils (shut up about the Greens, already – they are indistinguishable on the streeet); they control the planning, zoning and spending apparatuses; they control the public employees unions that run the schools, the administrations, the civil service, the public works departments, even the police and fire deparments and libraries. DFL is a de facto synonym for civic life and, in many ways, day to day non-political life as well. You can literally not not make contact with the DFL or a DFL-controlled organization in some part of your day to day life in the inner city.
You can literally count the elected Republicans in Saint Paul on one hand – School Board member Tom Conlon – and get four fingers’ change.
This complete control of all political and civic life in the city has several effects which stunt the city as well as the opposition:
- The city’s residents are disproportionately employed by DFL-linked unions; AFSCME, MAPE, Education Minnesota and the various Teamsters and AFL/CIO bodies are very disproportionately represented among residenets and voters – and those unions are all but subsidiaries of the DFL.
- Even non-political residents are in constant contact with the apparatus of DFL power and control. This is important both for showing people what “the norm” is, as well as giving the DFL an audience that doesn’t know better than to question the DFL’s claims as to what’ll happen to government “services” if they ever lose power.
- The DFL controls the entire revenue stream; the government that levies the taxes, the administration that collects them, the council that budgets the money, the district councils and schools and departments that do the spending, all are controlled by DFL sinecures.
Every aspect of life in Minneapolis and Saint Paul – family and personal as well as civic and political life – has contact with the DFL.
And so, every couple of years when the GOP throws “warm bodies” and “sacrificial lambs” at the entrenched DFL bureaucracies, it’s not unlike the British and French marching across No Man’s land into the teeth of machine guns entrenched in bomb-and-bullet-proof concrete pillboxes; it’s a slaughter, and everyone knows it will be even before they climb out of the trench or leave the BPOU/CD meeting.
So how is that going to change?
More tomorrow.
“”the inner city is positively clogged with people who should be conservatives:””
I can agree, but it is the venomous hate consistently spewed by the GOP that is enough to scare even people like me away from even thinking about fraternizing. It is much easier to work with those who are willing to sit down with you, rather than be brainwashed by a party who scorns anyone who isn’t pure enough.
It is why even you have become beholden to the party talking points rather than thinking for yourself, which continues to rattle the text of this once great blog.
It is really that simple.
Flash
I can agree, but it is the venomous hate consistently spewed by the GOP
If a Republican orders a pizza in the woods and no DFLer hears it, is it “venomous hate?” Clearly, yes, if you’re a DFLer.
It is why even you have become beholden to the party talking points rather than thinking for yourself, which continues to rattle the text of this once great blog.
Do you have “beholden to talking points” and “once-great blog” on hotkeys, so you don’t have to type ’em out, or what?
The truth just comes out naturally. I’m just trying to help you out here, You used to be the best.
Flash
I am what I am. Life changes.
If this blog is drastically different than it was a few years ago, my traffic sure isn’t showing it.
Not that that’s the most important measure. The enjoyment I get from it is. And – the usual peaks and valleys aside – that’s not changed.
So with all due respect, you can retire the whole “you used to be…” line from your repertoire. If I could roll anything back to the way it was years ago, it’d be my hairline (and maybe my knees, and go back to running six miles a day).
Not the blog.
Flash, the talking points are referred to in this post. They are, show up and vote, to take votes away from the DFL but we have no chance to win. The best we’ve been able to hope for in the past is giving the election to a green. I even had the supporter for a green council candidate make the argument to me on my front porch, that if I was a republican (there was no R in that race) I should vote green just to break the DFL stranglehold on the city. I didn’t bite but it was a good argument.
Flash’s got the DFL talking point right. The R’s are for the rich, the crazy religious zealot, the racist. The DFL is for “the worker.” Republicans want to “take away SS” and throw granny on the street. It’s great fearmongering and it has worked pretty well for them until now. Even the most intelligent liberals I know, will pull out these old saws to argue against voting for republicans, even when they are demonstrably false, at the candidate-choice level.
I saw something different in the last Congressional race. Even though Alan Fine was badly damaged, Republicans pretty much stuck to him to the very end. It was only us inside baseball people who had written him off and were talking about strategic voting for Tammy Lee. Party discipline is what the Political Scientists call it. And yes, it’s old fashioned and yes, some of us would rather be arguing the finer points of a flat tax but it’s a needed first step to get into power. The 5thCD is not Minneapolis, however. Minneapolis is a much tougher fight. For one thing, it would be interesting to know what percentage of the people who live in Minneapolis work for the city, or in city related non-profits and social services. To get those people to vote for an R, they would be voting against their economic interest, short term view though that might be.
One big problem we R’s face is that until now at least, city politics is a ground game and the R’s have virtually no ground game in large parts of the city. The DFL has a longstanding and coordinated turnout oriented ground game. They are so sure that statistically getting my neighborhood to turn out means more DFL vote that they blanket us with GOTV materials in the final days before an election, offering rides to take anybody to the polls. On election day, we have hangtags on our door reminding us to vote and directing us to turn the hangtag around to an “I voted sign” so that volunteers can drive around and see who hasn’t voted yet so they can come and see if somebody needs a ride.
it is the venomous hate consistently spewed by the GOP…
I must formulate a name for something akin to Godwin’s Law, that whenever someone uses the word “spew” in the blogosphere, rational discussion is over.
“”my traffic sure isn’t showing it.””
You used to pull in over 3000 a day a couple years ago, now you stuggle to get 600.
You totally lost me when you bought into the Democratic/Democrat Juvelinality. That is when I was convinced you officially lost your independence.
“”So with all due respect, you can retire the whole “you used to be…” line from your repertoire.””
Cause the truth hurts, I know. Its painful to be caught in your own web.
When “spew” occurs, or…
…when “Hate” and/or “venom” occur in the same sentence as “Republican” without an actual ethically-plausible example of “hatred” anywhere in evidence, or…
…the phrase “talking points” is invoked without actually connecting a point with some sort of party communication, then yes, I think Kouba’s Law should be invoked.
The only real question is, what is the penalty?
Does anyone else here this? You ask someone why they are Republican, and you hear things like strong national secrurity, less new business regulation, better judicial appointments, etc. You ask someone why they are a Democrat, and they say “My father was a Democrat, my grandfather was a Democrat, so I am too”. Could never figure that logic out.
“…when “Hate” and/or “venom” occur in the same sentence as “Republican” without an actual ethically-plausible example of “hatred” anywhere in evidence, or…”
simplify it to whenever a comment ends with “flash”.
You used to pull in over 3000 a day a couple years ago, now you stuggle to get 600.
Let’s compare apples to apples. Sitemeter stats are fairly worthless; I use server stats; that was where 3,000 a day came from (and back then, Sitemeter showed me getting maybe 1000 a day). Today, the server logs say it’s closer to 2,000 uniques a day…
…and I attribute much of the drop to the fact that I don’t have thousands of Spam links in my comment section drawing Google hits for pr0n. Since I switched to WordPress, the spam count has dropped from dozens, hundreds or thousands a day down to roughly none. Which means fewer hits from spam, but otherwise my traffic is, all things considered, very steady. My position in the Ecosystem has been extremely consistent for almost four years now.
Sorry to disappoint, but facts are pesky things.
You totally lost me when you bought into the Democratic/Democrat Juvelinality.
Which is a Democrat(ic, whatever) talking point. There is no difference between the two words. None. They are both adjectives referring to “members or subscribers to the beliefs of the Democrat(ic) Party”. That you (or anyone) wants to get the vapors over it is a sign that you (plural) need thicker skin, not that I’m not independent. I use both, and I use them interchangeably, and I’ve never bought into the meme that there’s any difference. The meme is about trying to get everyone to participate in your party’s marketing and brand-protection efforts.
That the Democrat(ic)s want to focus on it is a sign that they’re too immature to govern.
That is when I was convinced you officially lost your independence.
You do realize, don’t you, that that’s about the fifteenth “point where you realized…” something or another about my blog that you’ve written about in the past six months?
If you’re that easily convinced of anything of the sort, I have some property in Baja you might be interested in…
Cause the truth hurts, I know. Its painful to be caught in your own web.
Yeah. That “web” of having a successful blog that I love doing (and have, pretty consistently, for almost six years), that’s broadened my social circle and brought invaluable friends into my life and led me back to the first great love of my life (talk radio), and that keeps on giving great things to my life.
Damn. Where have I gone wrong?
Keep speaking the “truth”, there, Flash. If I get any more “caught in the web”, I might get too happy with things. And then I’ll never be a Democrat(ic).
“You used to pull in over 3000 a day a couple years ago, now you stuggle to get 600.””
Wrong again, apples to apples sitemeter to sitemeter.
“I use both, and I use them interchangeably, and I’ve never bought into the meme that there’s any difference.”
Bold face lie, period! You never used them interchangeably and only recently started using the term exclusively. It was the tipping point in your conversion to a ScaifeNet blogger instead of an independent one. Personally I could care less who uses what terms, but it is easy to see where ones material comes from based on the words they use rather than choose.
Shot in the Dark, merely a shadow of its former self. A loss for the GOP and gain to the Dems.
As for you all squawking about Hate, see MDE the MNGOP mouthpiece of Hate. Electing more Dems then any DFL blog could ever hope to do. Keep up the good work! Franken actually has a shot if MDE keeps it up
Mitch says “Democrat Party” and has lost his independence.
MiniMoni takes thousands from Soros, yet manages to stay independent.
Does anybody else see a problem with this logic?
Wrong again, apples to apples sitemeter to sitemeter.
Well, it’s only my blog, what would I know?
Sorry, Flash, that’s just not true. I have never relied on Sitemeter stats; I use it only to participate in the Ecosystem.
The ONLY stats I’ve ever used to compare traffic are those from my server logs. The only time I’ve ever showed 3,000+ visits on Sitemeter was when I drew an Instalanche.
Bold face lie, period! You never used them interchangeably and only recently started using the term exclusively.
Flash, that’s just ludicrous. I’ve used them both, all along. For that matter, I never even heard the story behind the controversy until maybe 18 months ago.
There has never been a lie, “bold”-faced or not, on this blog. Please keep that in mind.
It was the tipping point in your conversion to a ScaifeNet blogger instead of an independent one.
Now you’re just making stuff up. Unlike my claims about Soros and the Monitor (which, naturally, turned out to be completely true), I get no money from anyone, and unless you CAN show a connection, you really need to drop that.
Shot in the Dark, merely a shadow of its former self.
Endless repetition makes you more accurate – at the shooting range. Not at rhetoric.
As for you all squawking about Hate, see MDE the MNGOP mouthpiece of Hate.
[Insert the “Pizza in the woods” bit here]
> the inner city is positively clogged with people who should be conservatives
I’m just glad those corporations sucking on the public teat with their government subsidies, contracts, and leases don’t realize they should be big gubmint liberals.
Just keep at the trough, boys, and stick it to the Redistributokrats at PAC time!
/jc
For one thing, it would be interesting to know what percentage of the people who live in Minneapolis work for the city, or in city related non-profits and social services.
last time I checked (a few years back) the City of Mpls had 10,900+- employees, Hennepin County had 12,000+- employees and the Mpls School District had 10,000+- employees. I’m sure its changed since then but not substantially.
Is Flash auditioning for the second coming of PB? I must admit I got quite a laugh out of that exchange. I am glad Flash is a proud Democratic. Debater? Not so much.
A) I am not a democrat, and B) I am the best debater ever in the history of the world.
Being a good debater doesn’t not mean you have to be a Republican, you just have to be me!
Let’s see if I can remember how this is done:
I remember when you used to be a good debater. Back when you really thought for yourself, before you bought into all the Democraticicicicicic talking points.
Hm. Not as fun as I thought it would be.
This is absolutely crazy!
I mean this “Democrat vs. Democratic” thing. It seems just like a “Rush Limbaugh Mind Control” thing, except this time it’s real. And scary. Because it’s working! I can only imagine the headlines went it is eventually discovered:
“Rush Limbaugh Mind Control Causes Democratic Opponents To Ignore Dictionary, Argue Incoherently, and Generally Act Loony”
😉
Heh.
I’m still dying to hear more about the “web” I’m “caught” in.
Unique visits aren’t necessarily a good metric of blog quality.
Atrios gets about a trillion unique visits a day. Here’s a typical post by Duncan Black:
The post has 304 comments as I write this. Here are the first few of them:
She really is awful.
Tena | 01.03.08 – 12:40 pm | #
Gravatarfist
Brendan | 01.03.08 – 12:40 pm | #
GravatarGod I hope you’re right about the Dem side.
Jim, Collieresque | 01.03.08 – 12:41 pm | #
GravatarA real pundit would say “we’ll come 3rd in the Republican primary.”
P O’Neill | Homepage | 01.03.08 – 12:41 pm | #
GravatarWelcome to the Big Time!
Toucari, fka cosmic tumbler | 01.03.08 – 12:41 pm | #
GravatarReally? I’m thinkin’ Edwards, Clinton, Obama. You’re probably right about the Republicans though.
AikeaGuinea | 01.03.08 – 12:42 pm | #
Gravatarwrong. obama, clinton, edwards.
heh.
mEstizO | Homepage | 01.03.08 – 12:43 pm | #
GravatarQuit harshing my blogwhore! It’s important to emphasize the point that Republicans hate education.
I didn’t realize it before, but in Florida, it’s illegal to make even educational trips to Cuba.
And the author of the legislation says, “Anyone who understands the totalitarian nature of the Castro regime and its absolute control over information would conclude that research trips to Cuba are completely void of credibility.”
Egads, these people are stupid.
Okay, I’m done with that one. Thanks.
Sinfonian, anniversarying | Homepage | 01.03.08 – 12:43 pm | #
GravatarI think Huck’s fucked up a little too often, a little too publicly the last few days.
I might even drop to third, though I doubt it.
I suspect (and hope) you’ve got the Dems about right.
But who cares, anyway? It’s only Iowa.
SteveLG | 01.03.08 – 12:43 pm | #
GravatarGo Edwards!
Gilly Gonzylon | 01.03.08 – 12:43 pm | #
GravatarThe caucuses aren’t secret ballots, are they?
ProfWombat | 01.03.08 – 12:43 pm | #
GravatarAtrios ignores Ron Paul at his own peril.
Jay C. | 01.03.08 – 12:43 pm | #
GravatarLooks about right to me.
Vicki, Who ♥ Al Gore | 01.03.08 – 12:43 pm | #
GravatarBut Edwards isn’t part of the story. Haven’t you been listening to the cool kids?
tbone | 01.03.08 – 12:44 pm | #
Democrat vs. Democratic.
When you think Democrat, think “ick”.
Flash, “Because I say so” hardly qualifies as effective rhetoric.