Still seeing blue

Well, it was a big day for he GOP everywhere except in Minnesota. Sure the GOP won control of the State House, but that's small comfort in a state where the Governor and the other constitutional officers wield considerable power. All the state wide offices went to the Dems - again.

It is curious only in that the people of Minnesota are by and large conservative people. These passive/aggressive folk are rarely far-out Birkenstock wearing hippy dippy types. Yet despite their personal conservatism they vote Democrat time after time. This speaks to few things, one is a very weak Republican party and another successful anti-conservative poisoning by the hard core liberal action groups that take advantage of that weakness. Face it none of the past Republican office holders with the exception of one-termer Rod Grams could have been called fire-brand conservatives, the kind that would engender the type of aversion we see to all things GOP in this state.

As a state it's hard to find one more consistently Democrat. The state was once a mining mecca that has seen one party block, stall and reject all new mining projects. The Democrats. It's state that is seeing its great reputation for good schools circle the drain and one party has literally controlled the education system for 50 years. The Democrats. Minnesota has the 3rd or 4th highest tax burden in the nation. There's no sign that rank will turn even slightly south, and there's one party that is always willing to raise them further. The Democrats. Still come election day all over the state the good people vote party line - that party? The Democrats.

On the balance sheet it's mostly a well run state, with a relativity low crime and poverty rates and is chalk full of corporate giants. Bad weather keeps out some of the ill effects of big welfare, because we have big welfare up here. The good work ethic of good working stock keeps the corporations humming despite the taxes. That's changing, however. Huge pools of new immigrants and a failing school system will slowly remove the advantage Minnesota has always enjoyed, each sucking more and more resources from state coffers. Add the ridiculous focus on choo choo trains in the transportation arena. Soon the Twin Cities will become a bypass because the neglect of the road systems will reach critical mass. The tax and spending burden the Dems have laid on the rest of us chickens will come home to roost

Of course well run is relative, small business owners would disagree. The folks who signed up for MNSure would most likely disagree. Warehouse owners looking at their new tax  bill would disagree. I disagree.

Why do we stay if the politics is so unbecoming to center/right people? Well, we were born here, our families are here... That's all I can think of... Oh yeah, our six-week summers are awfully nice.



Ugh