From Winning Elections to a Governing Majority

In recent years in Minnesota we’ve watched Republicans render themselves irrelevant through blind adherence to the failed policy of “no new taxes” and by placing the question of “who can get married?” ahead of things like “who can go to college?”

Meanwhile, as the GOP mired itself somewhere in between the disproven Reganomics of the 1980s and the Salem Witch Trials of two centuries earlier, DFLers built sizeable majorities in both chambers of the Legislature.

But winning elections and building a governing majority are two different things. The former doesn’t automatically lead to the latter, as has been made painfully clear over the last two election cycles.

There’s something wrong when opinion polls, with questions phrased in the neutral language of scientific study, indicate at least modest support for the party’s agenda, but we’re not seeing that transfer into actual political capital when it comes time to put pressure on Gov. Pawlenty and his legislative allies.

For DFLers to parlay their success at the ballot box into the kind of sustainable governing majority needed to defend our heritage as a great place to live and do business and position Minnesota as a leader for the new century, it’s time to change the way we look at the world and talk about the issues that matter. Let’s face it, 99 percent of voters don’t speak, or even recognize, the language of party caucus attendees.

We don’t want to “tax the rich.” That’s neither a good policy nor a good slogan. Everyone pays taxes and should. We just want to ensure everyone pays their fair share so we have the resources needed to support good schools, a modern infrastructure and universal health care. Nothing more, nothing less.

We have to understand the language of competition and speak it freely. Good schools, affordable college, solid infrastructure and health care aren’t just entitlements. Yes, there’s a moral component to our policies, but on the whole they’re not “feel good” initiatives or something we do to kill time during the annual legislative session. World-leading schools, 21st-century infrastructure improvements and affordable health care make Minnesota an attractive place to live, a better place to do business and a leader in a country in which too many states have long ago accepted merely treading water as opposed to boldly moving forward on these fronts.

We need to embrace all elements of the DFL. The robust majorities in the House and Senate are built on the success of center-left suburbanites, but when the legislative session reaches crunch time negotiations are handled almost exclusively by Minneapolis and Iron Range DFLers who have never had to seriously court Republican voters in their home districts. Democrats from places like Minnetonka, Eden Prairie, Eagan and Woodbury bring to the table insight not often found in places where the DFL primary essentially serves the same purpose as the general election.

We have to accept hard truths. More government for the sake of more government has never solved any problem. Sometimes government has to be bigger, yes, but it must always be smarter, more efficient and more effective.

And we have to admit there are some problems that money can’t solve, especially when it comes to education. Yes, we should provide the strongest possible support for our schools, but we have to recognize struggling schools aren’t exclusively a failure of government; society bears a great share of responsibility, too. More funding isn’t going to produce results so long as too many children go home each day to homes without books and parents who forgive and/or reward every transgression.

There is no reason the DFL can’t be the party of Minnesota’s future in the same way it represented the high tide of the state’s past, but we’re not going to get there with end-of-the-legislative-session train wrecks, mindless process arguments against a governor who’s leading (albeit in a very wrong direction) and by giving the general impression of being a party that would rather complain than lead. We have to be better—much better.

This isn’t any other political debate in any other year. Given the challenges facing our state, the party that emerges as the one known for advancing realistic solutions and then producing actual results will do more than win a few elections; it will emerge as the kind of “big tent” coalition that governs well into the future. That’s not a mantle we want to cede back to the Pawlenty Republicans, is it? After all, we’ve seen what they’ve done with that power and it’s not pretty.

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‘Disproportionate’ Responses Fuel Bloody Cycle

In the recent 22-day war in the Gaza Strip, Israel scored an overwhelmingly bloody victory in the body count.

Now Prime Minister Olmert is vowing “disproportionate” response to further provocations from Hamas.

The chest-pounding in Tel Aviv begs the question: was a 1,330-to-13 margin somehow too proportionate?

Hamas, to be sure, is a vile organization that has wreaked havoc in the Middle East for too long, but continuing the cycle of violence, much of which disproportionately affects civilians in the Gaza Strip rather than the actual perpetrators of terror, plays right into the hands of Hamas, Iran and others who thrive on bloodshed and general tumult in the volatile region.

Terrorism gains a foothold in areas where people have no jobs, no schools and no future. Given the choice between helplessly continuing a life of stagnation with no end in sight and having someone to blame and action to take, the outcome is predictable. We’ve seen it time and time again—when people have no hope, they’ll choose even the most self-destructive avenues.

President Obama’s inaugural admonition that leaders will be judged by “what you can build, not what you destroy,” applies not only to Hamas’ domestic rule, but also to Israeli foreign policy.

So long as the government in Tel Aviv is seen by civilians in Gaza as an oppressor rather than a partner in peace and progress, Hamas wins. Israel can pick off the occasional leader or intercept a rocket squad here and there, but the cycle of violence will continue more-or-less unimpeded. History has proven there’s no lasting military solution.

Israel is now confronted with a choice: it can pursue victory on paper with more incursions and airstrikes or it can pursue victory in practice with bold diplomacy and the aid Palestinians desperately need so they can build the kind of future that makes winners on both sides of the border.

Moving the Primary to June Could Improve Elections, Government

Jeff Rosenberg has an interesting post over at Twin Cities Daily Liberal on a bill that would move Minnesota’s primary election from September to June.

I’ve long favored such legislation as a means toward getting more people involved in the process of picking general election candidates. The party endorsement procedure is fun and informative, don’t get me wrong, but it’s also quite cumbersome and hardly user-friendly to people who don’t eat, breathe and sleep politics—that is to say 99 percent of the population.

Consider this: last February a record-setting 214,000 people turned out for the DFL precinct caucuses, the first, and sadly most inclusive, step on the long road to the congressional district and state endorsement conventions. Then in the very lightly-contested DFL Senate primary seven months later, nearly 255,000 voters turned out. Two years earlier, the equally dull DFL gubernatorial primary netted 316,000 voters.

As it stands, the September primary has all the quality of a split-squad Spring Training game—an essentially meaningless technical requirement before the very high-turnout general election a few weeks later, but it’s still significantly outdrawing the activist-dominated precinct caucuses. By moving the primary to June, we dramatically increase its viability as a political option for candidates who don’t win their party’s endorsement and give a far greater voice to all Minnesotans who are interested in helping pick the people who will spend the next five months seeking our vote.

It’s not the least bit ironic that two of the Senate bill’s co-sponsors are Dick Day and Terri Bonoff. Day skipped the endorsement process in the 1st Congressional District last year and was ultimately routed in the September GOP primary by Brian Davis. Bonoff kept her word and walked away after a stunning DFL endorsement campaign loss to political newcomer Ashwin Madia.

This may sound like an inside-baseball political debate, but it’s not. This bill has the potential to affect the quality of our general election campaigns and, by extension, our government. A comparatively small number of hard-core political activists, many of whom are perfectly nice people, I know, simply shouldn’t wield any more sway than the 2-million-plus “average” voters who show up at the polls every other November.

‘Because we’re Americans’

In tough times, which were made even more painfully clear this week in Minnesota and across the country, it’s worth paying extra attention to the voices of those who survived a bitter Depression and still had enough left over to vanquish two great evils and usher in a long era of relative peace and expanding prosperity.

“We are going to get through this because we’re Americans,” 89-year-old Alice Jolink told KARE-11. “We’ve been through it before and we’re a wonderful people—we are. We’re made up of many kinds of people who have ideas galore to benefit the rest of us and I hope that we can pull together on this like the president says and make America a great nation. I’m sure we will.”

Even as the grim headlines mount in the coming weeks and months, we can’t betray our legacy. We can’t be defined by the crisis of the moment. And we can’t surrender in the face of fear of what tomorrow might bring because for more than two centuries we have always been rewarded for boldly reaching for the promise of a brighter future.

Let’s remember who we are as Americans: innovators, pioneers and survivors. Even in perilous times, we must make the necessary infrastructure upgrades to thrive in a hypercompetitive global economy; support the research that will change for the better the way humankind lives; and give our citizens the tools required—education, health care—so they can move forward with the confidence needed to build the tomorrow America deserves.

We’re in a bad stretch, the likes of which many of us have never seen, no doubt. But with the same combination of God’s grace, wise leadership and a people whose courage and ingenuity is unmatched, we will again soar and build a 21st century that’s every bit an American era as the past 100 years.

Legislature Should Make ’09 the Year of Health Care for All Kids

When it comes to debate at the Legislature, there are very few issues that don’t fit into the “shades of grey” category.

There are a number of ways in which to evaluate students or to prioritize transportation projects.

People of conscience can disagree on how to best stimulate the economy or create new jobs.

There are important bonding projects in DFL and Republican districts and lots of different places where government must give way to the private sector or vice versa.

But occasionally there are matters that go to the heart of our shared humanity--issues where there is a clear right and absolute wrong and where capitulation for the sake of greasing the wheels of the legislative process diminishes the entire legislative process. One of these issues will soon make its 2009 debut at the Capitol: universal health care for children.

There are certainly good policy reasons to ensure that every child in this state is guaranteed access to health care. Sick kids don’t do as well in school. Healthy children grow into healthy adults. One sick child in a household will eventually mean a sick household and the list goes on.

But this isn’t a policy debate where spreadsheets can accurately gauge the pros and cons of legislative action.

Health care for children is a moral issue that defines who we are as a state. It’s where the rubber hits the road when it comes to oft-used words like faith, values and heritage. And it’s a chance to fix past wrongs--instances where doing the right thing was put aside for the sake of winning the far smaller, but sometimes more prized, political fight at the Capitol.

If the Legislature and Gov. Pawlenty can’t agree that one child without health care is one too many, how can we expect them to make the right decisions on taxation or education, infrastructure or economic development?

If the Legislature and Gov. Pawlenty can’t put aside their differences to do what’s right for the most vulnerable Minnesotans, how can we take seriously their assertions of “putting kids first” or “valuing all life”?

And if the Legislature and Gov. Pawlenty can’t defend our shared values, how can we really trust them on anything of consequence?

It would be naïve to expect a legislative session devoid of political gamesmanship and grandstanding, so if some DFLers and Republicans want to turn health care for children into a political game, let’s try something new and make it a contest over who gets to take credit for delivering it.

Since Klobuchar Can't Vote Twice, Franken Should be Seated

Nearly three months after Minnesotans cast their ballots, our state remains at half-strength in the U.S. Senate while Congress begins work on tackling challenges that define a generation.

State law, while providing a fair framework for a recount and election challenges, is not an adequate vehicle to address this aspect of the historic situation that has been thrust upon us.

Since the secretary of state and governor can't yet issue Al Franken an election certificate and Gov. Pawlenty doesn't seem interested in appointing an interim senator, Senate leaders should seat Franken.

The stakes are too high for Minnesota to be denied a full voice in Washington. Since Amy Klobuchar can't vote twice, Franken, as the post-recount leader, should be seated. He can always be sent home if Norm Coleman's courtroom campaign is more successful than his recent political efforts.

This is one of those times in which common sense must trump the politics of obstruction and petty animosity. Minnesotans, like all Americans, deserve nothing less.
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