MinnPost Suburban voters didn’t just elect Democrats to Congress and the Minnesota Legislature — they drove DFL victories statewide
We often talk about Urban and Rural voters, when the real decision makers are the folks in the burbs and large towns. I mean they have a lot of people living there and often they are more affluent.
Of course Trump's coarse behaviors, lies, etc drove a lot of us burbers away from our beloved GOP party... I keep wondering if that man is capable of learning and improving, or if will stick with the same destructive hateful playbook? If he doesn't learn and the DEMs find a likable candidate, I think 2020 is going to be very painful for the GOP.
We often talk about Urban and Rural voters, when the real decision makers are the folks in the burbs and large towns. I mean they have a lot of people living there and often they are more affluent.
Of course Trump's coarse behaviors, lies, etc drove a lot of us burbers away from our beloved GOP party... I keep wondering if that man is capable of learning and improving, or if will stick with the same destructive hateful playbook? If he doesn't learn and the DEMs find a likable candidate, I think 2020 is going to be very painful for the GOP.
The GOP lost the cities, and they have been for a good long time now, losing the suburbs. In Minnesota, Republicans campaign in greater Minnesota almost exclusively on a platform of sticking it to the cities, and regionally it works for them. In this Democratic year, they took two Congressional seats from Democrats, a remarkable achievement. But in an environment where population is moving from greater Minnesota to cities and their suburbs, this approach costs them statewide elections to the point where a Republican elected statewide is now becoming a distant memory.
ReplyDeleteI get a lot of heat from Republicans who claim Democrats lose elections because they hate rural Minnesota. What I think those same people miss is that they lose elections because of the perception at least, that they hate urban and increasingly, suburban Minnesota. It explains why they are so successful locally in legislative races, and perform so disastrously statewide.
--Hiram
So silly... "a platform of sticking it to the cities"
ReplyDeleteOr by this do you mean keeping the cities out of their local issues? (ie mining, farming, etc)
Or stopping the cities from spending State dollars on high cost / low benefit items like office buildings, stadiums, SW Light Rail, etc.
And urban liberals may not hate rural and suburban conservatives, but they sure like to villainize and talk down to them.
If rural folks want "us" out of their issues, are they willing to solely foot the bill if/when the tailings pond at Polymet fails at some point in the future? If not, then guess what? Everyone gets a say.
ReplyDeleteAnd they also get to push back against what they perceive as urban liberal over reach that is harming their communities.
ReplyDeleteJust like the city folks saying how many wolves the Ely folks need to house in their communities. With little regard to this risk such animals pose to the pets, livestock, etc.
My point stands, the rural folks are not trying to "stick it" to the cities...
"My point stands, the rural folks are not trying to "stick it" to the cities..."
ReplyDeleteSure they are. Rural legislators trying to roadblock light rail is trying to "stick it" to the cities, as almost the entirety of LRT projects are funded by the feds or the locals, not the state. For instance, of the $2B SWLRT project, the state is kicking in $30M.
Who do you think pays those FED Taxes?
ReplyDeleteOr is it just money from heaven that is grown on some tree?
I think most of us could think of a better use for $2,000,000,000 tax dollars, plus the in perpetuity yearly subsidies, than helping people from Eden Prairie get downtown on a single purpose piece of infrastructure.
If the Federal taxes don't build LRT here, they'll be used to build LRT somewhere else. Way to own the libs!
ReplyDelete"plus the in perpetuity yearly subsidies"
There is not a single form of transportation that is not subsidized.
"Who do you think pays those FED Taxes?"
ReplyDeleteAnd, statistically speaking, more of those tax $ come from urban areas.
The light rails between:
ReplyDelete- MOA, Airport and Downtown
- Mpls and St Paul
make some sense... EP and Mpls... Not so much so... Maybe a different metro has a better use for the transit funds, or they can be diverted to some better purpose.
I think you are blurring the term urban and suburban again... I am sure a large number of suburban income tax payers would prefer lower taxes and/or less national debt over a SW Transit Line...
Why does a line from EP to Minneapolis not make sense? There's not a lot of available room to expand 35W, 169, 62, and 100 in the southwest metro to accommodate growth. Not to mention the fact that we're already hundreds of millions annually short in road construction statewide, so good luck addressing those projects in a timely fashion.
ReplyDeletePlease remember that my goal is to reduce urban sprawl...
ReplyDeleteWhy again do we want to make it easier to live further out?
Let's get that next freeway ring going... 610 is a good start to keep trucks and other unnecessary traffic out of the metro...
Remember bigger wheels and smaller spokes...
Unfortunately it looks like they plan to just keeping those spokes bigger...
ReplyDelete"Reducing urban sprawl" and "build another highway ring" aren't compatible. Seriously, have you driven along 610?
ReplyDeleteYes. It is a lovely road with less traffic than 694, 494, 35W, 35E, 94, etc...
ReplyDeleteAnd more importantly it keeps traffic off those other roads and out of the loop.
Now if we only had a South and West Outer ring.
Out your direction... Making 212 a 4 lane does nothing but increase development out your direction and create more bedroom communities.
Again, have you looked at what's happening around 610? Development! Your spoke versus wheel concept is absurd -- it doesn't make any difference.
ReplyDeleteOf course it makes a huge difference... No one is going to build and live in Carver county if there are no big spokes running to 494... Just look at the building expansion/sprawl that the 212 expansion promoted.
ReplyDeleteAs you increase the size and speed of the spokes, people will build further out.
Whether those spokes are road or rail is just a preference.
As for your 610 comment. Please remember that the following spoke roads were all improved simultaneously... 169, 252, Highway 65, 94, 35W...
ReplyDeleteSo I think giving 610 the credit for the growth may be a stretch.
It's not as if rural Minnesota has some huge agenda that the DFL is overlooking. We are Democrats. We don't have any philosophical objection to spending money. And lots of us have roots in greater Minnesota, and some of us have actually been known to visit it from time to time. While Trump seems to worry that European prosperity comes at the cost of the United States, we don't see trade between the cities and rural Minnesota in such zero sum terms. Residents of Minneapolis probably don't even know what their trade deficits is with the rest of the state. Or even if they have one.
ReplyDelete--Hiram
Hiram,
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately many rural people do have an objection to the government spending money on things like buildings, light rail, bike bridges, etc. I mean a lot of them live pretty fiscally conservative personal lives.
And they are not too keen on allowing illegal residents in and giving them sanctuary.
Where as the city folk seem to be happy spending and letting illegal folks come and stay... Maybe earning a living is too easy in the cities?
"And they are not too keen on allowing illegal residents in"
ReplyDeleteReally? They might want to check on who's doing a lot of the hard agriculture-related work out that way...
It seems to me that the rural Trump supporters are the one's voting to cut down on illegal entry and over staying...
ReplyDeleteIt sure is not the anti-Trumpers...
With the bigger farm equipment and more effective chemicals... I haven't seen any migrant workers in out state mn for years...
Not in the fields necessarily, but in other areas.
ReplyDeleteLike this:
Strib: Big Minnesota pork producer 'surprised' by immigration raids
Thank heavens for ICE and deportations...
ReplyDeleteMaybe Lexy will get that call back... And Christensen will need to raise their wages...
"Lexy Stimpert, however, was upset to learn one of the town’s largest employers hired immigrants living in the country illegally.
“It’s our jobs, our money,” she said while working the cash register at the ExpressWay gas station convenience store. “I know that kind of sounds racist, but I’m not. … We work hard for our stuff.”
Stimpert said she often sees job postings from Christensen Farms online and even applied for one six months ago. She said she never got a call back."