What’s the Matter With Minnesota? | Power Line:
kernelhankel (signed in using yahoo)
I used to live, until very recently, in the 8th CD. Before that, I lived in the 7th CD (Arlen Stangeland) but the boundaries of these districts have shifted due to demographic changes including loss of population from Northeastern MN due to decades of bad economy. Anyway there are several points to consider:
1. the DFL takes care of the metro area, which is not surprising as metro area DFLers dominate. Outstate MN gets the shaft. I am surprised there is not more resentment of this.
2. The economy in central and northern MN is terrible. Agriculture is not as dominant as other rural parts of MN. Take Brainerd, for example. The paper mill is now closed. The railroad shops at one time made all of the rolling stock for the NP Railroad and employed a thousand or more. Now the shops carry out some repair and maintenance functions at a mere fraction of their former employment. Several small manufacturers have closed or left the area. People travel to St. Cloud, the Metro, or the oilfields of ND for employment. No economic opportunity. Economic measurements of what is going do not seem to exist. There is no reportage of any of this in the media, which is dominated by metro entities. All we get is propaganda from them. Good info is hard to get in MN. We are under reported and under blogged.
3. There seems to be a social engineering effort well underway that I have never seen mentioned anywhere. There are a large number of half-way houses (drug rehab, released felons, alcohol rehab, teen delinquents, etc.), section 8 housing in Brainerd. What used be a working class but prosperous town is now degenerating into a slum. "Clients" for these "services" are being imported not only from the metro area and other parts of MN but from Chicago. This new dependent class and the state and federal monies attached to them have created a new industry that employs welfare workers, social workers, pays for medical treatment, teachers, etc. - all government funded. Presumably they will all be DFL voters. Instead of making paper, we now have a welfare industry based on the importation of bums and criminals. This seems to be of a piece with the new urbanism movement fostered by the met council and HUD. Deport bums from the metro which has a surfeit? Disperse social problems throughout the State? Make or keep rural MN blue? All of these and more? This is systematic and intentional, not just by happenstance. I would like to see someone Powerline? Kirsten? Mitch Berg? pay attention to this.
4. The young and the elderly are leaving. The young are leaving to seek opportunity elsewhere. The elderly, at least those who have money, are moving to FL and taking their $ with them. Check the price of a Budget truck one way rental from, say, St. Cloud to Ft. Myers and then check the price of the same truck one way same dates from Ft. Myers to St. Cloud. Then draw your own conclusions.
5. The DFL is institutionalized. Education. Social Services. Healthcare. Even the Camber of Commerce in Brainerd/Baxter is run by a DFLer. The votes are collected and counted by the DFL. Nursing homes are run by the DFL so that everybody votes whether they know it or not. The DFL is pervasive and entrenched. A lot of people depend on the flow of government cash.
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