Dick Unger wrote:With regard to the tea party, their elected representatives have failed to engage the other people who have been there longer in thoughtful discourse. It's probably the fault of everyone that they don't get along. But both parties take actions just to spite the other, and then neither side is doing it's job.
Our self defense law is a good law, and if the various sides would talk honestly, most of the legislators would have no problem with it. It shold not be controversial. But it's going to be hard to convince Dayton he should stop and think about it, because of the behavior of the tea type legislators. It's not really an opiniobn, it's just what his friends all say. Feel free to disagree and think that's not the case. Maybe everyone in the world is wrong except the tea gang.
Regarding your "tea party", why the lower case? Would you do the same for Democrat? Well, at least you dropped the pejorative. But it really isn't a party. It's more of a concept or a perspective. None of the legislators you are referring to have been to the MN Tea Party convention, there isn't one. Why don't they engage the people who have been there longer? I don't really know, except that it was pretty much a central theme that helped them replace some of those who had been there longer that the system wasn't working for anyone but the political power structure and those they favored in their incestuous relationships. Something like what the Governor is still attempting to do with the unions and the child care providers. We need to go in a different direction. The cronyism and the current state of social liberalism isn't working. And, yes there is some of both in each of the other two major parties. You can't have unions get a politician elected who is sympathetic to their wants to the detriment of the rest of us. And how much longer is it going to take before enough of us realize that you get more of what you subsidize. Poverty has only increased since Johnson's war on poverty. So, maybe it's time for those who have been there longer to engage with and give ground to the newer members which you call tea party. There will only be more of them after the next election.
our quarrel is not about the value of freedom per se, but stems from our opinion of our fellow men … a man’s admiration of absolute government is proportionate to the contempt he feels for those around him --Alexis de Tocqueville--