Sue Jeffers...the Minnesota political buzz!

  At last... a little FUN in Minnesota politics. Sue Jeffers, candidate for Governor, has caused a lot of harumphs among Republicans. She's upset their comfy little applecart, by trying to challenge a sitting Governor from within his own party. GOP bloggers are attacking her and her Democrat campaign manager. I have news for the bloggers... Sue's campaign manager, Dan, is a old-style SOUTHERN Democrat, which makes him more conservative than most Minnesota Republicans.

Sue, who I consider a friend, was a lifelong Republican and helped elect Governor Pawlenty... until she saw, as have so many other Republicans, that he wasn't governing as a Republican. I have no trouble understanding Sue's attitude. She is, as I was, a disillusioned party loyalist.

I was another lifelong Republican, beginning with my vote in 1964 for Barry Goldwater and lasting through the term of George Bush the Elder... you remember... the Newt Gingerich term. We gave our party a Bush win and a GOP Congress, and expected great things of them. Their failure, under ideal conditions, was the straw that broke this camel's back, and I decided that the GOP would NEVER live up to their promises. That was hard for a party loyalist to admit. I had already swallowed a lot with Agnew's fiasco and Nixon's scandalous resignation, but I held the GOP line, accumulating a pile of GOP medals and photos in return for my contributions. I was a good enough Republican that I'm still receiving calls from them. To each phone call, I've responded that I'm no longer a Republican, and each time the caller has promised to take me off their list.

I was a Republican because of what I thought the party stood for. It began with "The Speech" - the Goldwater nomination speech by Ronald Reagan... a differentiating and defining moment in Republican history. At that point in time, it was clear that America had two political parties, with very different ideals, and my choice wasn't even close... I had to be a Republican. Over the following 30 years, that clear choice got fuzzier and fuzzier until I no longer had an ideology to hang my hat on... no party I could call my own from an ideological viewpoint. Worse yet, my party had not only abandoned what it once stood for, it had almost become another Democratic party.

What does a party loyalist do under those circumstances? Some just burrow in and clutch at the "lesser of two evils". Some toss away whatever idealism they had left and substitute power politics for it; winning becomes the only goal. As Democrats used to joke about Clinton... "Sure, he's an asshole, but he's OUR asshole".

For anyone who views politics with more seriousness than choosing which football team to support, power politics or the "lesser of two evils" just won't hack it. When one loses pride even in winning, loyalty has to go, and I abandoned politics. My vote no longer made a significant difference. My support produced bad results. Worse yet, my support would have the result of encouraging, of rewarding more of the same. Voting for someone who couldn't be trusted to do what you justifiably expected of him is NO vote at all. The party was no longer my party... it was just another party I couldn't trust.

That's essentially what happened to Sue Jeffers, and like me, she ended up discovering and embracing the ideological Libertarian Party, Just tonight, we once again agreed that the GOP platform sounds like it was written by a libertarian. Unfortunately, the GOP party doesn't pay any attention to their platform (nor do the Democrats to theirs).

Sue is still angry at the loss of her long loyal relationship with the GOP. She feels betrayed, especially by Governor Pawlenty, who does, after all, represent the Minnesota GOP. I know that she would still love to drag her old party back to its ideological roots. She's a Libertarian because the GOP failed to stand up for its own principles. In her eyes, Pawlenty doesn't deserve to be the GOP candidate for another term as Governor. Within either of the old parties, that is sacrilege. Neither will abandon a candidate seeking reelection, especially if they think he can win again.

I know, as does Sue, that a lot of other still-loyal Republicans feel the same way about Pawlenty, but there is no way that the party is going to take a chance on losing an incumbent Governor, so they're doing their best to thwart Sue's candidacy. She wants to address the GOP convention, and she would like to have access to the GOP delegates list. It's not likely to happen, because it would upset what the GOP hopes will be an unchallenged, confident, unanimous endorsement of Pawlenty.

To be honest, I would vote for Sue Jeffers for Governor even if she were running as a Republican, because I know what she stands for and I trust that she'll do her best to govern that way. Believe me, it's nice to know that there is a candidate I can support, regardless of which party endorses her. I know there are hundreds of thousands of other voters in Minnesota who would love to have that same feeling... who would love to really feel like they were casting a vote that might have positive results instead of more of the same old political crap the two old parties have been saddling us with.

Are those hundreds of thousands of voters going to get off their loyalty fences and vote for what they believe in? Could enough loyal Minnesota Republicans whip their own party back toward their principles, or at least force their party to let their delegates listen to Sue? No... there's no reason the GOP should allow that... unless what their party stands for just might be considered more important than politics as usual.

While the GOP defends their incumbent from any public dissent, there is nothing keeping all the rest of us from supporting and voting for Sue Jeffers. And, to set the record straight... yes, Libertarians are supporting Sue's candidacy. The reason is as simple as it gets... she deserves it.
Go on... take a few minutes to peruse www.suejeffers.org and see if you don't agree. You DO owe it to yourself.