wmmarks wrote, in part, RE: the Rybak/McLaughlin charade: <<<<
Ask this question: which of these two people could run the city better? Since they are both DFL, ideology will not be the deciding quality.
<<<<<
I take your point, but isn't this the common Democratic Party strategy? Two candidates are the same, so which of these will take you where you do not want to go more effectively?
Where are we going? Look at the DFL record --according to the DFL. Deeper into debt. Degraded public safety. Degraded environment. Less sustainable infrastructure. Further bondage to billionaires and millionaires and corporations who are unaccountable to us but who use Minneapolis taxpayers as a cash cow. Corporate welfare for the few and wage slavery for the many.
The Democrats are "the other war party" on the national scene. On the local scene the Democrats have become just the folks to make sure that we have urban infrastructure that makes war ever more necessary.
Corruption abounds as well. Handouts and revolving lobbyist positions for insider cronies, piratization of the commons, and progressive posturing coupled with regressive taxation land us deeper in debt and deeper in toxic soup.
The honest way out is to speak of the need for real and meaningful change: less dependence on multinational corporations, re-localization of agriculture and manufacturing, true bioregional energy independence, education for all, security rooted in walkable and bike-able infrastructure which encourages active and engaged neighborhoods.
I still see no reason to believe that Rybak or McLaughlin will bring progress. I see every reason to believe that "insider politics as usual" will prevail.
Our DFL future? New regressive taxation for stadiums and urban infrastructure that absolutely demands increasing war to support it.
Democrats are right in step with the Republicans. My guess is that most people are not, but most Minneapolis Democratic voters are also in step with the Republicans. More war made more necessary by our unwillingness to change. More poverty and less help for the poor. More environmental degradation and denial of our role in causing it.
To top it off, we are free to vote for anyone in Minneapolis -- as long as it is a Democrat! And I am so excited to know which Democratic mayoral candidate will lead us into the toxic soup more effectively.
Minneapolis has become a city of Republican ideology and Democratic "effectiveness." No Minneapolitan left behind. No wonder so many people do not bother to vote.
Why would anyone be excited to vote for one of the Democratic candidates for Minneapolis mayor, again?
--pedaling for peace and ecojustice from Lynhurst -- Gary Hoover
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