THE PRAIRIE EDITOR: The Threat Of "My Way Or No Way At All" Politics

Once again anti-representative democracy forces are

clamoring for the institutions of government to do

things “our way or no way at all.” We observe this

impulse arising not only in militant, often violent, protest

groups, but also from elected officials who risk either

defeat by voters or their extreme policies rejected by

independentpublic institutions they do not control.

In the case of the protest groups, many of which are

mostly populated by naive students organized by

professional radicals and groups, the most disturbing

aspect has been the feckless response of many university

officials when the protests became violent or coercive.

Interestingly, in most cases the protest gtoups’ extremis 

activities have provoked a negative backlash in the

communities outside the campaus or wherever they

take place.

The totalitarian impulse employed by extremist forces on 

both the left an right adopt historic ideologies and 

sloganeering of dictatorships, communism, fascism, 

socialism or anarchism to impose themselves on everyone 

without popular consent.

The extremist groups have always been with us, but their

radical or reactionary policies rarely succeed in a

majoritarian society.

When supposedly more moderate figures in 

representative democracies resort to this tactic, however,

it is much more disturbing and unwelcome.

Recent examples include the dysfunction in the U.S.

House of Representatives where a small faction of the

majority Republican Party stymied action of its own

party and leadership in conducting the orderly process

of legislation. This minority resisted any reasonable

compromise on certain issues, and disrupted the

legislative process for much of the recent term.

On the other side, individual Democrats in the Congrress

are proposing “packing” the U.S. Supreme Court with

additional members who would then outnumber the

current majority and produce decisions that they favor.

The Supreme Court was created as an independent

third branch of the U.S, government. Members of the 

Court are appointed by the president and confirmed by

the  U.S. Senate. Their decisions thus reflect indirectly

the contemporary views of the voters. Some Courts

are therefore more liberal or conservative, but this

changes over time as older justices are replaced with

newer ones. The original Court was established in the

Constitution and initially had six members, but

the present number of nine was settled in 1869.

The most notable past attempt to “pack” the Court

occurred in the 1930’s when President Franklin

Roosevelt, a Democrat at the height of his national

popularity, became frustrated by a conservative

Court which struck down some of his legislative

proposals. But even though his party controlled the

Congress and he was so personally popular, the idea

of “packing” the Court was considered tampering with

the principle of three independent branches of the

government, and was rejected.

These are only two examples of several all-or-nothing 

ideas being expressed today by politicians who should

be more respectful of the unique constitutional balance

which has enabled our representative democracy to 

evolve, thrive and endure, as it has for more than 230 

years, and remains a model for the free world.

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Copyright (c) 2024 by Barry Casselman. All rightd reserved.

THE PRAIRIE EDITOR: The Most Interesting Race In Minnesota In 2024?

With less than two months to go, most media political

attention is on the presidential and high profile U.S.

Senate and House races. But it is a national election

cycle, and numerous other state and local races are

taking place, too.

A few of these other races have outsized importance

because they not only impact their own districts, but also

will determine bigger outcomes.

One such race is the special state senate contest in

Minnesota’s suburban District 45. While all of Minnesota’s

state house seats are on the ballot this November, none

of its state senate seats are up for election. That is,

with one exception. The state Democratic Party (DFL)

had a one-seat majority in the state senate (34-33), that 

with its control of the state house and the governorship,

gave them effective control (sometimes called a trifecta)

of the executive and legislative branches, as well as the

sole power ro appoint state judges.

However, the state’s Third District Congressman Dean

Phillips ran a maverick race for president this year,

contrary to the wishes of his party’s establishment, and

when he lost in the primaries, he decided to retire from

politics and not run for re-election. This created an

unexpected open congressional seat this November.

One of the DFLers who decided to run for the open

seat was State Senator Kelly Morrison. She resigned

her state senate seat to campaign for Congress, and

she eventually won the DFL nomination in the recent

primary.

Her resignation left the state senate tied between the

DFL and the state Republican Party. A special election

was set for this November to fill the vacancy. S.D. 45

elected Morrison over her GOP opponent 56% to

44% two years ago in a favorable DFL cycle and no

presidential election. In a presidential cycle, and 

with notable backlash to DFL policies outstate and in

the suburbs, and with so much at stake, this race is

likely to be competitive.

Businesswoman Kathleen Fowkes won the Republican

nomination in the primary just held, The governorship 

is not on the ballot in 2024, and Republicans face an

uphill battle to win a majority in the state house.

On the other hand, the GOP needs to win only this

one state senate race to take control of that body,

and have a brake on what conservatives consider to

be a recent outpouring of radical legislation and

policies.

Former state legislator Ann Johnson Stewart won

the DFL nomination in her party’s recent primary.

DFLers. of course, are highly motivated to keep the

seat, and maintain their control of state government.

Minnesota, in recent years, has been a reliably blue

(DFL) state, but the party’s winning margins have 

narrowed recently as GOP (red state) voters, especially 

in rural and suburban areas, have increasingly 

opposed the DFL agenda.

Polls indicate that the presidential race is narrowing

in Minnesota —- although  the Democrat’s nominee

has won the state in every election since 1976.

The race for the open state senate seat might be

the most interesting Minnesota race to watch on 

November 5th.

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Copyright (c) 2024 by Barry Casselman. All rights reserved. 

THE PRAIRIE EDITOR: And Now, The Hand-To-Hand Political Combat

The bouncing political ball period of the 2024 cycle

of the national election campaign is now over, and

the concluding period of grueling hand-to-hand

combat for voters has begun.

Both presidential campaigns had polling bounces

preceding, during, and just after their conventions.

provoked by traumatic events, including a serious

assassination attempt, and the sudden withdrawal

of a presumptive presidential nominee.

So much about this presidential election cycle has

been unprecedented, and even now continues to

go in uncharted political territory, that most

attempts to confidently predict outcomes are just

guesses in the dark.

For some time, public polling of voters has become

less and less accurate, especially in the extended

period before the final campaign season from

September to November. Just as systematic bias

has overtaken the establishment media, a similar

bias has seemingly corrupted public polling. Almost

all the raw data of voter polls is adjusted by the

pollsters subjectively to fit their personal expectations

of who will actually vote, so it is quite easy to distort,

either intentionally or unintentionally any poll result.

This includes guessing party and gender turnout.

There is also considerable evidence that the party

affiliations of many voter base groups is changing,

even as we have seen the Democratic Party go

from being a mulri-ethnic working class party to

becoming a party of affluent, highly educated

progressive voters, and the Republican Party go

from being a party of well-to-do elites to becoming

a party of blue collar voters with traditionalist values.

The Democrats’ base of black, Hispanic and Jewish

voters is eroding, and Republicans have been losing

suburban women, business executives and many

college  educated voters in their base.

Only former President Donald Trump is already

well-known to voters. Kamala Harris, J.D, Vance and

Tim Walz are largely unknown. This makes TV debates

and political advertising more significant than usual as

the contestants try to define and characterize opponents

to their advantage.

In spite of being well-known to voters, Mr. Trump,

following the attempt on his life, has the opportunity to

enhance his public image as he has done in his

behavior after being shot, his demeanor at the GOP

convention, his new-found self discipline in the

debate he had with Mr. Biden and with his hands-off

attitude to his party’s nominees for the U.S. Senate this

cycle. His recent action, to repair his long-standing

feud with the Republican governor of Georgia, is his

latest effort to improve his image with voters who

share his politics but have been turned off by his verbal

political style.

In the end. however, all of the strategies to employ

rhetoric, image and personal attack in this cycle, will

almost certainly be outweighed by how the key group

of undecided, independent and wavering voters of

both parties feel about their economic well-being and

their personal security in both their own communities

and in a world of military and economic threats which

only seem to increase.

Realizing that many public polls are inaccurate or

corrupted, that most media is biased, and that much

of what is reported as fact is not true or only partly

true, voters face serious obstacles in deciding who 

to vote for in 2024, The good news is that the U.S.

voter much more often than not, has done what’s best

for the country in election cycles past. With so much

at stake, we can only hope they will do so again on

Election Day, 2024.

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Copyright (c) 2024 by Barry Casselman. All rights reserved.