The Opinion Minute: November 16th Edition

Lori Sturdevant:  Democrats lost the state House of Representatives this year.  This defeat was the fault of an unpopular Barack Obama.  Or it was the Democrats’ fault for not defending Obama more.  Or the Democrats ran a lousy campaign.  In no way can the  Democrats’ election defeat be attributed to the wonderful policies enacted by Democrats in the past two years.

D.J. Tice:  Tice is the Star Tribune’s staff “conservative.”  At the Star Tribune, this post is strictly part time.  Look for the next column to hit next month. 

The lead piece this Sunday calls for the newly-elected Republican House to implement the Democrats’ “workforce” agenda, as if the Democrats had won the election.  Mostly this agenda consists of more money for the higher ed labor unions.

Speaking of higher ed, the Editorial Board thinks that all the various Democrat appointees in the State University system need to stop squabbling among themselves.

Finally, The Economist says that the Republicans didn't really win the election this month:  things are tough all over the world.  When conservative governments win power anywhere in the world, they need to understand that this just means they should do a better job of implementing the policies that the ousted liberal parties failed to implement properly.

The Opinion Minute: October 26th Edition

In a semi-regular feature, we boil down the Sunday Minneapolis Star Tribune Opinion page to its basic message.

Lori Sturdevant :  In 2010, a long-serving Democrat congressman lost his bid for re-election.  That will not be allowed to happen again.

Editorial Board:  The Board endorses Democrat Al Franken for re-election to the U.S. Senate.  What?  You were expecting a different result?

For the benefit of my out-of-state readers, or those new to Minnesota, let me provide a little background.  The Minneapolis Star Tribune is the state’s largest newspaper, owned by a rabid, Tea Party extremist, conservative Republican billionaire, exactly like, in every respect, those evil Koch Brothers.  This arch-conservative partisan extremist’s hand-picked board, nevertheless, only endorses the best, most-highly qualified candidates.  Who always happen to be Democrats.

In instances where a long-time Republican incumbent is going to win anyway, by a big margin, the Board will endorse said Republican.  (See Erik Paulsen, John Kline, and Rich Stanek.)

Also, once per cycle, the Board will endorse a Republican you never heard of in a minor, local race you never heard of to demonstrate their “independence.”

D.J. Tice :  the Star Tribune’s house “conservative” pops up this week to deliver a public service announcement:  get out and vote, even you low information voters who don’t know anything.

Lead Story :  A week after the Board’s inevitable endorsement of Democrat Mark Dayton and the paper’s declaring the race for governor to be over, the Board posts their conversations with Dayton and Jeff Johnson.

Why bother?  Because this the Sunday in the election cycle that the Star Tribune publishes its this time we're not kidding poll showing that the race will be razor close next month.

The Opinion Minute: October 19th Edition

We boil down the Sunday Minneapolis Star Tribune Opinion page to its basic message.

Lori Sturdevant:  All of the long-serving Democrat legislators, who occupy safe seats, tell Lori that this has been a quiet election year.  Everyone is just sitting around waiting for the labor unions and lefty billionaire donors to post their new list of demands.

Editorial Board:  The Board suggests voting for Democrat Mark Dayton.  Why?  See above.

D.J. Tice:  No column from the Star Tribune’s house “conservative” again this week.  He is embargoed until after the election.

Lead story:  As a prelude to the Board’s imminent endorsement of Democrat Al Franken, the Board posts their conversations with Franken and Mike McFadden.

Finally, because Barack Obama turned out to be America’s worst ever President, Aaron Miller explains why we can’t have great Presidents anymore and wouldn’t want one anyway.  Seriously, that’s what he wrote.

The Opinion Minute (8/31)

This Labor Day weekend, I summarize the Minneapolis Sunday Star Tribune Opinion section in less than 500 words.

“The world as it is: The influence of religion.”  This week's big piece centers on a map showing the predominant religions for regions in Europe, northern Africa, and western Asia.  The map points out that the Roman Catholic/Eastern Orthodox dividing line runs through western Ukraine.

However, with one exception, the author’s map could have been drawn 100 years ago exactly as it appears today.  The one exception is that the author—David Pence—draws a red line around most of western and northern Europe to designate what he calls the “Secular West.”

Pence notes that modern Americans and Europeans have little contact with deeply religious or military peoples.  He suggests that the late unpleasantness calls for modern Americans to gain a greater understanding of such foreign practices.

After walling off the “Secular West” behind his red line, Pence turns his attention to the rest of Eurasia.  By doing so, however, he is missing what may be the biggest story in the next 20 years.  It’s true that religious practice within the traditional faith majorities (Protestants in northern Europe and Catholics in southern Europe) has fallen to barely measurable levels, one shouldn’t assume that western Europe has turned “secular” and strife-free.

The new faults lines will be within European nations.  While the native majorities have largely abandoned the faiths of their ancestors, newly arrived immigrants are rather more enthusiastic about theirs.

The Opinion Minute (8/24)

Today, we summarize the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Opinion section for Sunday, August 24, 2014.

Leading the section this week is a piece by Bonnie Blodgett, headlined,

The world as it is: We need a Marshall Plan for the modern era

But it’s not what we’ve had in recent decades as we worship at the free-market altar

From the piece, I gather that Ms. Bodgett doesn’t think much of capitalism and less of Harvard MBA’s.  But it you are going to call for a New Marshall Plan, at least let us know where you want it:  Asia?  Russia?  Rural America?  I read the piece three times and I could not figure it out.

Liberal columnist Lori Sturdevant writes about her speech to the National Conference of State Legislators this week, covering Minnesota’s 156-year political history.  Her column is long on praise for Democrats and long on criticism of Republicans.

I looked it up:  of Minnesota’s 40 governors, 25 (63 percent) have been Republicans.  Thirteen of the first 15 were Republican, as were three of the past six.  Sturdevant can’t be bothered to mention a single one.

Her message:  vote to re-elect Mark Dayton.

House “conservative” D.J. Tice writes about the Minnesota Sex Offenders Program.  Tice argues that too few offenders have been released from the program.

Here’s what I can’t get past:  if I were involved in the program and a released offender went on to reoffend, what would I tell the victim and the victim’s family?

For its part, the Editorial Board weighs in again on behalf of higher taxes, this time for transportation.

I do recommend reading this George Will column reprinted today.  It covers how the government regulates everything from bake sales to parenting, but can’t be bothered to provide basic public safety or paved roads.

The Opinion Minute (8/17)

I know that most readers are just too busy to wade through the entirety of a newspaper Sunday opinion section, especially as summer winds down and the Labor Day holiday is right around the corner.

For the benefit of the reader on the go, I’m instituting a new, occasional feature on this page, The Opinion Minute™.  This week, I’ll boil down the entire Minneapolis Star Tribune Sunday Opinion Exchange section published August 17^th to a handful of easily digestible sentences.  At least I’ll summarize the locally-generated content.

Good Deal—The cover piece by Growth and Justice’s Dane Smith spends 74 column inches delivering the message that Big Government is Good and Bigger Government would be Even Better.  Therefore, let’s double down on one-party Democrat rule in 2014.

House “Conservative” D.J. Tice writes about the U.S. Senate election this year.  He notes that Democrat incumbent Al Franken votes with President Obama 97 percent of the time.  Famously moderate Sen. Amy Klobuchar votes with Obama 98 percent of the time.  Since a Republican would vote with other Republicans most of the time, Minnesota would be better off re-electing Franken.

Weekly columnist Lori Sturdevant defends the controversial Senate office building now under construction in St. Paul.  She chastises taxpayers for not fully appreciating the courage Democrat politicians have demonstrated in voting your money to improve their own personal comfort.

For its part, the Editorial Board has heard a lot of loose talk from Republican candidates about repealing, or at least reforming, Obamacare and MNsure.  The Board is having none of it.  These programs were perfect in their construction and flawless in their implementation.  Why take a chance on change?  Vote Democrat in November.

Bottom line from this Sunday:  liberals are still good and conservatives are still evil.  I hope you enjoyed your weekend, see you next week!