February 29, 2008 6:20 AM

When critical thinking is outlawed, only outlaws will think for themselves

ST. PAUL ‚Äö√Ñ√Æ The top Minnesota House Republican punished six colleagues for not voting the “right way” Monday on a transportation funding bill…. “We want positive leadership from Republicans,” House Minority Leader Marty Seifert, R-Marshall, said of his rare move. “They are not doing the right thing on the floor.”…. Leadership positions such as being top Republican on a committee and the title of assistant whip were ripped away from the six. Seifert said they cannot be GOP leaders if they don’t follow the party line on such a major bill as the $6.6 billion transportation package. “I totally respect what they did,” Seifert said, but that respect did not convince him to allow the GOP Six to retain their power.

If any of y’all were looking to understand why the GOP is so thoroughly (&^%$# up, you really need look no further than Republicans in the Minnesota House of Representatives. I suppose this is what happens when GOP leaders are more concerned with ideological fealty than in doing what’s right for the people they represent. When “doing the right thing” has more to do with following party dictates than following your conscience…well, this is exactly why the GOP is in such disarray. The party that for so long has derided Democrats for being devoid of ideas are demonstrating themselves to be exactly what they’ve ridiculed their opponents for.

I can understand how some might feel that following the party line might be important to some unwilling to think for themselves or brook those who do. That these intellectual midgets are in leadership position in a legislative body is a recipe for inertia and intellectual rigor mortis. When it’s less about attending to the People’s business and more about party loyalty, something is horribly wrong. This is not a problem limited to Minnesota; it’s nationwide on the local, state, and national levels. Republicans in all manner of leadership positions have proven themselves to be concerned about the GOP agenda than in attending to the interests of those they allegedly represent.

I’m not about to claim that Democrats are pure in motive, thought, and deed, but haven’t we had enough of this sort of silliness? Isn’t it about time we reminded Republicans why they were elected in the first place?

Say goodbye, ya’ll….

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on February 29, 2008 6:20 AM.

How do you cope with the unimaginable? was the previous entry in this blog.

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