WM: From what I recall of various members leaving the DFL, some of whom I sorely miss, they left of their own accord. Most of those I know went to the Greens or just walked away from politics. Some moved after failure at endorsement, particularly when they were clearly the better candidate.Speaking only from my own experience..... I know quite a few democrats that got pushed out of the party because of one stance or another.
Others were impatient because the DFL leadership has a tough time listening to the young turks. One of the most disappointing things, to me, about any political party in any state you want to mention, is that they so frequently eat their young. The democrats lost a bunch of folks that way and the republicans have as well.
What speaks to me is in the coalescing of the Greens. They are heavily comprised of democrat diaper babies, but when the DFL didn't take on the enormous changes a green planet focus requires, people finally set off on their own.
That Greens are comprised of both dems and repubs says that some torque is being applied to create a paradigm shift away from both parties. I think Marx (Karl, not Groucho) said thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. (I think Groucho said, "Say the secret word and divide a hundred dollars.")
Some democrats, as I recall, have thrown themselves out of the party in a rather boisterous fashion, then turned around and blamed the party for allegedly tossing them out on their keisters. The truth of the matter is that the DFL doesn't even have a mechanism to toss someone out and I would doubt that the repubs have one either.
When it comes to the DFL and the GOP in MN, there is another factor at work. Culturally, Minnesotans seem to use shunning as a major way of dealing with people they would like to see move away. It's usually remembered as personality clashes, but shunning is a very active part of both Scandinavian and American Indian societies and it seems to be the dominant form of contending here--shun people into isolation from the group. It probably varies from precinct to precinct, either party, whether or not a particular group is a shunning group or not.
The scariest group of politicians, in my estimation, are the carpet baggers, the ones who care not which party they are in, so long as they get to be the big cheese. These folks are really tough to stomach. "Oozing charm from every pore, he oiled his way across the floor..." GB Shaw?
WizardMarks, Central
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