Minnesota Illustrates That About the Only Way to Defeat Conservatives is to Let Them Win

Huh –

The American voting public is not particularly liberal.  The nation could be described as slightly right of center, particularly on fiscal issues of government spending.  Conservatives with their message of individual freedom, lower government regulation, let people alone, lower taxes and the like have a better story to tell, and they tell it well.  In fact, were they to actually live up to that philosophy in total they would be the permanent majority party.  On paper it's a good story.

But in practice conservatives do not live up to their ideals.  So about the only way to defeat them is to demonstrate their hypocrisy to the American voters, and about the only way to do this, absent tens of millions of dollars for campaigns to educate voters, is to let them win, let them govern and then let the public vote them out when they see what is really going on.

Such is the case in Minnesota.  Two years ago the Republicans controlled the state legislature, and shut down state government rather than allow taxes to increase on the very wealthy.  They also thought they would cement their power with a big vote banning marriage equality.

Just two years ago opponents seized a surprise opportunity to try to permanently ban it in Minnesota.

After winning unprecedented control of both chambers in the Legislature, Republicans decided to ask voters to approve a constitutional amendment that would permanently make same-sex marriage illegal.

The amendment touched off the most ferocious battle of the 2012 elections in the state, galvanizing activists on both sides and drawing millions of dollars in campaign spending.

But the nation has changed, changed faster than conservatives realized.

In a stunning defeat, Minnesota voters rejected the measure, the first to do so among the 31 states that have voted on the question.

When it was over, gay marriage remained illegal. Unwilling to waste momentum, Minnesotans United for All Families, the lead group pushing for same-sex marriage, moved quickly to hire a dozen seasoned lobbyists to press its case at the Capitol, including several with deep Republican ties.

The great result, two years after Republicans thought they could ban marriage equality in the state Constitution, Minnesota  made marriage equality the law of the state.  So yes, once voters realize what they got when they voted in Republicans, once they realize they did not get what they thought conservatives stood for, out they go.  Are you listening North Carolina, Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio and Pennsylvania?