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Sunday, February 22nd, 2015

The Unnatural: How Mark Dayton Bested Scott Walker—and Became the Most Successful Governor in the Country

Author:     Patrick Caldwell
Source:     Mother Jones
Publication Date:     Wed Feb. 18, 2015 6:00 AM EST
 Link: The Unnatural: How Mark Dayton Bested Scott Walker—and Became the Most Successful Governor in the Country
Stephan:   In 1932 Associate Supreme Justice Louis Brandeis, considered one of the great judicial minds in U.S. history, writing in New State Ice Co. v Liebmann said, a "state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country." Never more in my lifetime has this been truer. The social outcomes in states governed by Republican governors and legislature and those run by Democrats have made clear choices. By almost any measure one would care to take Republican policies produce notably inferior outcomes, and less wellness. Here is an example of what I mean, Mark Dayton Democratic Governor of Minnesota, and Scott Walker Republican Governor of Wisconsin. It is something to lay next to the comparison between Brown in California and Brownback in Kansas.
Minnesota Democratic Governor Mark Dayton Credit: Elizabeth Flores/Zuma

Minnesota Democratic Governor Mark Dayton
Credit: Elizabeth Flores/Zuma

The day before Halloween, a band of 40 or so middle-aged Democratic activists gathered in the parking lot of a long-closed KFC in Eagan, a southern suburb of the Twin Cities, to listen to a handful of state party leaders speak. The party bigwigs, who were crisscrossing the state on a last-minute campaign tour, crowded a small, elevated stage in front of a bright blue bus bearing a logo proclaiming it was “On the Road to a Better Minnesota.” Sen. Al Franken’s daughter Thomasin told cute tales of her dad’s pride in becoming a grandfather. St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman—tall, crisp-suited, with a stern jaw, he could have easily passed as an extra on House of Cards—delivered the same polished anecdotes about paddling northern Minnesota’s Boundary Waters with Franken that he told at every stop.

Finally came the headliner: Gov. Mark Dayton. Engulfed in a puffy green jacket, his thinning gray hair combed over just so, Dayton stumbled through a […]

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1 Comment

  1. Rev. Dean on Sunday, February 22, 2015 at 10:49 am

    What a beautiful comparison between good “people policies” and “corporate policies” (Dems. vs Reps.).