Minnesota GOP shuts its big tent

The Republican Party of Minnesota zipped the flap on its “big tent” some time ago. Moderates were the first to be shut out. In 2010, recall, the party actually banned two former Republican governors, Arne Carlson and Al Quie, and former Republican U.S. Sen. Dave Durenberger, so incensed were party leaders at the moderates’ supporting Independence Party candidate Tom Horner for governor.

(Horner himself, of course, also had been a prominent Republican.)

But now, the party’s sprint past the right to the far right is alienating even long-time conservatives. Consider this blog post, which was written last week in advance of the state Republican convention by John Gilmore, a St. Paul attorney who is “active in local, state and national conservative causes,” as his blog states:

“The hideous Ron Paul invasion of the Minnesota Republican Party is not quite over — the denouement known as its state convention in St. Cloud this weekend awaits — but enough evidence is in hand to draw some grim conclusions for those who are not enamored of a Jew- hating, fringe cult political figure who speaks to alienated, fairly ignorant and frequently unwashed lost souls. ...

“The Paul zombies tried their best last cycle and were rebuffed by the party establishment. To these strange persons, this was akin to living in North Korea. Their bleating about tyranny is perhaps the easiest example by which to show how they are simply not serious people in a political sense. They have no idea what tyranny is except the infantilized one fed them by that friend of David Duke, Ron Paul.”

By the way, Gilmore’s blog is called Minnesota Conservatives, and you can find it at conservativeminnesotans.blogspot.com.

Gilmore posted again after the convention. He didn’t hide his continuing dismay, especially at one speaker’s demand that more traditional Republicans “get over it” if they’re still upset about the Paul camp’s coup:

“Any number of resolutions got passed as well, but Minnesota Conservatives is aware of only one: the Minnesota GOP is now officially on record as demanding the end of the Fed,” Gilmore wrote.

“Thank goodness for getting over it: We can become as crazy as the zombies who took us over.”

Sure, Gilmore is just one blogger, though he’s not the only GOP activist who’s concerned. (“This battle for the soul of the party has the potential to leave both sides — and thus the party itself — in tattered ruins,” wrote Walter Hudson, chairman of Minnesota North Star Tea Party Patriots.)

But that’s not the point. Instead, the point is this: Having scorned moderates and being now in the process of alienating conservatives, where will the Republican Party of Minnesota turn to find a majority in the state?

Tags: opinion, editorials, politics