Appropriate

Minnesota's state bird is the loon. As is its Republican party.

The Minnesota Republican Party has undergone a “Bachmannization” in recent years, lurching to the right on social issues, with the prerequisite purging of centrists and elevation of ideological absolutists.

In recent weeks, the Republican-controlled state legislature has clashed with liberal Democratic Governor Mark Dayton. Among their headline grabbing and eyebrow-raising legislative efforts have included trying to ban all abortions in the state after 20 weeks and forbidding anyone on public assistance from withdrawing more than $20 cash per month.

The man Dayton narrowly defeated in an overwhelmingly Republican election year was conservative-populist-turned-lobbyist Tom Emmer, who backed a “Tenther” bill that would require a two-thirds state legislative vote to ratify any federal legislation and supported a state constitutional ban on gay marriage.

Emmer got into some trouble when it was found that he appeared with a local “heavy metal ministry”—after it became known that its pastor said it was “moral” to execute homosexuals. (More recently, the Minnesota Independent has been buzzing with news that Bachmann sat down with local right-wing radio show host Bryan Fischer days after he declared that Muslim-Americans “have no fundamental first amendment claims.)

The point is that these are not isolated incidents, but indicative of an intra-party atmosphere that is starkly inconsistent with the state’s justified reputation for “Minnesota Nice.”

For example, the 2010 GOP Secretary of State nominee, Dan Severson, recently said, “Quite often you hear people say, ‘What about separation of church and state?’ There is no such thing…I mean it just does not exist, and it does not exist in America for a purpose, because we are a Christian nation.”

Two-time GOP gubernatorial candidate and former state legislator Allen Quist made headlines during his 2010 run for congress when he stated, “Our country is being destroyed. Every generation has had to fight the fight for freedom… Terrorism? Yes. That’s not the big battle,” he said. “The big battle is in D.C. with the radicals. They aren’t liberals. They are radicals. Obama, Pelosi, [Democratic U.S. Congressman Tim] Walz: They’re not liberals, they’re radicals. They are destroying our country.” Liberals worse than terrorists? That’s the full Wingnut.

Likewise, conservative state senate-candidate Mike Parry was caught scrubbing his Twitter-feed in 2009, trying to erase these sort of patriotic statements: “read the exclusive on Mr O in Newsweek. He is a Power Hungry Arrogant Black Man.” Classy.

Very. And now we have a better idea of what causes Michele Bachmanns. We should have known what was coming when Jesse Ventura sneaked into the governorship.