One of my heroes, John Milton (the poet and titan of English literature — not the former State Senator) loved a good fight. Not the kind of "fight" that now gets canned into 3-D, high graffic, testosterone fests for bored teenagers with high-speed internet access. No, real — and passionate — fights over ideas at a time in history when sticking your neck out could literally get your head lopped off.
"I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue," he wrote, "unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and seeks her adversary, but slinks out of the race where that immortal garland (the truth) is to be run for, not without dust and heat."
If you really believe something to be true, Milton showed by example, as well as word, you owe it to that truth to "put it out there" and defend it against all comers. Only by way of this kind of trial, he believed, could real truth ever be discovered.
Milton would certainly have shared my contempt for the current spinelessness being shown by DFLers in Minnesota on the question of taxes.
My DFL friends would have me believe that theirs is the compassionate party, the party that knows how to use government not only to give us the services we need and want, but to help up those who cannot help themselves. They've been complaining — quietly and ineffectively — for years that we Republicans have choked off the good that government should be doing by leaving so much tax money in the hands of the citizens. DFLers have timidly suggested that we have hurt ourselves in Minnesota by not taxing ourselves more.
This is an odd, but interesting, idea that is not being robustly advocated or defended. Just where is the DFL leadership who, you would think, would be "out there" passionately advancing the argument for why we need significant tax and spending increases?
As far as anyone can tell, they're sitting in offices blowing up more trial balloons to test public sentiment before they can figure out whether they're supposed to be believing anything.
What they need to be doing is passionately making their case. You don't do that by coming to the table with spending bills lower than the Governor's. Tim Pawlenty may appreciate being made to look like a moderate a year before he's a possible VP candidate, but you've lost the argument before it's begun by suggesting such a budget is even possible for a Democrat.
If John Milton were a consultant for my DFL friends today, I think the advice he would give is this: If you really believe a $5 billion dollar tax increase is what you need, don't hesitate. Demand it, do it and defend it. With passion.
Or, expect that Republicans and the voting public won't believe you're interested in anything other than the perks of getting reelected. And the truth? We all know that still belongs to the Republicans.
"I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue," he wrote, "unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and seeks her adversary, but slinks out of the race where that immortal garland (the truth) is to be run for, not without dust and heat."
If you really believe something to be true, Milton showed by example, as well as word, you owe it to that truth to "put it out there" and defend it against all comers. Only by way of this kind of trial, he believed, could real truth ever be discovered.
Milton would certainly have shared my contempt for the current spinelessness being shown by DFLers in Minnesota on the question of taxes.
My DFL friends would have me believe that theirs is the compassionate party, the party that knows how to use government not only to give us the services we need and want, but to help up those who cannot help themselves. They've been complaining — quietly and ineffectively — for years that we Republicans have choked off the good that government should be doing by leaving so much tax money in the hands of the citizens. DFLers have timidly suggested that we have hurt ourselves in Minnesota by not taxing ourselves more.
This is an odd, but interesting, idea that is not being robustly advocated or defended. Just where is the DFL leadership who, you would think, would be "out there" passionately advancing the argument for why we need significant tax and spending increases?
As far as anyone can tell, they're sitting in offices blowing up more trial balloons to test public sentiment before they can figure out whether they're supposed to be believing anything.
What they need to be doing is passionately making their case. You don't do that by coming to the table with spending bills lower than the Governor's. Tim Pawlenty may appreciate being made to look like a moderate a year before he's a possible VP candidate, but you've lost the argument before it's begun by suggesting such a budget is even possible for a Democrat.
If John Milton were a consultant for my DFL friends today, I think the advice he would give is this: If you really believe a $5 billion dollar tax increase is what you need, don't hesitate. Demand it, do it and defend it. With passion.
Or, expect that Republicans and the voting public won't believe you're interested in anything other than the perks of getting reelected. And the truth? We all know that still belongs to the Republicans.