To win we need to build a coalitions, not cults…

What the heck is this Outreach Officer doing, prattling off topic again? Well, our duties include bringing underrepresented groups into the party process, and those groups often have belief systems that complement but are subtly different than our own. Examples: An unemployed miner and an environmentalist may have different views on mining. A senior surviving on social security and a young minimum wage worker may have different views on the program’s funding. Then there’s the differences of opinion arising from our diverse demographics and geography- Due to the high cost of living in the metro counties a real minimum wage is around $20 an hour, while $13 an hour will provide the same standard of living in many of our rural counties. And while “big ag” had little use for the BWCA and it was successfully protected, we struggle to protect both our lakes and family farmers from “big ag” in rural southern and western Minnesota.

So it’s tempting for these diverse groups to get cult like, adopt their own extreme dogma, and demand that the rest of the party agree. But it takes big tents of DFLers to win elections, and the ideologically pure inhabitants of the “pup tents” seldom win a primary, never mind a general election. And while an extreme candidate can turn off a goodly lot of DFLers in urban districts where DFL candidates routinely get 70% of the vote and still win, out here in CD7 and in much of rural Minnesota where darn near half the voters are loyal republicans we win with mainstream candidates that carry our core DFL values to win the votes of DFLers and independents as well. The whole of our DFL party is greater than it’s parts, and wins elections too!

And if you want organize with a group of like minded DFLers, we got these neat groups called Constituency Caucuses. Join one, organize and advocate for your group or cause, and we’ll all be working together for victory come election time!