Minnesota's Bachmannization
John Avlon
The Daily Beast
As Michele Bachmann and Tim Pawlenty flirt with 2012 presidential runs, their home state's GOP is increasingly radicalized. John Avlon on how the swing state became wingnut territory.
Minnesota is a swing state, and its pendulum has swung heavily—from the liberal era of Humphrey and Mondale, past center-right figures like Norm Coleman, and right on to Tim Pawlenty and Michele Bachmann, now both exploring runs for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012.
“An embarrassment of riches for Minnesota,” is how Republican State Party Chairman Tony Sutton describes this prospect.
But plain embarrassment is likely to become the dominant emotion when the rightward gallop of the Minnesota GOP starts to come under national scrutiny.
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.
(More here.)
The Daily Beast
As Michele Bachmann and Tim Pawlenty flirt with 2012 presidential runs, their home state's GOP is increasingly radicalized. John Avlon on how the swing state became wingnut territory.
Minnesota is a swing state, and its pendulum has swung heavily—from the liberal era of Humphrey and Mondale, past center-right figures like Norm Coleman, and right on to Tim Pawlenty and Michele Bachmann, now both exploring runs for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012.
“An embarrassment of riches for Minnesota,” is how Republican State Party Chairman Tony Sutton describes this prospect.
But plain embarrassment is likely to become the dominant emotion when the rightward gallop of the Minnesota GOP starts to come under national scrutiny.
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.
(More here.)
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