This link.
First, I am not a long-time Minnesota resident, but having been here since the late 1990's I now have decades in State. Second, my feelings are partisan, although the DFL, as it is, is hardly my vision of the ideal way to run a State.
That said, and all the things in the article and comments in balance, I would say contrast Senjum and Thissen.
That says a lot about things. Pawlenty was not much help in raising the quality bar.
And then there was Bachmann replacing Laidig. A clear GOP swan dive toward the lowest level of things. That poster child situation is an immense indicator of a drop in quality, the embracing of second and third rate as good.
Add to that the fact that the most insightful coverage of the Koch-Brodkorb purge was by Janacek, a GOP-leaning volunteer journalist, on the web; with the two statewide print dailies taking a vacation and mailing it in on anything like analysis of actual motives and alliance factors-factions, gambling policy, etc. Then with that is it any wonder that voters are swayed by sound-byte negative ads of fifteen seconds to a minute duration, broadcast during televised football games interspersed with beer and truck advertising and State Farm trying to tell you they are responsive to policy holders? So, is a legislative quality decline merely representative of a parallel decline in the population and its willingness to read and reach deep thoughts? Is it related to a parallel decline in other hubs of information and opinion formation and argument? Last, who benefits most by dumbing things down and stoking partisanship?
