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Minnesota Republicans will meet for a virtual state convention this weekend to endorse candidates for the U.S. Senate and U.S. House and to approve a party platform. Over the past half century, we have been to more of these state conventions than we might care to count. We wont be participants this year, though and not just because we werent invited.

Minnesota Republicans face a dilemma of both policy and politics. The politics first:

While the GOP continues to do well in local races in rural Minnesota, its statewide appeal has vanished. This isnt a new phenomenon. In the past 24 years, Republicans have won only three of 15 races for governor or U.S. senator. Thats quite a swing from the pre-Tea Party, pre-anti-government Republican Party of Minnesota.

Between 1978, when one of the authors of this commentary was elected to the Senate, and 1994, when Arne Carlson won his second term as governor, Republicans won two-thirds of the races for governor and U.S. Senate.

Today, the GOP increasingly is being written out of the states future. It isnt competitive in the urban centers and first-ring suburbs, and it is barely holding on in second- and third-ring communities. The largest and fastest-growing blocs of voters in the state more and more see the GOP as noncompetitive.

At best, the partys role now is to control a portion of state government and be the brakes on the DFL Party. Today its the state Senate, but will that still be true after the 2020 census documents the continuing population shift to the metro area?

And that brings us to the partys policy problem. At the end of World War II, Minnesota was in the lower tier of wealth among the nations states. In less than three decades, Minnesota earned the reputation as the state that works.

Yes, it was DFL Gov. Wendy Anderson who appeared on the 1973 cover of Time magazine promoting The Good Life In Minnesota but Republican ideas and innovation built much of the foundation, leading the way on everything from environmental protection to creating the states first human-rights department, from tax reform to government reform.

The Minnesota Republican Party was based back then on core values that put government in service to support and promote the incredible innovation and energy of Minnesotans, their businesses, and our philanthropic and faith communities. The GOP recognized that governments role should be limited but not missing in action. It should be a partner with individuals and families at the times in our lives when we are vulnerable.

And, government should be transparent in words and actions. Draining the swamp is an insult to voters when its accompanied by ethical abuses piled on corrupt and self-serving policies.

Those values have given way to blind allegiance to a president who has abandoned nearly every core principle that once defined the GOP. We believe that the re-election of Donald Trump would be disastrous for the country and ruinous for the Republican Party. For us, there is a positive alternative in Joe Biden and a vehicle for our support, the Lincoln Project (lincolnproject.us).

Biden isnt an anyone-but-Trump alternative. He is a positive choice to restore integrity and decency to the White House. Certainly, there are policy areas where we part ways with Biden and, like all of us, Biden has his personal flaws. But more than anything else, we believe he has the ability and commitment to rebuild trust between government and the people it serves. And nothing is more important to good government than the confidence of the governed.

The Lincoln Project, created by Republicans who are dismayed at what has become of our party, isnt a group of disaffected outsiders. Quite the contrary. Those who are coming to the Lincoln Project to support Biden have made the nonpartisan decision to put country first. As the mission of the group states, Electing Democrats who support the Constitution over Republicans who do not is a worthy effort. We agree.

Even as we work to defeat Trump, we hope that the Minnesota Republican Party will find its way back to its ethical and moral roots. We want a strong GOP in Minnesota, and we will continue to offer conservative policy proposals and support Republican candidates who are in the mold of those who in the past not only made the GOP the states dominant party but made Minnesota a dominant state.

So, sincere best wishes to those Republicans meeting online for their convention. We still count many of you as friends. And as friends, we offer our sincere hope that you will avoid the coronavirus that threatens us all and rise above the illness that afflicts our party.

Dave Durenberger is a former U.S. senator from Minnesota. Tom Horner is a public-relations executive who was the Independence Party candidate for governor in 2010.

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OPINION EXCHANGE | Minnesota Republicans, what are you going to do? - Minneapolis Star Tribune

Justin Amash is the current U.S. Representative for Michigan's 3rd congressional district. He was part of the Tea Party wave of Republicans elected in 2010. (I used to draw him as Sarah Palin back then.) He turned out to be a bit more substantive, earning a reputation for being thoughtful and deliberative, holding firm to his beliefs. Some would say (including many of his colleagues) too firm.

By 2019 he finally had enough of Trumpism and left the Republican Party, declaring himself independent. Recently, he aligned himself with the Libertarian Party and announced "the formation of an exploratory committee to seek its presidential nomination," which means he's now running for president.

Rep. Amash was one of the first national politicians to embrace social media as a means of communicating with his constituents, and he's about as transparent as you could hope for a lawmaker to be. Whether or not you like his politics, I think you have to respect him. Case in point, Amash recently had a series of tweets defining his position on state-level "stay-in-place" orders.

For example: Government cant know what is essential. Every human has the right to earn a living. We can live safely without edicts from the governor.

This aligns with Amash's libertarian views, so points for clarity and consistency. And points off for blind adherence to ideology in the face of a pandemic reality. But that all can be a discussion for another time. The things that really struck me about what Amash said is that (1) he makes a coherent point and (2) he manages to do it being a functional adult (no narcism, no threats, actual words, the whole shabang). Such a low, low bar, and yet it's thrilling to see somebody make it over!

John Auchter is a freelance political cartoonist. His views are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Michigan Radio, its management, or its license holder, the University of Michigan.

Michigan Radio listeners, readers, and reporters are rising to the challenge every day. If you can, please support essential journalism during this crisis.

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Auchter's Art: Whether or not you like Amash, you have to respect him - Michigan Radio

SaturdayMay16,2020at1:09PM

A serious fault line is developing in Randolph County, like the crooked line in Western California where the tectonic plates rip the Earth under communities. Our county is ripped apart by beliefs, by income status, by politics, by race and now by age.

Have you ever noticed where the lines are drawn between those who need to go back to work and those who are retiring?

As the cracks develop, the pandemic opens up enmity where we thought the surface was healed over. I want to speak about where the working healthy folks under 60 are opposed to the vulnerable aged people and dont want to talk about it.

I see it in the arguments among elected officials and more in the stores and around the restaurant take-out counters. Younger working adults with or without children are becoming more vehemently split against the older people who just happen to be the biggest group being killed by the C-virus. How do I know? Just go to a store in Randolph County and watch.

Two restaurants I have visited recently do not make their employees wear any gloves or masks and I assure you the many patrons circulating there to pick up food have no concern. No wonder theres no change in the infection number increase. Randolph County is the land of the brave and the foolish.

The American health care system relies on employer generosity and the fee for service model. Medicare waddles along behind taking advantage of the workers who are able to keep the system afloat. Specialists are doing well off of the latest procedures and medicines to keep the old people going into their 70s and 80s and comprises a huge percentage of those people with pre-existing conditions. Its the pre-existing conditions that make the coronavirus so effective among the elderly.

I have to wonder when the great loss of vulnerable people will be welcomed by the mega crowd and the cost-conscious Tea Party types. Oh yes, thats another division. Political pollsters are trying to figure the odds.

John C Miller

Randleman

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Randolph, home of the foolish and the brave - Opinion - Asheboro Courier Tribune

Marie Curies famous Blooming Great Tea Party is going virtual this year and the charity needs tea party hosts more than ever before to make up for the devastating effect the coronavirus crisis has had on the charitys income.

The end-of-life charity is calling on you to throw a Blooming Virtual Tea Party from home this summer.

"While staying indoors is the new normal, throwing a virtual tea party is a fun way to stay connected to the ones you love during this time and a great way to support nurses working on the frontline of the crisis," says popular TV hostess Mel Giedroyc on behalf of the charity.

In peoples homes across Scotland Marie Curie is caring for people with terminal illnesses, as well as people with Covid-19, and is protecting the NHS by keeping patients away from hospital.

However, as the charity has stepped up its support for the nation, its fundraising income has been devastated by the impact of lockdown measures it had to cancel its Great Daffodil Appeal in March and closed all its charity shops shortly after.

The charity needs to raise a quarter of a milllion pounds to fund its Scottish services.

That is why the charity and its celebrity ambassador, Mel Giedroyc, are encouraging everyone to connect virtually with friends and family while raising some money at the same time.

Cake lover and tea party extraordinaire, Mel says: You can bake it, fake it, brew it or stew it whatever your cup of tea, Marie Curies Blooming Great Tea Party is going virtual this year andits a simple way to keep in touch with your chums, while raising money for a wonderful cause, which, I think youll agree, we all need right now".

Marie Curie needs to raise a massive 2.5million each week to care for the tens of thousands of people who need its nursing and hospice care. This year, the amazing nurses and frontline staff need you more than ever, as the fundraising events they rely on have all been cancelled.

Ive met their nurses before. They are inspiring, kind, caring and loving people who are currently caring for people at the end of their lives and keeping people out of hospital,helping the NHS cope with the coronavirus crisis.

Every last crumb of the money you raise will help people at the end of their lives. So please join me by raising a cuppa, and some money, in your lounge or garden for the Marie Curie Nurses on the front line.

Vonnie Stevenson, community fundaiser, said: Our Blooming Great Tea Party looks a little different this year but I think everyone needs an excuse to meet up with their friends and family online of course and check in on the people they love. If you can do that while raising some money for Marie Curie, then your generous donations will enable us to help even more people at the end of their lives get the care they need in this time of uncertainty.

We rely on the support of the amazing public to ensure our nurses can keep caring for people. And while the coronavirus crisis has badly impacted our fundraising events, we hope by going virtual well be able to raise the vital funds we need to keep supporting people in our communities across the North of Scotland.

To register as a Blooming Virtual Tea Party host visit http://www.mariecurie.org.uk/teaparty or call 0800 716 146.

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In these testing times, your support is more important than ever. Thank you.

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Sutherland Marie Curie backers urged to take Blooming Great Tea Party online - Northern Times

Donald Trump, Jr., the Presidents eldest son, thinks that his father is getting a raw deal. In a recent appearance on Team Trump Onlinea nightly video series that serves as a substitute for campaign rallies and often attracts more than a million viewershe complained that his father is having to wage war against the deep-state guys and unchecked attacks from influencers on the other side. He said that each reporter at the White House briefings has an agenda, and that is to destroy Donald Trump. Joe Biden cant remember where he is fifty per cent of the time, Trump, Jr., said, but he can count on the media lackeys who are the marketing wing of the Democrat Party. The Democrats, he added, are becoming the party of socialism and communism. That includes Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaibyou know, the Hamas caucus in Congress. As for the COVID-19 outbreak, which has caused more than eighty thousand deaths in the U.S. to date, he said, China basically screwed the whole world.

Venom and victimization largely define the Presidents public persona, and the same holds true for the online campaign. Biden became the presumptive Democratic nominee in early March, and the COVID-19 pandemic put a halt to barnstorming a few weeks later, but the rhetoric of Trumps campaign has barely budged. On March 12th, as the coronavirus crisis was taking hold in the United States, it e-mailed its supporters a photograph of Trump, ruddy face fully made up, a flag pin in his lapel, sitting behind the Resolute desk in the Oval Office, looking steely. The e-mail said that there is no room for partisanship, and the President is calling on both parties in Congress to unite. The very next day, when Trump declared a national emergency, the campaign reverted to form, blasting Sleepy Joe and Crazy Bernie. Last weekend, after the Justice Department dropped its charges against Michael Flynn, Trumps former national-security adviser, who had twice pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I., the campaign crowed, in a fund-raising text, Justice for Gen Flynn! A WITCH HUNT from day 1! ALL GIFTS TRIPLED TO DRAIN THE SWAMP.

Anyone who has attended Trumps rallies, where thousands of fans in MAGA hats whoop and cheer at his insults and diatribes, can attest that the President, ever a showman, knows how to play to his target audiences. And, yet, as Biden edges into the lead in key states, such as Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Florida, pollsters and political strategists are questioning whether Trumps perennial pitch can carry him to victory on November 3rd. His political base is loyal but narrow. When Democrats scored heavily in the suburbs in the 2018 midterms, and captured a majority in the House of Representatives, it was women voters who made the difference. A recent Quinnipiac poll in Florida showed Trump lagging behind Biden among women, and also among two groups that delivered crucial support in 2016: voters over the age of sixty-five and voters who dislike both candidates. When I asked Douglas Schwartz, the director of the Quinnipiac poll, about the survey, he said that Biden does better among both groups on honesty, leadership, and empathy. These numbers are a warning sign for his campaign, Schwartz said of the President.

The Trump campaign brags about an army of field organizers, the cell-phone numbers of tens of millions of supporters, and a new app that connects voters to news, virtual events, and volunteer opportunities, from fund-raising to voter registration. Each is a significant upgrade from Trumps 2016 effort, which relied on his outsized personality, his televised rallies, and the power of social media. The current operation, led by Brad Parscale, who ran Trumps successful Facebook marketing campaign in 2016, has raised more than seven hundred and thirty million dollars. In cash-on-hand, Biden lags tens of millions of dollars behind. Its not like a campaign of grievance and anger and fear hasnt been a pillar of American politics since there was an American politics, Cornell Belcher, a Democratic pollster who worked on Barack Obamas Presidential campaigns, said. Thats exactly how Trump won. Republicans are right to be worried, Belcher added, but even as Trump struggles to expand his base COVID-19 and the plunging economy are making predictions difficult. Given that environment, where people are afraid and anxiousand understandably socan you count out a candidate peddling grievance and fear?

In hundreds of different versions of its standard pitch, Trumps campaign complains, boasts, and beseeches. The President, his surrogates, and the campaign staff spray a familiar buckshot of belittling nicknames and insults at a cast that includes Sleepy Joe, Crazy Bernie, and Crooked Hillary, who were recently joined by Cheatin Obama. An e-mail on Monday, targeting Biden, asked supporters to show the Left that you REJECT their corrupt candidate, while one on Friday called Biden a certified CROOK. During a recent Team Trump Online broadcast, Parscale bragged about a roll of Hillary Clinton toilet paper that I use every time Im in a bad mood. I have boxes of it, and I take it into the bathroom, and its just enjoyable.

Another regular target is the Lamestream media, the enemy of the people, ever in cahoots with the Radical Left-wing MOB. Together, Trump warned in an e-mail earlier this year, these elements are pushing a non-stop propaganda campaign of LIES to try and destroy me. With nary a mention of his own wealthy backers, Trump slams the establishment, along with the Hollywood elite and foreign enemies, declaring, in one solicitation, They all HATE you, and thats why they want to steal your vote. Its US against THEM. The April 27th Team Trump Online session was led by Katrina Pierson, a former Tea Party activist, whose guests included Representative Dan Crenshaw, a military veteran from Texas. She described Barack Obama as a faint-hearted Commander-in-Chief, while Crenshaw told viewers that Democrats will lie through their teeth. Theyre doing it all the time.

In its texts and e-mails, the campaign seeks donations and valuable voter contact information by offering a steady supply of Trump-branded merchandise, from football jerseys, Christmas ornaments, and doormats to plastic straws, a swipe at liberal locales that have been banning them to help the environment. The offers have continued unabated during the COVID-19 crisis. Last Saturday, the campaign wrote supporters to say Trump knows that recent weeks have been extremely difficult for Americans from all across the Nation. The e-mail said that the President is grateful for your unwavering support and wants to do something special for you to show how much your loyalty means to him. The message continued, Hes asked us to give you EXCLUSIVE ACCESS to get our Official Trump-Pence Pint Glasses. The cost for a set: thirty-one dollars. But, we have an extremely limited supply, so we can only hold them until 11:59 PM TONIGHT.

I asked David Sable, the former head of the marketing agency Y. & R., to assess the Trump campaign as a marketing effort. His base loves it, said Sable, who explained that Trump has brand power derived from what he called the brand experience, which is part show, part substance. The key is to get those people to recruit other people. If you can do that, youre way ahead of the game. Thats basically the way the guy operates, Sable said. According to Sable, Trumps team, to its credit, understands simplicity. The Make America Great Again message, in 2016, was straightforward, and so is the Keep America Great message in 2020, according to Sable: At the end of the day, Ive done a great job, I will continue to do a great job, and I will fix this to get back to the great job I was doing.

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The Trump Campaign Brings Its Angry Tone to the Coronavirus Era - The New Yorker