So, I was driving thru part of your fair state yesterday, interesting!

[liberalhistorian]

I live a little over an hour from the MN border and had to drive to Minneapolis and back this week, which is several hours from my home. All the rest areas were closed, of course, but the gas stations along the way (where I'd often have to stop to use the restroom) were telling me that their business had really been increasing the past week or so. People need to use the restroom, but then they don't want to leave without getting anything.

I was also heartened by how a lot of Minnesotans I talked to seemed to be "getting it" and were putting the blame where it belonged, on legislative republicans. The MN NPR station had some really interesting in-depth reports and they also reported on Dayton's meetings in St. Cloud and Rochester. People are particularly infuriated that many legislators are continuing to draw paychecks for not only doing nothing but at a time when 22,000 state workers are idled and receiving no paychecks. People were telling Dayton to hold firm and slamming repubs. None of the repub "spin" appears to be working. Repub legislators from the area where Dayton was holding meetings were also present and were getting an earful. There was one particular repub legislator at the St. Cloud meeting who really stepped in it. Dayton was at a senior center and many of those present were nearly in tears as they told Dayton how they relied on the state's safet net to have any kind of a life, and how they'd worked all their lives and deserved at least a bit of security in their older years and asking him to hold firm, that the wealthy can more than afford their fair share. This legislator then had the nerve, the unmitigated gall, to stand up there and claim that the wealthy were also feeling pinched and that it was hard on them also. Boos, hisses, catcalls, angry shouts. I can't believe how clueless and tone deaf that legislator was. Wow.

If that's how your repub legislators currently are, I'm wondering how they ever even got elected in MN. I sure hope Dayton holds firm. I wish we had a governor like that!