On caucus day, ten truths for conservative candidates

When you are sitting in your precinct caucus room tonight amongst fifteen or twenty of your neighbors, and the candidates for the state House and Senate races drop by to ask for your vote at your upcoming BPOU convention, try to determine whether they truly believe these time-tested truths:

1. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
2. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
3. You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.
4. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
5. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
6. You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
7. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
8. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
9. You cannot build character and courage by destroying men's initiative and independence.
10. And you cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.

—William John Henry Boetcker (1873–1962)

If not, either you went to the DFL caucus by mistake (this happened to me in 1992!), or you need to call or e-mail your BPOU leadership on Wednesday morning and ask for conservative replacements, or do some soul searching and run yourself, as a Republican or an independent. Current Republican and DFL leadership is transforming Minnesota into a cold Cuba, and we must elect a Legislature and Governor who will do something about it.