MNGOP's class warfare for dummies: Waseca voter tells Mike Parry he's wrong about Dayton

Last weekend, the Mankato Free Press was first to publish State Senator Mike Parry's incendiary call for Governor Mark Dayton to resign:

“The guy should resign,” said Parry, a Republican business-owner serving his second year in the Senate. “He should resign as governor and let (Lt. Gov.) Yvonne Prettner Solon finish out his term because he’s shown to me that he doesn’t care about the state of Minnesota.”

Parry said Dayton is willing to use state workers as political pawns in budget negotiations because he simply doesn’t care about them.

“Let me tell you, the governor has no feelings,” Parry said. “If he did, he would not put 22,000 people out of work on July 1. He has no feelings. ... The shutdown doesn’t bother him at all. He gets his trust fund.” . . .

Yesterday, Parry upped the ante by tweeting something snarky about the gardener at the governor's residence--never mind that the public employee is laid-off and going without a paycheck, while Parry collects his own state salary.

Saturday's tweets by Parry parallel a talking point tweeted and tweeted and tweeted by Senate Majority Leader Michael Brodkorb--presumably with the approval of The Not-Brodkorb leader, Amy Koch--about the residence's chef remaining at work. Never mind that Governor Dayton himself is paying the man's salary out of his own pocket.

Apparently, today's Republican Party of Minnesota thinks this is ballot box gold: fixating on presumed class snobbery of having a chef (even though a chef worked at the residency while the Pawlenty family lived there), then linking the cook's job title to Dayton's presumed lifestyle as "a trust fund baby."

It's intended to appeal to class resentment, a sort of Class Warfare for Dummies. Never mind that the MNGOP is the side that wishes to preserve a status quo in which the higher rate payers enjoy a lower tax burden than Minnesota's middle class.

Ron Purcell is having none of it. In Mike Parry is wrong about Mark Dayton, a letter to the editor of the Mankato Free Press, the Waseca resident writes:

Here I was with friends, drinking my coffee, solving all the world’s problems at Out to Lunch, where you recall, we have had some very lively political discussions. I even agreed with some of Mike Parry’s views.

Then I read in The Free Press a couple of statements Parry made. Why did he go and badmouth the governor, for whom a whole lot of people voted, including me?

Parry said he should quit. But, heck, he’s the only one standing between Parry’s bosses and the savaging of the average income and the poor and needy Minnesotans.

Parry is wrong about Dayton.

Dayton is rich, but he is good. He is compassionate, honest. He is trying, and I am sure he really does like all of us. He wants to have the rich pay only the same percentage of their income as the percentage we poor people pay. I cannot see what is wrong with that.

I would like to point out to both parties that getting the additional revenue needed by assessing fees, delaying payments and other such smoke-and-mirrors games are the same as raising taxes. Besides, it’s sneaky.

Parry is right about one thing. Unless you guys and girls, all of you, start to get along better than rowdy first-graders, there will have to be some changes made. According to the latest polls, it won’t be Gov. Dayton.

Politicians, regardless of their position, are just people. They may talk good and know a lot of big words, but they all put their pants or dresses on the same way as most of us.

They were all elected to serve all of the people.

Take care, Parry, and as far as I am concerned, you are still welcome at our coffee table.

On Saturday, the editorial board of the Free Press called Parry out for his crack in Parry commentary wasn’t helpful; earlier in the week, in Will serious lawmakers please step up?, the editors of the Rochester Post Bulletin recommended that Parry put down his phone, head to the lake, and count trees, since this sort of talk does nothing to solve the shutdown and the revenue crisis.

Update: At Minnpost, Doug Grow pimps a "rural values" meme about Mike Parry that Minnpost's urban readership will no doubt find comforting in GOP hardliner Sen. Mike Parry not afraid to tweet what he believes. And that should settle settle the question for the Twin Cities political press corps, regardless of what Ron Purcell, Southern Minnesota editorial boards, or anyone else who actually lives here says about what our values might be. Because no one knows rural values like Doug Grow.

Image: MNGOP Class Warfare For Dummies, by Tild. The quotation in the class warrior's speech balloon is a comment by Representative Mary Kiffmeyer-- learn more here and here.

The Emo Senator cont'd: rocking chairs, resignations, and a retreat to retweets

Thumbs down, Emo senator: "Parry commentary wasn’t helpful"; turn off phone, go count trees

Emo senator, part 3: Mike Parry collecting paycheck and per diem during shutdown

The Emo Senator, part 2: Mike Parry cries crocodile tears over laid-off state workers

The Emo Senator: Mike Parry calls for Governor Dayton's resignation, cites feelings, trust fund

Suddenly socialist Mike Parry demands pay according to his needs