October 2021 Newsletter
Dear Mom
by Al Brown
I’m tickled you’re getting your COVID booster. I’ll get mine soon.
Still makes me a little crazy that tens of millions of Americans are putting the rest of us at risk by refusing to get the first vaccine shot. I agree with you – I don’t understand.
You’ve got billions of people across the globe literally dying to get a shot, and people here are dying of COVID because they refuse to do the right thing.
I remember trying to convince Aunt Zelda that Elvis was really dead. No one was going to make her believe ole Hunka Hunka Burnin Love was dead when the National Enquirer said otherwise. At least refusing to believe in the King’s demise didn’t get you a plot in Graceland.
I also don’t get how any party – Democrat or Republican – could vote to bury the economy after a pandemic-fueled recession. Ole Mitch McConnell seems determined to do just that by not raising the debt ceiling after he and Donnie Trumpano upped the debt by almost 8 trillion.
I’d like to ask Mitch and his GOP colleagues how government and rule of law works when lies rule.
It doesn’t. The mob boss rules.
I guess that’s what Mitch is after – a return of the mob and ole Donnie Trumpano. One failed coup wasn’t enough. They’ll wreck the economy to keep the moaning mango happy.
As President Joe, Bernie, Chuck and Nancy work with Democrats and Independents to represent a functioning Democracy, he stands firm with the eight senators and 139 representatives who voted to overturn the 2020 election – 147 legislators who should have been thrown out on their backsides.
As Democrats and Independents work to pass Infrastructure and Build Back Better to improve the lives of working-class Americans, I can’t help but think back to a pre-COVID story of a couple of teachers whose car was totaled in front of their house in 2019. They were among the 40% of American who didn’t have $400 in savings for an emergency.
Both worked fulltime. More than fulltime. They worked extra jobs. Put off dreams and ambitions. They made it work until their car was totaled. Credit was maxed. Car had to get fixed, and they had no place to go. It was just a matter of what bills wouldn’t get paid. How far deeper into the hole they would go.
Dreams die that way.
When too many dreams die, innovation does as well.
We compete in a global marketplace of goods and ideas that depend on innovation.
I know you don’t follow the stock market, but I do. My condo costs more than your apartment – I’m spoiled, I know. Without my 401k, I’ll be looking for one fancy pup tent. I watched as China’s Evergrande collapse threatened my 401k and the markets worldwide last week.
We may fuss and fight with China, but we are joined at the hip financially. We owe them more money than Trumpano owes Deutsche Bank.
My point is that Building Back Better and infrastructure isn’t socialism, it’s survival.
China’s Evergrande didn’t collapse. The markets recovered when its banker, the Chinese government, stepped in. That’s a real difference in government. It’s called communism. No one has to work together in China. What Xi Jinping does bounces around the globe and hits us the next morning. No missile, just a balance sheet.
If we ignore this opportunity to Build Back Better, we’ll look back 10 years from now when your great-grandson graduates from high school to find that we are the cheap labor for the Xi’s and China’s technology.
China and Europe and every other country around the globe will ignore the lies coming from Trumpano and Rudy and a GOP arguing that UFOs start forest fires. Just like we ignored the nonsense coming out of authoritarian governments decades earlier.
Democrats must pass this legislation regardless of our differences – for the sake of the present and the future. Despite the Mob Boss hoping desperately to once again launch missiles while eating chocolate cake at his country club.
More than roads will crumble if Democrats fail.
Love you,
Your Democratic son
POLITICAL UPDATE: FEDERAL AND STATE
Jim Hagedorn voted this week to shut down the government and to let the U.S. government default on its debt. Can he get any worse? There is a lot of drama right now about the “smaller” (it’s only 1 trillion!) infrastructure bill that passed the Senate and is awaiting action in the House and the Build Back Better bill, which is the $3.5 trillion billion reconciliation bill containing many of the Biden administration priorities. House and Senate Progressive don’t want the former passed until the latter also goes through for fear some more conservative Democrats in the House or Senators Manchin and Sinema torpedo the bigger bill. This should be resolved soon. Senators Klobuchar and Smith have been standing with most of the Senate Democrats in supporting both bills.
Tim Walz has not yet announced he will be running for re-election next year and has not committed to running with Peggy Flanagan as Lieutenant Governor. Secretary of State Steve Simon and Auditor Julie Blaha have announced they are running for re-election. The working group set up to figure out how to allot $250 million in bonuses to essential workers in the pandemic hasn’t yet come up with a plan, even though its goal was to have a plan by Labor Day. Even when it comes up with a plan, Governor Walz is not willing to call a special session of the Legislature to put that plan into law unless Senate Republicans agree not to kick any of his commissioners out of office, which they have not been willing to do. Senator Jeremy Miller from Winona was elected Majority Leader by Republicans, replacing Paul Gazelka, who stepped down to free up time for his run for Governor. Senator Melisa Lopez Franzen from Edina was elected Minority Leader after Susan Kent stepped down from that position.
SENATE DISTRICT 26 DFL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETS OCTOBER 11
Our next Executive Committee virtual meeting will be Monday, October 11 from 7-8:30 PM on Zoom. DFL meetings are public, so if you want to “attend”, contact the Chair at mark.liebow@gmail.com. We will hear officer reports and continue planning for precinct caucuses and our 2022 convention.
We are looking for a Vice Chair and for four Directors, three of which must be filled by people who live in House District 26B. The Vice-Chair and two Director positions must be filled by people not identifying as male. Please contact the Chair at mark.liebow@gmail.com if you’re interested in running for one of these positions.
DONATE TO SENATE DISTRICT 26 DFL AND YOU COULD GET IT BACK
Not everyone will be able to donate right now, but if you can, we need your help to make the DFL a bigger presence in Rochester. We have a year-round office, which is expensive, but is crucial in a battleground area like Rochester. While one-time donations are welcome, we especially need monthly donations. We don’t get money from the national Democratic Party. The state DFL only contributes $500 a month, less than 1/3 of our rent. We rely on our local supporters to keep us going and to get the DFL message out. We need the money and you want an active DFL. If you give, there will still be an office for DFL events and meetings when those are possible soon, DFL participation in events and parades that require entry fees, technology that makes the DFL work better, and outreach into underrepresented communities.
Donate to Senate District 26 DFL and you can get up to $50/person or $100 per married couple back from the state of Minnesota if you are eligible to vote in Minnesota. Do it now. Make your donation via ActBlue (https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/senate-district-26-dfl-party-1?refcode=sd2). If you prefer to write a check, make it payable to Senate District 26 DFL and send it to:
P.O. Box 9044
Rochester, MN 55903-9044
After you send us a donation, we’ll send you a receipt. Send the receipt and the form needed to claim the reimbursement (https://www.revenue.state.mn.us/media/59866) to
Minnesota Revenue Political Contribution Refund
St. Paul, MN 55146-1800.
File a claim and you’ll get a check back in a few weeks.
If you send a check, please include whether you are retired, self-employed or employed. If employed, include the name of your employer and your job title. The Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board requires us to collect that information. If you use Act Blue, the appropriate information is collected.
KEEP UP ON WHAT’S HAPPENING POLITICALLY WITH FREE EMAILS
The Minnesota DFL has several free email publications:
Weekdays-In The Know-A news digest divided by topic.
Mondays-DFL Party Monday Memo- Talking points about current issues and key “stories to share”
Wednesdays-DFL Toolkit- Key stories with suggested social media posts and graphics
Fridays-DFL Dispatch- Newsletter with a deeper dive into some topics, some within the DFL
To subscribe, email Brian Evans (bevans@dfl.org) and let him know which publications to which you want to subscribe.
ROCHESTER DFL OFFICE
The office, at 1500 1st Ave, Suite A, in Rochester does not currently have scheduled office hours. We monitor telephone messages regularly. If you have a question or concern, call us at 507-536-9785 and we will get back to you.
SD26mn.dfl@gmail.com AND OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA
This is a monthly newsletter. However, events often happen on short notice, so we may not be able to include them in the newsletter. Check our website and Facebook pages for the latest news.
Official communications come from SD DFL (though the full address is above). Watch for them.
We tweet from @sd26dfl and have a website at www.senatedistrict26dfl.com
We have a closed Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/144866495637545/
We share an open Facebook page with Olmsted-25 DFL and Senate District 25 at
https://www.facebook.com/sd26sd25olm25/?fref=ts
Our Instagram account is at dflsenatedistrict26.
Our office is unstaffed for now because of the pandemic but you can leave a message at 507-536-9785. We are monitoring the messages.
The Minnesota DFL’s website is at www.dfl.org. If you go there, click on the I am a … and choose Voter, you can enter your address and find out how your DFL elected officials are. If you click on Click here to join in the Senate District 26 box, it will take you to a secondary website that is currently out-of-date, but should be synchronized with our primary website soon.
The 1st Congressional District DFL also has a website at https://www.dflcd1.org/
