From what I gather, Ron Paul is doing pretty well in the cities (Minneapolis/St Paul metro area for you non-Minnesotans), but it's kind of rough outside the cities. I'm in Rochester and the enthusiasm level and number of people working hard for Paul is down significantly. All of the 07/08 crowd is burned out and there are only a small handful of us now. I'm not trying to be a downer, just reporting from MN.
I concur. Please don't take Minnesota for granted! It sounds like the Twin Cities are pro-Paul people, but I live about an hour outside of Bemidji, and Ron Paul isn't seen as electable. I get really tickled if I happen to see a Paul bumber sticker, or people wearing Paul shirts because it's such a rarity! In fact, I've only met three pro-Paul people in this area, and converting others is a real pain.
I don't want to sound harsh towards Minnesota's culture, because I love our backwards way of doing things, but it can be very hard to convert people. For one, the people around me are more like South Carolina Republicans than anything else. They would easily throw their conscience away and vote for someone morally reprehensible like Gingrich if they percieved that he could win. I think I've got one guy coming around to Paul (a retired man, 80% of residents where I live is retired), but he views him as weak against Obama when it comes to foreign policy.
Now, here's the hard part about converting people. The North Woods area of Minnesota is full of people of Scandinavian descent, so much so that the state is actually considered to be a Scandinavian subculture, and can be very hard-headed. In general, we in Minnesota don't engage in political debates very often. We talk politics around the breakfast table sometimes, but most of the time conversations go like this:
A: It's too bad that Bachmann woman dropped out, isn't it?
B: Well, I think I disagree there.
A: Oh ya? Okay.
Minnesotans, at least those in the rural areas, just won't elaborate on their disagreements! If you try and have a discussion, you're seen as confrontational. The best thing to do is just leave flyers everywhere and let people come to their own conclusions, because discussion is usually out of the question.
There, sorry for the rant, but I'm just feeling frustrated. I suppose we're lucky in that around 60% of the state's population actually lives in the Twin Cities, which sounds like it's embraced Paul, but it would be nice if I could see my own Hubbard County embrace him as well!
Not trying to be pessimistic, but we have a lot of work yet to do in Minnesota if you want people outside of Minneapolis and St. Paul to be voting for him. Biggest issue: electability and foreign policy. Overcome these and you'll have a lot more voters from Minnesota's more conservative, rural areas.
Minnesota is very liberal in the cities (guess how we got that moron Dayton for governor, and Franken in the senate), and is one of the highest taxing states in the nation, and is considered to be the most small business unfriendly state in America. However, rural Minnesota is very, very South Carolinai-ish.
EDIT: By the way, you're avatar is awesome! I'm trying to beat the game yet again and get all the sidequests completed this time.
Dose no one work there?
Just kidding. It's great to know that there is such enthusiasm in MN. Well done to everyone who's contributed to making it possible.
