If the People Won't Come to Minneapolis, Minneapolis Will Come to the People

From the City Journal, a profile of New Jersey and the escalating urban pathologies exacerbated by one party (Democratic) rule:

Aided by the courts and the vast expansion of budgets during the flush 1990s, New Jersey's tax eaters have little by little created a full-fledged example of the kind of regional government that the Left touts these days - a government that forces businesses and residents who have fled the dysfunction of the cities to pay the tab for those urban problems, whether they like it or not.

That last part could be the winning campaign slogan for the Minneapolis DFL. From the Star Tribune, Mayor RT Rybak commenting on how he plans to get tough on the escalating crime rate in his city:

Last summer Rybak said, "Minneapolis is a safe city for those not involved in high-risk lifestyles."

In a recent interview, Rybak said, "My point at that time was attacking some of the core issues behind those issues, especially gangs, drugs and guns. I still believe that. I also have been focused on repeat offenders. We also need partners beyond the city limits."

Suburbs across the region ought to have air raid sirens go off any time a DFL politician mentions the word "partner" (except when referencing their admiration for Brokeback Mountain). Because these "partnerships" manifest themselves like this:

Gov. Tim Pawlenty recently agreed to put $2 million into [Minneapolis] police salaries for summer, when crime typically rises.

Yes, "partners." Those people who choose not to live in Minneapolis and won't open businesses there because they disagree with the governing culture's approach to things like taxes and crime and regulation. According to Rybak, those are the exact people that need to help Minneapolis pay for things like their problems with taxes and crime and regulation.

This is how dysfunctional political systems (and politicians) endure. Instead of allowing them to fail on their own momentum and forcing the citizens to experience the consequences of supporting them, someone else comes in (or is dragged in) to bail them out. So, instead of the Mayor and City Council being held accountable by the voters for not having enough money to pay for the police they need (and from having to ask themselves why crime is so high in their city in the first place), they can go merrily on spending millions on priorities such as grass covered city hall roofs and baseball stadiums and enforcing smoking bans and the Kyoto Protocol (not to mention having a genuine culture of corruption) with zero electoral consequences.

It is a law of economics, what you subsidize, you get more of. And it looks like the Twin Cities is going to have surplus of RT Rybak and Minneapolis liberalism for a long time to come.

All things considered, we'd be better off taking the advice of the Nihilst in Golf Pants.