They say all politics is local, which if it is true means the Republican Party may be digging itself a deep hole by engaging in some ugly purge tactics.

In the past few weeks two of my local state legislators have faced retaliation from their own party–the Republicans. The two have held their seats for over a decade, so they are anything but newcomers to the Party. Our district has traditionally ranked as a swing district, so their longevity has helped the GOP immensely. As they built seniority, they ascended to senior positions in the Republican legislative delegation. The local wisdom held that those seats were safely their for as long as they wanted them.

Policy-wise the two are solidly conservative. Last session, for example, one voted against an income tax increase, a sales tax to fund environmental and cultural programs, public funding of abortions, domestic partner benefits for State employees and a smoking ban. The other voted against the same measures except for the smoking ban. Suffice it to say, neither could remotely be termed a flaming liberal.

So what kind of trouble are they in? One representative recently announced she would not run again when party activists at a district convention opted to postpone her endorsement. The other was denied endorsement, although no one else was endorsed. Two other representatives fared less well, losing their endorsements. Two more face similar fates, but their conventions have not yet met. All six were stripped of their leadership posts. These actions can only be viewed not merely as punishment, but attempts to purge them from the ranks of Republican legislators.

What terrible sin did they commit to earn this treatment? Endorse Barack Obama? Speak out against the Iraq War? Urge that in the interest of equity the state should rely less on the property tax and more on the income tax? Come out in favor of abortion or gun control? Support more protections for the environment? Urge stronger measures for corporate malefactors? Ask for aid for those impacted by the mortgage crisis? Suggest more aid for schools and local governments? Recommend enlarging medical coverage for those who cannot afford it?

No, they did none of those things. What they did was to vote to override our Republican governor’s veto of an increase in the state gas tax–an increase designed to improve roads and bridges, like the one that fell into the Mississippi River. You know the one the bridge inspectors recommended by replaced. Here is exactly what The actual inspection document stated:

The long term plans for this river crossing need to be defined with replacement, redecking, etc. Due to the “Fracture Critical” configuration of the main river spans and the problematic “crossbeam” details, and fatigue cracking in the approach spans, eventual replacement of the entire structure would be preferable.

Even though that recommendation was on the governor’s desk last year, BEFORE the bridge collapsed he vetoed another transportation bill that provided for more highway funding via a gas tax.

Despite the serious question of whether our governor’s Scrooge-like attitude towards fixing our state’s highways and bridges may have contributed to what is now known across the country as the Minneapolis Bridge Disaster, Tim Pawlenty is being touted as a possible running mate for John McCain, for whom he has campaigned throughout the country, leaving the Governor’s mansion for places like New Hampshire. Oh yes, did I mention that the Republican convention will take place in Minnesota, in part because some people felt it might help Pawlenty’s chances to become VP?

Shortly after Pawlenty’s veto and a few days before the former Minnesota Speaker of the House pitched Pawlenty as McCain’s best Vice-President, state transportation officials closed a bridge in the regional center of St. Cloud because it showed serious defects. The St. Cloud bridge has the same design as the one in Minneapolis that fell into the river. The indefinite closing has also shut down a major state highway that uses the bridge to cross the Mississippi River.

The purge and the governor’s veto have their roots in a “no taxes” pledge that lobbyists prevailed upon all state Republicans to sign. The governor has been so serious about maintaining this pledge that he once insisted an increase in the cigarette tax was not a tax increase at all, but a “health impact fee.” Columnist Michael Novak has termed Pawlenty:

The most conservative Minnesota governor since Theodore “Tightwad Ted” Christianson in the 1920s.

“Tightwad” Ted, by the way, was an even more rigid-and quite frankly less intelligent–version of Herbert Hoover, who, like Hoover was kicked out of office when it became clear that being a tightwad was not the way to deal with the Great Depression.

Lurking behind all Pawlenty’s machinations is an even bigger machination. Pawlenty had designs on Paul Wellstone’s Senate seat, but a phone call from none other than Dick Cheney persuaded him not to run in favor of one Norm Coleman. So, in short, the GOP owes Tim Pawlenty.

Faced with the twin bulldozers of Pawlenty’s Vice-Presidential hopes and the rigid GOP stance against taxes, the two stalwart Republican legislators were plowed under for their votes to override the governor’s veto. That one of their reasons for doing this was to prevent any more falling bridges was lost on those for whom ideological rigidity matters more than people’s lives.

For several decades now what I have termed the Republican Counterrevolution has slowly purged those former moderates and liberals who did not support the Counterrevolution’s desire to return America to the Gilded Age of the 1890s. As a result people like former New York Mayor John Lindsay, Pennsylvania Governor John Lindsay and New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller have become extinct, looked upon by current Republicans as the political equivalent of the dodo bird.

But the Minnesota purge signifies something even more frightening: the Republican Party has become as rigid and nasty as, dare I say it, a certain Eastern European political party that made political purges a household word. This is a party that will tolerate no dissent, no disagreement with “fearless leader” whether Tim Pawlenty or George W. Bush.

The contrast between America’s two major political parties could not be more stark as we enter another election season. As Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama duel it out and the Democrats argue over everything from the Iraq War to health care, the Republicans purge anyone with even one dissenting vote. Ronald Reagan’s famous Eleventh Commandment has become a tool to enforce conformity.

While some may see the Minnesota Purge, as I term it, as merely a local aberration, I see it as something much more consequential and scary. If Dick Cheney will pick up the phone to urge Tim Pawlenty not to run against Norm Coleman, it is hard to believe that the Purge did not have the blessings of those higher up.

This provides a stark preview of the kind of America favored by the GOP–an America where dissent of any sort is discouraged and even punished. The Democrats may appear to many right now like a dysfunctional family, but even at its worst dysfunction is better than dictatorship.

This is nothing new for the Republicans. It dates back to early days of the Counterrevolution, when the 1964 Convention when delegates booed Nelson Rockefeller. It is also where where a Republican sergeant-at-arms hauled NBC correspondent John Chancellor off the floor, ostensibly for blocking the aisles. This precipitated Chancellor’s memorable comment:

It’s awfully hard to remain dignified at a time like this. This is John Chancellor, somewhere in custody.

This is the America we face if the Republicans again control the White House, an America where no deviation from the Party line is permitted and those who dare deviate are punished. This is more than groupthink, more than mere political discipline, it is nothing less than tyranny.

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