In a little over a month from now, thousands of Republicans will gather in the beautiful city of Minneapolis-St. Paul. From the party faithful to the party elite to the wealthy backers, hob nobbing, networking and more mundane issues like party platform will be hammered out (still important though). They'll all have a great time and cheer themselves on, but one thing that would be surprising if mentioned would be the tragic anniversary that the city of Minneapolis is remembering today.
From The Politico:
It’s a year today since the Minneapolis bridge collapse that killed 13 people, but don’t expect Gov. Tim Pawlenty to showcase the reconstruction.
Indeed, with the Republican National Convention in St. Paul just a month away and Pawlenty reported to be high on John McCain’s running mate list, Republicans want to drive attention away from the infrastructure disaster that spotlighted the nation’s crumbling bridges and from the criticism the governor faced for what some critics said was a slow response.
The governor’s staff reports there are no plans to hold any events near the site of the bridge collapse, about 10 miles from the convention hall. And GOP convention planners have organized hundreds of buses to ease the congestion expected when some 45,000 conventioneers, guests and media commute to the hall.
Pawlenty claims the two aren't related, but to callously dismiss the connection is telling of a party that cares more about itself and less about the health of our nation. In fact, it goes straight to the core of why the Republican party needs to be walloped in this year's election. See, maintaining infrastructure takes money and a competent government that will fix and repair old bridges. Like one speaker or at least prominent attendee at the upcoming RNC once said, “My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.”
Dead governments can't fix our infrastructure....and don't think that privatizing every road, bridge and tunnel will do the trick either.
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