Fixed Ideas Lead to Government Gridlock

05/20/2005

Paul Munnis

In our reading of American and European literature we have been somewhat fascinated by the concept of literary characters with closed minds, people who have fixed ideas that cause a shut-down of their mind that closes reasoning and results in a hardening of position and an unwillingness to reconsider the facts in a new light.

In some cases the dogged pursuit of an intuition centric but highly experienced person leads to heroics; yet in much of the literature that I have read such a mind-set often leads to disaster. For that to happen in most plot lines, one character or group closes their minds while others are keeping their mind open in a dogged pursuit of truth. Thus is the tension of the plot formed from this opposition between the two forces of reason and non-reason.

In such literature there is a fine line drawn between vigorous fact finding as a predicate to making up ones mind, and premature hardening of positions or close mindedness. The case for vigorous fact finding is lauded whereas premature hardening of a position shows a lack of industry, a sort of intellectual laziness, thus leading to disaster.

Here in Minnesota government we have real live cases of closed mindedness playing itself out.

On transportation for example, we have a House and a Senate able to come to terms because of their open mindedness, versus a Governor who has a fixed idea and who has vetoed the bi-partisan Transportation Bill that the House and Senate have converged upon. The legislation contained some technical flaws and the Governor’s Office didn’t even point them out to the Legislature before the vote, another failure of leadership.

This is the situation in a State that is 25 years behind meeting our needs in transportation investment in highway and bridge infrastructure. This results in a predictable outcome with the Governor accused of being an obstructionist.

The Governor has resorted to name calling as his defense, a sign of a closed mind refusing to consider other viable input. Indeed when you call people who disagree with you “stupid,” you are basically saying that you do not respect their opinion and that you have a closed mind on the subject at hand. You substitute personal judgment for informed judgment. That may work okay for a theologian dishing out a dose of faith based dogma but it is not a good character trait in a governor of a State, the head politician, and the statesman for the people of that State. The Governor is expected to be open-minded and to work for the public interest.

On our State biennium budget we are also seeing a Governor who has offered gaming expansion as his budget solution. When it became apparent that the rest of the government ruling body and much of the populace of Minnesota, oppose the gambling option that was proposed, then the Governor refused to change his position. Indeed, he has hardened and closed his mind and has reverted to calling people “stupid,” who do not agree with him. The Senate and the House then went on to create separate solutions that are at odds with each other but are reflecting the priorities as they see them. The Governor refuses to open his mind to negotiation and compromise and more important to exhibit a statesman’s ability to reconcile the warring groups. In fact, he has set himself as a third warring party at odds with the other two groups. That is far from statesman-like and this guarantees gridlock in government as a result.

The heavy in all of this is our Governor who exhibits a closed mind in most of his policy matters. In all fairness, the House and Senate have done their jobs. It is time now for compromise and leadership and it is lacking at the Governor office.

Governor Pawlenty governs in a culture that respects political open mindedness, flexibility, and statesmanship-like behavior leading to compromise that is in the best interest of the majority of the people of our state. Yet, our governor does not exhibit these traits. When he ran for Governor, he made a “No New Taxes Pledge,” a signal of a closed mind. Since then Governor Pawlenty has ignored inputs that he is receiving concerning state needs and priorities and he has stuck to his fixed ideas. Both Democrats and Republicans look at his behavior, recognize his closed mind-set for what it is, and insist on moving on and thus leaving him behind. The Governor is stuck with his fixed ideas that he cannot moderate. He is a victim of his own closed-mindedness.

We have gridlock in our state government again and the culprit is the Governor of Minnesota. Can we project the likely outcome of this? Yes, and if we maintain truth and face reality when we enter our voting booth then it appears that the inflexible mind of the Governor will lose due to an inability to adapt to the realities of the needs of the people of Minnesota.

This erring Governor now plans to manipulate the press and to obscure the facts in the case by name-calling and other emotional appeals but it is unlikely that Minnesota will let him off quite so easily. Minnesotans start most examinations and inquiries with a review of the facts.

Minnesota needs a budget, we need transportation investment, we need to act responsibly and morally towards the poor and disadvantaged, and we need to act intelligently in our determination of how we do those things. A condition of closed-mindedness is not a good character trait in a Governor, especially in Minnesota. The results are a disaster.