Stop Making Excuses for the Failures of the Democratic-NPL
MINOT, N.D. — Tuesday brought news of yet another ballot drubbing for the North Dakota Democratic-NPL.
Democrats lost every single statewide race in a landslide Nov. 3 and saw their legislative minorities shrink down to levels not even NDGOP campaign operatives thought were possible.
Democrats have seven seats in the Senate.
That’s barely enough to field a basketball team, let alone cover the various committee assignments that make up the bulk of a lawmaker’s work.
This renewed electoral cataclysm also inspired yet another round of excuse-making for the Democratic-NPL. My colleague Adam Willis went to a bunch of political science academics so that they could dust off the same tired old shibboleths they always say when asked why Democrats can’t seem to win in North Dakota.
It’s the toxicity of the national Democratic brand in rural areas, they tell us.
It’s the rise of the conservative-leaning oil industry in the state, they say.
UND political science professor Mark Jendrysik even tried to suggest that North Dakota is too old to vote Democrat, making me wonder if this guy is even paying attention. Willis wrote: “An aging population, combined with an influx of conservative voters from the oil boom, has contributed to a more homogeneous electorate in North Dakota in the last 10 years, Jendrysik argued.”
Aging population? The oil boom made North Dakota younger.
