I'm gonna work damn hard.

I feel helpless. Moreorless. Because my congresswoman is Michelle Bachmann. A right-wing wacko. No sense in writing to her. We are worlds apart. I don’t understand how she gets elected. And even re-elected. I’ve thought of Minnesota as a fairly liberal state. But apparently that doesn’t apply to my relatively affluent district. We keep electing Republicans. Even those on the lunatic fringe. Of course, I’m seen as a lunatic on the other end. A liberal. A socialist sympathizer. A Marxist. Afterall, I did visit Karl Marx’s birthplace when I was last in Germany. And I thought he had a keen mind. For his day, at least. Anyway, I’m convinced that we Americans, including Minnesotans, are capable of electing a wide range of characters to Congress. One of our senators is Al Franken, a liberal and a satirist. But we also elect the Michelle Bachmanns. In a sense, it’s easy to get elected in Minnesota. No matter how extreme one might be. Take me, for instance. I once was elected to the local school board. So why not a Michelle Bachmann to Congress? But hey, our mistakes can be corrected. I’m gonna work damn hard this fall to make my vote count. And it won’t be for Bachmann. –Jim Broede