La Ville, C'est Moi - revisited

For today's entertainment, we have a letter/opinion piece from Erik Hjelle in the Maplewood-Ramsey County Review (hat tip to www.savemaplewood.com for spotting it).

To be honest, the headline provided by the editor (“Criticism of council 'un-American'”) seems a bit unfair at first glance. What Hjelle actually states is “Attacking our form of government and attempting to negate the will of the people is improper, unjust and un-American.”

Ironically, many critics of the new council (this blog included) contend that a big part of the new council's problem is that they have been attacking our form of government – circumventing or undermining the structure of Plan B government, violating the open meeting law by planning their actions as a threesome outside of public meetings and then voting en bloc when those meetings do occur, etc. (Are we to believe that Hjelle and Cave had no advance knowledge of Copeland when they voted for him as a complete stranger put forth by Longrie the night Fursman was fired? And that learning of Copeland's train wreck of a background only increased their comfort level with the decision?)

But we can't really suppose that Erik is engaging in constructive self-criticism, pondering the depths of his personal anti-Americanism and authoritarian yearnings.

No, as I think about it, the headline cuts to the chase. As we feared might happen, Mr. “It's My Personal Fire Station” has been shifting into the view that he is in some way the living incarnation of the city, if not American Democracy itself; and so attacks on him are in fact attacks on the people of Maplewood and our very way of life.

My prediction: Sometime in the next sixth months, Hjelle & Co. will publicly compare their opponents to Nazis. It's the inevitable next step.