Madge-World: Welcome to it.

He wrote a letter to the Star Tribune today:

Letter to Editor:
Your July 13 letter of the day was a real pip. In it Reverend Tollefson used
the analogy of a potluck dinner as a way to explain the complicated issues
behind the state shutdown. If the Republicans run the potluck, the rich, of
course, get the most. When the Democrats do, the poor get the most and the
rich get nothing. Really? Nothing? Some potluck. The rich who see this as
unfair (and can you really blame them) are reminded by Governor Dayton that,
“It is better to give than to receive,” and driven out of this earthly
paradise to tan eternally in the Sunshine State. Pithy. Simplistic. And
about a “99” on the sanctimonious meter.
While Reverend Tollefson is welcomed to his “Prairie Home” version of “from
each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs,” this
fairly shared meal struck me as just a tiny bit creepy. I can’t imagine a
lot of laughs at this table: the poor impatient for their handout, the
middle getting by, and the rich, well, screwed.
Complicated political issues don’t lend themselves to tidy analogies,
especially those with a theological undertone. It sounds so “just” and nice,
it’s just lacking reason and commonsense. Personally I don’t see government
as always beneficent or politicians as quasi-Messianic. Government is a
necessary but far-from-perfect institution controlled by human beings as
flawed and imperfect as you and me. And any potluck they’re running, I think
I’ll skip.