Forum Communications says vote Jeff Johnson

The image shows Bill Marcil Jr., chief executive officer, president and publisher of Forum Communications Company. The elder Marcils, Bill and Jane, have donated $1.5 million to the University of Mary's Vision 2030 capital campaign. In 2013 it was announced that a $1 million gift from the Forum would be used to create the William and Jane Marcil Center for Innovative Journalism at MN State University in Moorhead. So, since the Forum owns our paper here in Morris, might it be persuaded to donate some $ for our University of Minnesota-Morris? Seems reasonable. (image of Bill Jr. from Google Plus)
 
Forum Communications of Fargo - that's in North Dakota - got cold feet in the 2016 presidential election. This Republican-oriented company could not stomach endorsing Donald Trump for president. It left open the presidential race. It endorsed no one. Hillary Clinton would be completely unpalatable for them.
Much of the disillusionment about Hillary resulted from the Russian manipulation of information we were getting. In reality, Clinton would be a quite acceptable president just as her husband Bill was, governing from the middle, massaging the stock market upward and knowing how to handle the presidency in the conventional way. Instead, you're all aware of what we got.
Hillary and Bill had their warts. I am a Democrat who actually wanted Bill to resign when the Lewinsky thing exploded. And BTW why do we call it the Lewinsky scandal? Why don't we call it the Clinton scandal?
Jonathan Turley, a very straight legal thinker (unimpeded by ideological blinders), who often appeared on the left-colored Keith Olbermann show, thought Bill should resign.
If we put the Clintons' obvious warts aside, they governed in quite acceptable fashion. As Democrats they realized the necessity of entitlements, even if the cost can be a somewhat bitter pill to swallow.
Eventually this nation will simply have to do something about health care. But we have given the Republican Party an unusual privilege, for them, of controlling the major branches of government. Odd how the Republicans can still behave like victims. A defining feature of the GOP is that it does not want people to like government. A party like this has a noble purpose in encouraging restraint in the growth of government. But it has a fundamental problem when it gets handed the total reins of government.
 
Forum is parked in Morris
Forum Communications is owner of the Morris MN newspaper. It is the quintessential big distant company that merely acts as puppet-master for its local employees, employees who are simply numbers to them. We're all just numbers to these behemoth modern corporations. Bank of the West is like that. Is Wells Fargo still in business in Alexandria? I inquired about starting an account there once, before the excrement hit the fan for that company, but I backed off, perhaps listening to a subconscious voice.
Forum Communications left us alone in terms of voting in the 2016 presidential race. We could make our own decisions. But now, the Fargo company is coming across pretty heavy-handed in telling us who to vote for, for Minnesota governor. A skunk never loses its stripes, or something like that. This is a historically Republican company, and these people do not change. They are like the brainwashed-type aliens we might see in a Star Trek episode. So the Forum is now telling us to vote for Jeff Johnson for Minnesota governor.
I don't think I've seen the party line piece in the Morris paper yet. But you will see it, unless the Morris publisher tries to skate by and not run it, hoping the higher-ups won't notice. But I doubt that scenario. I do think she will wimp out and it will go like this: she will run the party-line editorial from on high but not with a headline saying "vote Johnson for governor." She knows that Morris is a progressive-oriented community with a pretty committed faction in that category, i.e. "Indivisible Morris." I think Sue will have a headline written that simply says "Forum announces its political endorsements." This would be her way of saying "hey, don't take this too seriously since it's just coming from distant corporate offices," wink.

The Marcils: Bill Jr. and Bill Sr. (Grand Forks Herald image)

I am offended by the Forum's official editorial because not only does it recommend voting for Johnson, it says that Johnson is the "clear choice." The editorial then goes on to discuss Johnson's background. I don't care that much about his background, I care about his policy ideas. Johnson is a Trump-ite. So much so, he rode the strength of that base to defeat Tim Pawlenty in the GOP primary. My goodness, Pawlenty no longer passes muster among you conservatives? We're in Alice in Wonderland or so it seems.
The editorial states that Johnson's "Christian faith guides his positions." It is fine to be a Christian but not to have that as your base for suggesting political solutions.
The Forum occasionally endorses a Democrat. I would suggest that many of those Democrats (like Amy Klobuchar) are up in the polls and are going to win anyway.
If you do not like the Forum's heavy-handed approach, coming from Fargo ND, a state with "red state" instincts, then I would suggest actually contacting the Morris paper and putting those people on the defensive, forcing them to explain why it's appropriate for a North Dakota entity to "invade" our nice progressive state of Minnesota. The local employees of the Forum probably just don't matter. You'd probably have to go higher up. Good luck with that.
You can find the Forum's official endorsement editorial on the Grand Forks Herald website among other places.
 
Addendum: Forum Communications goes for a naked Trump-ite in spite of the fact that its Willmar paper has publicly blamed Trump's tariffs for having to cancel its Monday print edition. Curiouser and curiouser. Vote for Tim Walz.
 
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com