Readers Write (May 2): Political leadership and diversity, Minneapolis police-mayor dispute, Trump's foreign friends, journalism

I attended Saturday's very enlightening meeting of the Minnesota Republican Party State Central Committee in St. Cloud. The voting for a new chair to replace the retiring Keith Downey came down to a fourth ballot between Chris Fields, an African-American, and Jennifer Carnahan, a minority woman. Carnahan won.

In addition, the attendees voted unanimously to certify the Somali-Republican Group as an official affiliate of the Minnesota GOP, joining many other minority affiliates.

Looks like the labor union-controlled Minnesota DFL Party of "no" will be up against the Minnesota GOP's increasingly diverse "big tent." Should be a very interesting statewide election come 2018.

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My initial reaction to Jennifer Carnahan's election to the GOP chair of Minnesota was positive — until I got to her statement that the DFL is "going to have a really hard time calling us the party of racists and sexists. Look at who our party base just elected."

Full disclosure: I am a woman, a Korean adoptee, and a Democrat. It doesn't bother me that Ms. Carnahan is a Republican. What bothers me is the implied sentiment of her comment: "We're not racist and/or sexist, we just elected a minority woman!" Where have I heard that before? "I'm not racist, I have a black friend! I'm not sexist, I treat my mother/grandmother/sister with reverence and great respect!" To be clear, I'm not calling Ms. Carnahan racist or sexist. I'm calling her tone-deaf.

I also find it troubling that she is equating her minority identity (Asian-American/Korean adoptee) to minority groups more akin to contemporary GOP discrimination — black, Mexican, Arab, Muslim, etc. While of course not completely shielded from racism, Asian-American women enjoy a great amount of what is essentially white privilege (especially Korean adoptees raised in white families).

Regarding the problematic decisionmaking process about naming Minneapolis police Lt. John Delmonico the Fourth Precinct inspector, in following the Star Tribune's coverage over the last few days, I noted the critical role text messaging played in this fiasco. It seems that much of the communication between Mayor Betsy Hodges and Chief Janeé Harteau took place via text messaging while they were engaged in other meetings or tasks, and there seems to have been some misinterpretation by both parties of what these brief messages actually were supposed to mean.

I think all but the most naive teenagers now agree that texting while driving a vehicle is unsafe — not only because the driver takes his or her eyes off the road, but because it takes attention from the task at hand. Multi-tasking has become common in our lives, and texting is a key modality for it. But only the delusional would argue that diverted or split attention produces better results than focused attention.

I think both the mayor and the chief, like so many of us, should slow down and put their undivided attention on important decisions. If the mayor had mistyped in texting "Sure thing" and auto-correct had changed it to "Shoot him," I assume the chief would have picked up the phone to get some clarification. All in all, I think both leaders would do well to realize that doing their work via text message is about as effective as a president communicating his policies and ideas through 140-character Twitter outbursts.

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I started jotting my thoughts down after reading the recent manipulations of Mayor Hodges in the April 27 issue of the Star Tribune. The subsequent articles the following days (April 28, 29 and 30) only reaffirm my belief the mayor is terrified her ineptness will finally cost her the job she believes she is the best choice to fill.

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Trust, which the mayor seeks to build at the community level, is rarely developed through ambiguous communications and unpredictable reactions, as reflected in her messaging with her chief of police. It's the city's loss if Harteau is recruited away by others who recognize her effective leadership. Hodges' management skills are clearly in need of further development. I will not be voting for her in the next mayoral election.

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The recent controversy between the mayor and police chief shows a monumental failure of leadership on the part of both. This strikes me as a fairly significant appointment in a very troubled precinct. Both parties were surely aware of this, and it must have been on the agendas of both for some time. To be dealing with this without face-to-face discussions, over time, to get to a joint decision, and to have handled it by text messages, strikes me as amazingly unprofessional, if not totally incompetent, by both. I'm certain all this reflects a high degree of City Hall political backstabbing by both, which is unacceptable to me, as it should be to all Minneapolitans regardless of whether they support one or the other or the appointment itself. Both are undeserving of the positions they hold and should be replaced.

Putin, Erdogan and now Duterte. Three repressive dictators Donald Trump considers to be leaders and wants to be friends with. One wonders, if Hitler and Stalin were still alive, would they get a phone call and an invitation to the White House, too?

Yes, I voted for Trump, but only because he was ahead of the other candidate, who was a worse choice. If Trump can survive the daily onslaught of biased reporting events, I do believe his party and his advisers will make him a success in the long run.

My paranoia was stirred to action today in the report of the annual dinner that "served up resolve" (May 1). E.J. Dionne, in his role as longtime Washington chronicler, let us know that "journalists can, under the right circumstances, topple a presidency." So who picks the right circumstances that will allow the press to marshal their forces against evil? The editorial staff? The commentator? A liberal, far-left cabal (oooh, paranoia rising)? And once those "right circumstances" are identified, does the crusade begin under the guise of protecting the poor, misled public who elected the president via the Electoral College? The end justifies the means?

I guess we can only have trust and faith in our white knights who buy their ink by the barrel and lead the charge against injustice and corruption asking only for a Pulitzer now and then.