I've noticed something about Big Left's leaders.
We'll come back to that.
I've taken my shots at Ken Martin, the current DNC chair, who spent a little over a decade as the chair of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor (DFL) party. Martin was a capable organizer and fundraiser - at least in Minnesota, where he had a subservient media and business class. Those skills are less evident on the national stage.
And all that's a matter for another post, because I come not to bury Ken Martin but to talk about his successor, a guy named RIchard Carlbom.
Carlbom is a longtime DFL activist and manager. He was best known for leading the 2012 campaign in favor of making same sex marriage an amendment in the Minnesota state constitution - an effort that swept to a huge win in a cycle that also saw a Voter ID amendment defeated and the DFL take both chambers of the Minnesota state legislature. And he largely reflected the stereotypical Minnesota approach to communications; keep it innocuous, focus on pictures from the State Fair and Paul Wellstone-style platitudes - the social media equivalent of the slogans on those "affirmations" posters.
Carlbom is a little different.
This was Carlbom's idea, last Friday morning, for one of those "let's cool it down" posts that the politicians trying to pass as adults were putting out last week.
Charlie Kirk should be alive today. Political violence must not be tolerated.
— Richard Carlbom (@richardcarlbom) September 13, 2025
The shooter didn’t think Kirk was right-wing enough. The reference to groyper is linked to a rival right-wing ideologue. https://t.co/dNQLjhx2tc
Huh. If "lowering the temperature" was the goal, then it doesn't look like "lowering the temperature" was much of a goal. After a major, emotionally and politically fraught crime, it's tacky to say "I hope it wasn't one of ours" - so surely it's even worse to say "Hoooo, dawgie, he sure is one of yours.
About the time Carlbom was writing this, in we were learning about how "not right-wing enough" Robinson actually is:
"A family member referenced a recent incident in which Robinson came to dinner prior to Sept. 10 and, in the conversation with another family member, mentioned that Charlie Kirk was coming to UVU," Cox said. "They talked about why they didn't like him and the viewpoints that he had."
In that same conversation, the other family member reportedly said that they believed Kirk was "full of hate" and "spreading hate," according to Cox.
Cox said that ammunition casings found at the crime scene included messages engraved that said, "Hey Fascist! Catch!" and "If you read this, you are Gay, LMAO."
And the weekend brought more news about the "not right-wing enough" suspect:
Charlie Kirk shooting suspect 'was living with transgender partner who handed over texts about assassination plot to the police' https://t.co/OHabQQlJ9W
— Daily Mail US (@Daily_MailUS) September 13, 2025
Now, much of this information was already in the media as Carlbom tweeted that message.
So why would he do it?
I can think of three reasons:
- He's an idiot
- It's all relative
- He knows his audience
He's an idiot. Could be. But Sun Tzu warns us not to underestimate our opponents - and anyway, his record says otherwise. Let's rule that out.
It's all relative: Today's Minnesota DFL is a lot more radical than the one that gave us Paul Wellstone. Now you might say "they're not so radical that they didn't overturn the nomination of Omar "Mamdani Lite" Fateh for Mayor of Minneapolis? Sure, but that was more procecural than political; Jacob Frey may win the primary, but Fateh is only one part of a Democratic Socialists of America base that has completely taken over the Minneapolis DFL and, by the way, the DFL caucus in the state legislature.
And they? They are extreme. Minnesota conservative activist Mitchell Williamson compiled a list of elected DFLers' statements and retweets about the Kirk assassination:
Minnesota Democrats have liked, shared, or otherwise promoted some of the most disgusting rhetoric that can be imagined since the cold-blooded murder of Charlie Kirk.
— Mitchell Williamson (@MWilliamsonMN) September 11, 2025
🧵We're posting and tagging them all. #mnleg
Read the whole thread. Each one vies to be more loathsome than the last, although Congresswoman Omar's statement - basically "what do you expect, he criticized the "Juneteenth" holiday?" - pins the "Cringingly Loathsome" needle.
So maybe Carlbom's statement is just trying to find that elusive middle ground between "conciliatory" and "loatsomety ghoulish"?
He knows his audience: Remember the messages that Democrats have sent their followers this past year: Trump is a rapist, Conservatives are fascists and threats to democracy, Republicans want to take benefits from children; Kamala was Joy and Rizz and Tim Walz and Doug Emjoff and "White Guys for Harris" were models of healthy masculinity; it's the guns.
Mark Twain said "a lie will travel around the world while the truth is eating its avocado toast", or something like that. Democrats know this. Heck, Trump knows it and sometimes uses it.
So maybe Carlbom is just tryihg to gaslight Democrats into chanting things he knows are false?
Take your pick. They're all bad options. I just don't know any others.
