When I wrote my post on Friday night, introducing you to that lovely young lady who spoke so eloquently about her moment of decision in the voting booth...
“I voted. I was standing in that voting booth thinking about high gas prices, expensive groceries, housing costs and the financial pressure on working families. Then my mind went to France, to Dearborn, Michigan and I realized this election is about far more than gas and groceries.
It's about our future, radical Islam, national security, illegal immigration, our borders, education, parental rights, sex and gender policies, and the values our children inherit.
I couldn't see myself voting for a party that hates America, apologizes for our country, is ashamed of our flag, and wants to rewrite our history and abandon our values.
So I voted red, not because Republicans get everything right, always do right by everyday Americans, or are free from corruption, but because I believe we can only fix this country if we still have a country left to fix”
...I called her 'the clearest voice for the clearest choice' I'd heard so far.
I think I've now seen the perfect illustration to go along with her clarion call to action, and it couldn't have come from a place more emblematic of the contrast in values between the parties - Minnesota.
It's all the flash and dash going on in those northern tier states, be it Michigan or Minnesota, Maine or Massachusetts, with their progressive or Democratic Socialists of America-connected (DSA) candidates and their outright connection to communities with ingrained cultural hostilities to traditional American values and norms. Communities where expecting any sort of assimilation or embrace of the same is rejected as white supremacy, colonization, or racism. Communities where graft and corruption are ingrained ways of life. Fraud on an intricately interwoven and massive scale flourishes across state and international borders. All with a blind eye turned to it by these very officials who now seek the same or higher office, even as they excoriate citizens who question the third-world cultures and mores taking precedence over the time-honored and beloved American rhythms of life.
The flag changes to appease the newcomers. The rules change to appease the newcomers. Laws change to appease the newcomers. Things that just don't sit well with Americans' natural openness, honesty, hard work, easygoing friendliness, and boundless compassion are suddenly everywhere.
Suddenly, it doesn't look like 'home' anymore. And when one is sternly lectured by newcomers who have received so much on what America means, it gets to be a little much.
It doesn't feel like 'home,' either, wherever that home might once have been.
Maybe you've never even left 'home.'
It left you.
That isn't racist.
It's reality for so many right now.
As our Mitch noted back in September, there's a fellow named Tad Jude running for Minnesota's secretary of state.
...2024 gubernatorial candidate Dr. Scott Jensen leads DFLer Zach Filipovich pretty convincingly; name recognition may be the tipping factor in this otherwise fairly obscure race. And former judge Tad Jude is making a solid run against third-term incumbent Steve Simon, amid nagging allegations of election corruption.
He's an older guy, a former judge, and this is obviously not a marquee sort of race - especially not with the fireworks going on in the big races.
But Jude is tapping into that sense of home. That 'do you remember what being Minnesotan meant?' But it holds true wherever your home may have been, especially if parts of all of it now resemble some foreign port of call.
That feeling of home in AMERICA speaks to so many.
...As can be seen, Jude’s campaign is focused on very important and practical issues related to fraud. Yet, in the list of action points given above, one can see that Jude is also focused on a matter of policy that is tied to culture: Jude wants to bring back the traditional Minnesota flag by having the public vote on it.
Minnesota’s flag was changed only two years ago. The traditional flag of the state, designed in 1893 and revised several times, was deemed politically incorrect by liberals because it depicted a farmer plowing and a Native American man on a horse. Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan refused to display it, and the state government changed the flag again.
The result may not have intentionally been made to look like the flag of Somalia, but it reminds many Minnesotans of that flag and of the many problems caused by Somalis in Minnesota. Somalis make up about one percent of Minnesota’s population, but 30 percent of its gang members in the Twin Cities region. They are also vastly overrepresented in fraud cases.
Many counties and towns have begun to refuse to fly the new flag—and some have very pointedly displayed the old.
And his campaign has produced one of the most lyrical, beautiful ads I think I've ever seen. I could watch it over and over again.
And it speaks directly to what we all love wherever we're from and what we've all felt.
BUT SOMETHING CHANGED HERE
AND MOST OF US FELT IT.
NOT AS REPUBLICANS OR DEMOCRATS BUT AS MINNESOTANS
LIKE SOMETHING THAT BELONGED TO US
WAS DECIDED FOR US.
LIKE WE CAME HOME ONE DAY...
AND THE HOUSE HAD BEEN REARRANGED...
WHILE WE WERE GONE...
It's so soft, and so beautiful. Incredibly moving.
And so thoroughly American that it speaks to every one of us who loves this country, because we have all seen or felt some measure of the 'house being rearranged' without our permission.
This is the country we have to have left in order to fix it - the most glorious experiment in freedom ever on the face of God's green Earth.
And it's ours...if we can keep it.
VOTE