As a consequence the Republican Party of Minnesota's loss of control of the state legislature in the 2012 elections to two socially conservative amendments on the ballot, the four Republican gubernatorial candidates running in their party's statewide primary have avoided social issues this cycle.
But social conservatives are fighting back on the local level, and it's not just in Minnesota House races in Eden Prairie and Wright County.
On the group's blog Monday, the Seventh Congressional District Republicans began promoting a talk on Saturday, August 9, by conservative activist and publisher Dave Racer, "Constitutional Christian Citizenship in a Post Christian America."
While the CD's post lists the Northwest Minnesota Conservatives as the sponsor of the event, with a Pennington County BPOU picnic following, an ad in the August 2, 2014, Thief River Falls Times and Northern Watch, a local newspaper, lists the Northern Minnesota Conservatives and the Pennington County Republican Party as co-sponsors of the event.
A screenshot of the ad is posted above. The twitter profile for the contact person for the event who's noted in the CD7 MNGOP blog post, Barb Chervestad, describes her as "Northwest Minnesota TEA Party Patriots Pennington County Republicans Chair, MN CD7 Deputy Chair." The Republican Party of Minnesota's web page for the Pennington County BPOU also lists Chervestad as county chair. The "Northern Minnesota Conservatives" appear to be the rebrand of the NW Minnesota TEA Party.
Editor of Glencoe Republican state representative Glenn Gruenhagen's e-book, Health Care in Crisis: Is Government the Solution or the Problem?, Racer unsuccessfully ran for the Minnesota House and Senate, according to the "About Dave Racer" page on his website.
Racer has delivered talks on the same topic to the Wisconsin Constitutional Prayer and Action Group in River Falls, WI, and the First Evangelical Free Church in Maplewood, MN, in May 2014; the copy describing both events in promotional pdfs are identical, down to the typos.
The day before the lecture at the church in Maplewood, Pacer was a guest on On The Way with Paul Ridgeway radio show on AM 980 KKMS Twin Cities Christian Talk, and the podcast (embedded on Pacer's website here as KKMS 05-28-2014) provides a preview of "Constitutional Christian Citizenship in a Post Christian America."
What's in store for the Pennington County Republicans on Saturday afternoon? Here's one of the earlier posters:
Dave Racer, Constitutional Christian Citizenship in a Post Christian America.
May preview of the presentation: Godwin's rule & Christian men like Dave should rule
The May 28, 2014 podcast is quite a listen. Racer and Ridgeway lament the decline of the American republic, including the departure of Mozilla co-founder CEO Brendan Eich after employees and Ok Cupid objected to his contribution to California's Proposition 8 banning same-sex marriage.
But there's more. At the 7:58 minute mark, Ridgeway and Racer begin this exchange:
7:58: Ridgeway: It's pretty serious stuff in this country and the trouble we're in. So how can we begin to turn the tide in this nation and begin to be a salt and light instead of a society that's just falling apart?
Racer: I think there's great value in understanding the foundation and principles of America and then having the confidence once you understand--as John Adams said that our constitution is only fit for a moral people and morality is, you know, a Biblical term, it's not a--well, I suppose there's a secural morality but it's one of those things that's chasing clouds without any definition, which is part of why we're in trouble anyway.
When you really understand the history, the rich history of the Christian worldview and its effect on America and you look at today and then you say, "what does the Bible say?"
The talk I'm going to do is kind of historical and it's biblical, it's got, it's like a history teacher, a Constitution teacher, who's then going to scripture and become a lay preacher for a little while. you know, what does the scripture say about how Paul and Dave and Brian and everyone else should act and react in society.
And then we're going to skip to some contemporary issues and Paul, you know I've been writing and speaking on health care for nine years. Well, I'll tell you, there's nothing more personal than when you're sick and you're life is threatened and if you want a doctor there who's detached and could care less about your faith and looks to pure science or do you want a --would you rather have a Christian who is a scientist doctor, you know, working on you who has compassion and love and understands the value of human life.
And in a sense that's a demonstration of the difference between government by science and reason discarding faith and government by faith that employs reason and a lot of it has to do, it sounds very complicated but it isn't.
Speaking of this, Obamacare is based on a concept called the "complete life system," Paul, and that system says that you should calculate the monetary value of human life and if you're younger than 4 or older than about 55, and you have complications physically, it is not practical. This is the complete life system, it's not practical to invest money in you, that money should be reserved for people who are going be more productive in society.
Ridgeway: Dave, it's Nazi Germany, a Nazi Germany philosophy. it's terrifying.
Racer: Absolutely, absolutely, and that is, that is, if you will, the post-Christian concept of the delivery of Medicare, of medicine and that is the foundation of Obamacare, and so I am going to demonstrate that in this talk tomorrow night. I've done this talk once before, I've done another talk on the Christian history of the United States. This is kind of like the second talk in that series.
James Fallows looked at this misinformation in Will it never end? McCaughey v. Ezekiel Emanuel, while Media Matters took it up in At it again: McCaughey distorts Ezekiel Emanuel's writings to smear him as "Rationer-in-Chief.
Jon Stewart and the Daily Show is a bit more fun.
But as Racer contninued to describe his presentation to Ridgeway on air in May, it's clear he had wearied of just talking about the Affordable Care Act.
Racer:.. .I'm tired of just talking about Obamacare. I want to talk about the philosphical underpinnings and what it means to be a believer in this society, how you and I are both brothers in Christ and we have every right in this country to also be the rulers of this nation, in fact we have the responsibility to be, and I guess that's the bottom line in my message.
Ridgeway: It would be nice to get some fresh new leadership that really has biblical values.
At the 11:33 mark, Ridgeway asks for questions from the audience, then the men discuss the need for Christian to get politically involved and vote, as well as talk to their neighbors about the marriage-based two parent family as God's plan for America or that protecting human life is God's plan for each of us. They can not be afraid of saying that because its the truth and influence their society and be salt and light"
Never mind that bit in the United States Constitution and that in the Minnesota state Constitution about voters getting to elect their representatives (or that it doesn't seem to have been God's plan via those mechanisms for Pacer to "rule" in Minnesota). Or the fact that the Constitution clearly states that there should be no religious test for office.
Dave Racer knows that it's his God-given right to be a ruler, and he's ready to share that with Northwestern Minnesota Conservatives and Republicans, as they boldly organize to turn back the rising tide of American culture in Pennington County.
Minnesota's Seventh Congressional District is considered in play in the contest between Blue Dog Democrat Blue Collin Peterson and Republican challenger Torrey Westrom.
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I know Dave Racer personally. I have worked with him on health care issues. I think your portrayal of him is a little harsh and based on too little exposure. The logical points you make, however, are well-taken.
Our government was not set up to "rule" anyone, by anyone, whether that wannabe "ruler" is a Christian or a secular collectivist. The point that comes out of the discussion, however, is that given the expanded extra-constitutional scope of government -- common core curriculum and the ACA being two prime examples -- the only way for one to protect one's values is by seizing control of government and imposing one's values on others.
This is where libertarian philosophy differs from both conservative and progressive. Conservatives and progressives in the form of Republicans and Democrats seek to win elections so they can impose their values on others. Libertarians want to win so they can reduce the scope of gov't and limit its power and ability to impose any values on anyone. It's where I differ with Dave.
A final note: I have not seen Dave's presentation "Christian Citizenship in a Post Christian America" but the topic is certainly valid and knowing Dave I'd expect it to be a well-thought out insightful presentation targeted to people concerned about preserving their Christian faith. Even when I have disagreed with Dave, I never found him to be anything less.
Posted by: Craig Westover | Aug 05, 2014 at 01:26 PM
As a hater of statism, Craig, you should really love the ACA. Instead of going the "Medicare for All" route and eliminating the insurance companies from the health care equation, the ACA helps insurance companies by shunting tens of millions more customers their way in exchange for ending the practice of using pre-existing conditions to bar people from getting coverage.
But then, going the "Medicare for All" route would gift us with far less bureaucracy (especially of the private-sector kind).
Posted by: Phoenix Woman | Aug 05, 2014 at 09:31 PM
Actually, the subsidy idea is, like Paul Ryan's voucher idea, not a bad way to go if the intent is really helping people. The problem with the ACA is that on the other end it mandates what policies must look like taking away choice.
"Hating statism," I don't want to see the government "helping insurance companies." If it must be involved, it ought to be helping people by providing truly vulnerable individuals with both opportunity and resources to participate in an unencumbered free market.
Medicare for all fails because to the extent Medicare "works" today it is because the rest of the health care system subsidizes Medicare patients. Many doctors are no longer taking Medicare patients because the reimbursement is too low to sustain a practice. Most medicare patients have private insurance riders to cover the cost of care Medicare doesn't cover. If we all have "Medicare," who will do the subsidizing?
And just a note about pre-existing conditions: you understand that pre-existing conditions is only a problem because of government policy, right? Prior to wage and price control in the 1940s, most people had individual, portable policies. Employers started providing health insurance as a benefit to get around a bad law. After the war, the government institutionalized the practice by giving employers a tax break on health benefits -- and thus employees were able to buy more insurance at less cost from employers than individually. Worked great when people didn't change jobs much, but that's not the case today. Thus without the portable, individual policies of the past, Houston, we have a problem that sans government involvement in the first place would be far less severe if it existed much at all.
Posted by: Craig Westover | Aug 06, 2014 at 01:12 PM
Well, Craig, considering that the US health care system is the most expensive in the world where patients are concerned, something had to be done. Health care is one of the biggest drags on the US economy; only the nasty effects of income inequality engendered by Reagan-era "trickle on" class warfare might exceed it.
By the way, ever since President Clinton fixed it up in the 1990s, the much-maligned VA actually provides better care overall than Johns Hopkins or the Mayo, particularly in those areas like Minneapolis and Detroit where there are plenty of VA hospital beds and staff to go around; you will note that the current "VA scandal" is a result of not enough VA facilities in Sun Belt areas and craven VA management fudging the numbers rather than telling their congresscritters they needed more staff and facilities in Phoenix et al.
Getting back to this post, I must admit that as I look at the Racer ad, the big question that comes to me is "Was this composed on an Apple II? The font looks awfully 1980s-ish".
Posted by: Phoenix Woman | Aug 06, 2014 at 09:26 PM