On Monday, Bluestem posted West, Central Minnesota Republican Senate district BPOUs sponsor Sheriff Richard Mack.
On X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, the post drew an informed thread in response from Minnesota elections expert and frequent Minnesota Reformer contributor Max Hailperin, a professor emeritus of mathematics, computer science, and statistics at Gustavus Adolphus College who now lives in Minneapolis.
He chronicles his ambles in his new home city at his blog, All of Minneapolis: Walking Every Block ff Every Neighborhood.
Here's his commentary, posted with his permission:
This is part of a broader trend of party units inviting extremist speakers. I'd be troubled no matter who invited them, but I'm particularly troubled to see it is official party units rather than nominally nonpartisan "patriot" groups. In this thread, I'll explain why. https://t.co/MrBp8xAPgN
— Max Hailperin (@MaxHailperin) August 22, 2023
He explains in a series of posts. Text from the thread:
I'm worried about something bigger than who controls the party unit. Sure, the party unit inviting a "constitutional sheriff" or an election fraudster does suggest the party officers are among the believers. But something worse underlies their *choice* to invite as a party unit.
After all, those same believers who control the party unit could perfectly well also name themselves a "patriot" group and issue the invitation under that alternate name. A couple years ago, that was the ordinary practice. It preserves the party's appearance of being a big tent.
But now they're no longer choosing to operate that way. They are proudly hosting the extremists under the party's brand name. Why? Because they've decided that there is no point in winning "Republican" control of the legislature if it is "Republican in Name Only" (RINO).
They aren't disavowing the goal of winning elections, but they are saying that the top priority is keeping an eye on what they are winning *for*. They want to win for supposedly constitutional sheriffs and cult-like election myths, not for the "Republican" brand name per se.
And so they are making a deliberate choice to mark the territory like a dog peeing on fire hydrants. They are staking it out, saying *this* is what it means to be in *our* party. If you want a different party with the same name, go away, you aren't welcome. Our party is "this"
Two examples:
Second example: https://t.co/ZEXUg0EUfZ
— Max Hailperin (@MaxHailperin) August 22, 2023
In a direct message conversation about the thread, Hailperin observed:
One further thought: in my thread, I used the shorthand "extremist," but I wondered whether that was really the correct descriptor vs. something like "conspiracy theorist." And that got me thinking — historically and globally as well as currently in the US, there seems to be a rather strong association between the two.
Having posted about Rick Weible's fantasies and Trevor Loudon (indeed, an early September 2022 post about a Loudon event, MNGOP candidates' fears prompt venue to make "Why Does MN Lean So Far Left?" nonpolitical, illustrates his point about the new normal. It wasn't long ago that even the Wabasha County Republican BPOU walked away from that).
And the Republican Senate Districts 13 and 14 are also hosting anti-Agenda-21 conspiracy theorist Tom DeWeese in September, as the poster seen on the Rocks and Cows of Minnesota Facebook page illustrates. DeWeese turned up near the bottom of Bluestem's 2012 post, Missing in Minnpost: Are Quistian soldiers training at Tea Party Agenda 21 bootcamps yet?, and Agenda 21 fearmonging and Deweese appeared the same year in Scary MN: Do GreenStep Cities mean Pawlenty was totally a United Nations secret operative?
Bircher Deweese has his own page at the conspiracy theory aggregator Save Your Cities. The copy?:
Tom Deweese is the leading expert in the Country on Agenda 21, Sustainable Development, Regionalism or whatever name they call themselves in YOUR area. He has been exposing this for over 30 years and has a great website where you can learn everything about these topics including Training to help you take back your communities. Our work in MN is based off his research. He partners closely with the John Birch Society who has been warning us about these things for 60+ years. Purchase Toms book SUSTAINABLE at Amazon etc to learn how the various Planning and Equity groups work throughout the country plus the TERMS they use which are found throughout YOUR Community Planning Documents. The information we give on this website is based on his work.
Save Your Cities founder Greg Smith is speaking with "Constitutional Township" guru Rick Willey at a church in Alexandria at the end of August, but it's not a BPOU meeting, so perhaps Max can sleep better knowing there's some boundaries, though one Republican lawmaker has been a guest star at a Willey event in the Hutchinson area.
But if the role of political parties is to elect endorsed candidates, we have to wonder what changes this might bring to the two--DFLer-one-Republican Senate district delegation to the Minnesota legislature, which also slightly favored Walz in last year's election? The lone Republican, Bernie Perryman, squeaked in by 199 votes.
St. Cloud State may be losing its theater department, but I doubt this melodrama will gain an audience in its absence.
Image: A poster for a Minnesota Senate District BPOU event featuring a Bircher Agenda 21 conspiracy theorist as guest speaker. The new abnormal for Central Minnesota conservatives?
Related posts
- West, Central Minnesota Republican Senate district BPOUs sponsor Sheriff Richard Mack.
- Tonight, new constitutional township movement folks bring Michelle MacDonald to Montevideo
- SD Searchlight: Incoming Secretary of State looks to hand-count ballots, audit each election
- Crockett and crew share curious definition of "common sense" at Pine Island rally
- Ben Davis, Master of Ceremonies for Dec 2021 'Searching For Truth' event, GOP endorsed in 6A
- Westrom wouldn't talk to local reporter about why he attended sketchy election fraud event
- "Why Does MN Lean So Far Left?" Wabasha Co GOP BPOU goes down Trevor Loudon path again
- Wabasha County GOP Facebook post only latest offensive trope from Minnesota Republicans
- Commies, Muslims & terrorists, oh my: Loudon joins bush league in Little Falls & St. Cloud MN
- Help Trevor Loudon, Central MN Tea Party Patriots speaker, fill in bios of dirty hippies
- Foreign Conspiracy Theorist Urges Legislators to Pass Illegal Ban on Immigration to South Dakota [Dakota Free Press]
- Anti-Muslim Hate Sessions Add McCarthyite Strand to Republican Voter Suppression [Dakota Free Press]
- UPDATE: Coming to Gilfillan Farm on July 8: Resurrection Tour, wrapped in vicious antisemitism
- So SD state rep Mulally, a sheriff & a county commish will host Sheriff Mack in Rapid City
- McFarquhar: freedom fighter or attention addict?
If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.
Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email [email protected] as recipient.
I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6
Comments