No one would mistake The Nation for a pro-American publication. It’s as far-left—Socialist/Communist—as one gets outside communist nation/state propaganda organs. On second thought, since most of those are long gone, The Nation is arguably picking up the slack.
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So, it’s hardly surprising The Nation recently ran an article titled: “Peggy Flanagan Is Running for the Senate to ‘Avenge Minnesota.’” What might be surprising is how few Americans have any idea who Peggy Flanagan might be. The subheading of that title provides a clue: The lieutenant governor of the state is ramping up her Democratic Senate primary campaign as her state battles Trump’s brutal assault.
Graphic: X Post
“Trump’s brutal assault?” The article begins with a heart-wrenching story of 13 years ago, identifying the exact moment of Flanagan’s radicalization. It seems in a meeting about spending priorities, a lobbyist suggested it was better not to focus on welfare, which isn’t popular with the public, and might even make welfare recipients “feel like losers.” Not Flanagan. She was on the dole and she’s proud:
That conversation with the lobbyist, Flanagan recalls, represented a turning point. “That was the moment where I fully stepped into: ‘I was a kid who grew up on public programs. I am here because of them and not in spite of them, and I will be unashamed that that is part of my identity.’ That has now completely informed how I do policy work, how I try to show up.”
That’s what she wants to avenge? Welfare programs in which Trump played no role and which still exist? The article isn’t terribly specific, but mentions that Flanagan is a “native” woman—Ojibwe, apparently—and implies she’s fighting for “a higher minimum wage, more childcare funding, abortion protection, a broader social-safety net, rights for Indigenous Minnesotans, and the protection of Minnesota’s large and well-integrated immigrant community…” all of which have somehow been taken from Flanagan and Minnesotans. Never mind that those decisions are state-level matters, though states wanting federal funds have to play by federal rules.
The author of the piece outlines other grievances:
I traveled to Minneapolis to meet Flanagan in late February, as the city was still reeling from Operation Metro Surge, the Department of Homeland Security’s aggressive deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection agents to arrest and detain undocumented immigrants in the state.
Oh, but that wasn’t all that has been taken from Minnesota:
Flanagan reminded me that the siege of Minneapolis didn’t begin with Operation Metro Surge. In many ways, it goes back to the murder of George Floyd in 2020 and the weeks of protest that followed…
Flanagan’s Democrat opponent is Representative Angie Craig, who is not nearly sufficiently radical for The Nation or Flanagan, who has sported a T-shirt supporting trans and featuring an enormous knife. It’s not clear whether the knife was emblematic of trans surgeries or an admonition to kill opponents of trans surgeries.
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Craig’s record on immigration has also given progressives in the state pause. She was one of 46 House Democrats who voted for the Laken Riley Act, which allows ICE to detain undocumented immigrants accused but not convicted of theft, burglary, shoplifting, or assaulting law enforcement.
This is presented as a prima facie cause not to vote for the insufficiently radical Craig. Never mind that “undocumented immigrants” are arrestable even if not accused of crimes beyond their illegal presence in the country. Desperate to be at least as leftist as Flanagan, Craig wrote an op-ed for the Minnesota Star Tribune regretting her Laken Riley Act vote.
The long article is as puffy a puff piece promoting a radical leftist politician can be, yet it doesn’t identify a single act by Donald Trump, or anyone else, worthy of vengeance. It essentially argues that a lack of universal praise for Democrat Party priorities and policies somehow constitutes grievous harm. It does lean rather heavily on ICE enforcement, but that’s about it. It ends thus:
If she’s elected to represent her state in Washington, Flanagan says she will elevate Native issues and fight to hold ICE to account. “I want to avenge Minnesota!” she told me that night at Hai Hai, raising her voice. “You don’t get to just leave; you have to repair this. The love, the solidarity here has been great, but you don’t just get to do this to us. God willing, when we get power back, everything they’ve done has to be undone. Everybody has to be prosecuted.”
Ah. Prosecute everyone we don’t like. Sound familiar?
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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.
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