Walzing Around the Truth

On Wednesday, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz issued an official statement concerning events unfolding in D.C.. If truth be told, had he only penned the final two paragraphs, he would have earned a modicum of respect from me, and perhaps, even displayed a bit of real statesmanship by calling on us all to be bigger and better persons.  But unfortunately, that was not to be.  Much like his Washington D.C. mentor, Speaker Pelosi, when given the chance, he just couldn't resist playing the role of the shamelessly opportunistic political propagandist and hypocritical pontificator.

The missed opportunity is truly a shame.

His statement, in its entirety, is reposted here:

Statement from Governor Walz:

“I see the events unfolding in our nation’s capital today not just as a Governor, but as a former high school history teacher. The last time our nation’s capital was under siege was more than 200 years ago when our country was at war with the British.”

“Today, it wasn’t a foreign nation that seized the capitol building and attempted an insurrection. It was citizens of our own country, incited by our president and enabled by many political leaders, who made a direct assault on our democracy.”

“In my classroom, I taught my students to see moments like this in a greater historical context. We must do that reflection today. President Trump has fanned the flames of hatred and undermined the sacred American institutions he swore an oath of office to protect. And whether it was through the support or silence of other politicians, he didn’t do it alone.”

“We must recognize that democracy cannot be taken for granted. We ask our soldiers to endanger their lives to defend our democracy abroad—we all have a duty to protect it here at home. That means toning down our rhetoric, bridging divides, and upholding our Democratic ideals.”

“History is being written today. What will our future students read about this moment in their textbooks? It’s on us to ensure today is the end of a chapter. And marks the beginning of when America stood up and stood together.”(1)

For a supposed teacher of history, he seems to have a very short memory of recent events - or at least a highly selective, politically self-serving one.

We all saw our nation's capitol (and many other Democrat controlled cities) come under full scale siege last summer by mindless, rioting BLM Marxists and Antifa's fascist bully-boy insurrectionists.  They vandalized national monuments and federal buildings, destroyed public property, and even torched the historic St. John's church located next to the White House, forcing the Secret Service to move the president to safety.   But apparently in the governor's closed mind, none of that really counts - at least as long as it advances the left's political agenda, its all good.

Closer to home, just this past summer, we saw Governor Walz, rendered helpless and dithering for days on end, weighing the political pros and cons of large scale mob violence against his personal political fortunes, while not just watching - but by his inaction, likely even fanning - the flames of destruction and mob violence.  Meanwhile, Minneapolis burned, police officers were injured, lives and livelihoods were destroyed, and whole neighborhoods were torn apart, until he finally allowed law enforcement and the National Guard to act in some measure of response.  Then, to add insult to injury, he had the audacity to ask the taxpayer to foot the bill for his feckless incompetence, while the perpetrators of it all, for the most part, got by scott free.

And yet now, this same governor lays blame at the feet of our President, the Republican party, and by implication even the GOP voter concerned about the real likelihood of voter fraud, for the mostly non-violent, short, but inexcusable actions of a few miscreant thugs.

By his own measure, Walz is far more culpable in his own actions and inactions than those whom he accuses - but then again, why have standards when you can have double standards?

We must be clear on this point:  Walz's indecision directly contributed to the normalizing of political violence and his inaction, by literally watching a city burn, was far more dangerous than the mere hyperbolic fanning of flames that he accuses his political adversaries of.
 
So we must respectfully ask the governor to what dubious intellectual or moral authority it is that he lays claim to?  What is this duplicitous moral foundation, that justifies him to so brazenly smear with broad brush his political opposition with the actions of a few, while refusing to acknowledge his own complicity in egregious events occurring under his own watch that went on far longer and were far more serious, deadly, and costly? 

Spelling check:  How many "Y"s are there in the word "hypocrisy"?

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1 - https://mn.gov/governor/news/?__twitter_impression=true&fbclid=IwAR2PX31mMSyfw8HQrvWjm2tlNPL0ql45NhV3OOQ9e6WEjtt7VsCUTR8oMec&utm_source=&utm_medium=&utm_campaign=#/detail/appId/1/id/462163