Former Star Tribune editor Patricia Lopez wrote on Bloomberg November 26, under the headline,
We can stop fraud in Minnesota without attacking Somalis.
In a perfect world, Lopez is absolutely correct. She writes (non-paywall version here) that,
It is true that Minnesota has seen an extraordinary rash of fraud in taxpayer-funded programs recently. More than 70 people have been charged, including several Somalis.
“Several”? Wall Street Journal columnist Matthew Continetti writes,
Of 86 people charged so far, all but eight are of Somali descent.
78 of 86 works out to more than 90 percent. That’s more than just “several.” How do you prosecute industrial-scale fraud when the demographics are so…skewed? Lopez writes,
The way to handle Minnesota’s real struggles with fraud is to find and bring to justice the actual perpetrators.
And federal prosecutors are doing exactly that. But, we have documented year-after-year-after year in this space how the state-level Walz Administration pulled punches when confronted with accusations of racism and selective prosecution: for fear of negative headlines and the risk of offending a core voting block that provides the margin of victory in close statewide elections.
So, left unanswered is the question, “How can a society successfully prosecute high-profile crimes, individual-by-individual, in a world of identity politics?” Democrats rely exclusively on identity politics to win elections. But we’re expected to believe that, once elected, they can govern without fear or favor?
Even worse, we have documented many instances where elected Democratic politicians went to bat on behalf of the fraudsters, intervening with state regulators.
The current Star Tribune editorial board wrote earlier this week under the headline,
Trump’s anti-Somali rampage thrusts Minnesota into the national spotlight
The president’s racist, divisive rhetoric will do nothing to actually prevent fraud.
Ok. So, what will actually prevent fraud? The editors publish sixteen (16) paragraphs in their column, but never answer the question. They dance around the problem with wishy-washy statements like these,
- Which brings us to the crux of the issue…the amount of fraud that occurred in Minnesota during and after the pandemic. It’s an issue that won’t go away until it’s fully addressed.
- Minnesota demonstrated a serious problem with oversight of state dollars during the COVID-19 crisis and the resulting economic calamity. In a well-meaning effort to help people, Walz and his administration fell short.
- In the case of Feeding Our Future, the state trusted that nonprofits and other third parties would honor their responsibilities.
- The public deserves assurances that systemic reform will prevent this from happening again
- .If our choices are between mushy inaction and spiteful rhetoric, we all lose.
Well-meaning, trusted, reform. In seven years of Tim Walz, all we’ve seen is “mushy inaction.” The exact same people that Lopez and the Star Tribune are counting on to fix the problem are, to a person, the exact same people who “fell short.”
The road to hell, good intentions, etc. etc.
[Note: an earlier version of this post appeared at AmericanExperiment.Org]
