Paul Wellstone died fifteen years ago this past week and the commemoration of it by Minnesota liberals was positively creepy. Was his death sad? Sure, is that in question? What was creepy was the secular sanctification of a run of the mill liberal by Minnesota’s Regressive Left. I’m hardly the first to observe that when people abandon religion they find something else with which to replace it.
The most egregious display of secular piety, the High Mass if you will, was Gov. Dayton’s proclamation of sackcloth and ashes in the guise of announcing PAUL WELLSTONE MEMORIAL DAY in Minnesota. Observation was now mandatory.
Few people actually read these things but here I am. Yet instead of encountering something dry, I found high octane agitprop. So fundamentally totalitarian were the statements in the Wellstone proclamation that I expected martial music to play when I opened the PDF.
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There are ten “whereas” clauses, that word that announces something portentous. I take you through them below, edited for brevity.
1. Wellstone always stood strong for the causes and convictions in which he believed
Well bully for him!
2. Paul’s steadfast faith in Minnesotans allowed him to take principled positions, because he knew they were right, not because he thought they would be popular
What Wellstone believed was right, there is no further discussion. Breathtaking in its arrogance, fascist in its political application, the admiration of both today by Minnesota liberals is telling and damning
3. Paul was a very successful United States Senator, because of his tireless work on behalf of Minnesotans, and his ability to make special connections with millions of other Americans
The East German historians have weighed in: very successful! Because tireless & connections. Feel the feels.
4. Paul was known as the “Conscience of the Senate,” for he was eloquent, astute, and principled. He wanted to be a Senator not for himself, but for what he could do for others
The Mahatma, right there! Did he not have a conscience? By definition, the other 99 senators had no conscience. Can you believe how lucky we are in Minnesota?
5 & 6
Wellstone’s wife and children are remembered here. His wife and a daughter died with him on that plane ride to northern Minnesota.
7. Paul did so much to better our state, our country, and our world; and he would have done so much more if he had the chance
This is called belief in the next life, secular style. What the “so much” that he did goes unmentioned. Wellstone did lie to Minnesota voters and go back on his word to serve only two terms so he has integrity and authenticity going for him. Lying comes easily to liberals because they can’t be honest about what they stand for and wish to accomplish once in office.
8. The names of those who died with Wellstone in the crash are set out.
This is as it should be. Requiescat in pace.
9. Fifteen years later, so many Minnesotans and other Americans still mourn Paul’s loss; for he was irreplaceable as a leader, a politician, and a friend
This basically isn’t true in any meaningful sense except the last part. We all have dead friends we miss. As for being irreplaceable, I guess this is true for the liberals writing this proclamation and those who joined in the forced remembrance. But Paul Wellstone was just a nice guy who died too young while having more personality than your average angry, bitter, resentful liberal.
10. The special bond between Paul and the people he represented was unbreakable until the end his life and beyond. That bond endures to this day and will for many years to come
This is the Minnesota liberal version of the founder of North Korea, Kim il-Sung, who was declared president for eternity upon his death. Wellstone is Minnesota’s senator for eternity because the liberals here are both grandiose and unbalanced. Did I mention creepy?
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Minnesota media was filled with embarrassing stories of sanctification and secular holiness. One MPR story even had a cheesy Native American poem written about Eternal Senator Wellstone. Like Native American culture itself, it has a stone age feel to it.
The Star Tribune ran a mere 32 pictures from the time he walked among us. Sam & Sylvia Kaplan (our George Soros avec femme) are prominently featured because money. “‘He instantly connected with us like a jazz musician on a riff,’ Sylvia said.” That’s exactly how an average voter would see him, sure, Wellstone as the Miles Davis of politics.
Pausing from its campaign to normalize pedophilia, Salon magazine wrote a besotted piece declaring Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren to be his heirs. That seems about right although Salon meant it as praise. But let’s give Wellstone his political due: in 1990 only one incumbent Senator was defeated and that by only 50.4% of the vote.
“The dumbest republicans in the nation” has a long provenance.
On Twitter pretend-objective reporters actually tweeted what they wrote in the days after Wellstone’s death. This was among the creepiest of the creepy commemorations of his death. Virtue signaling’s apotheosis is public faux re-traumatization, perfect for the therapeutic age.
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Shortly after Wellstone’s death, bumper stickers with “WWWD” appeared on the cars of the bereaved, the left behind, the remnant of the true faith. And it was faith, albeit secular, because at the time the abbreviation was “WWJD” and stood for “what would Jesus do?” Now it became “What would Wellstone do?”
Yet the forced remembrances, the public displays of sadness and the brittle wistfulness for what could have been, only serves to highlight the bankruptcy of the Left, both in Minnesota and nationally. Paul Wellstone deserves another kind of memorialization, something other than the politicization of every aspect of modern day life.
Because the truth is, while Wellstone would never have voted for Donald Trump, he would have understood precisely why he won. Indeed, by this time, had he lived, he would likely have been seen as a Cassandra, cursed to speak true prophecies that no one believed, by his fellow democrats.
More unfortunately for democrats, Wellstone would have been able to advise them how best to recover from last year’s loss. Without him, they are left to look only to the past in their remembrances of his untimely death. Wellstone would have been the first to admonish them to look to the future.
That they can’t do so makes me understand their longing for him and respect him anew.
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In addition to Alpha News, John Gilmore is also a contributor to The Hill. He is the founder and executive director of Minnesota Media Monitor.™ He blogs at MinnesotaConservatives.org and is on Twitter under @Shabbosgoy. He can be reached at Wbua@nycunarjfza.pbz
Photo credit: News Tribune Attic
John Gilmore
John Gilmore is an author, freelance writer & former opinion columnist for Alpha News. He blogs at minnesotaconservatives.org & is @Shabbosgoy on Twitter