I live in Valley City,
and when I sat down to compose this letter last week, I had recently been given a campaign “door hanger” for District 24 Republican candidate Cole Christensen, prepared and circulated by a Libertarian group, “Make Liberty Win.”
The first card has little about Mr. Christensen other than some vapid platitudes, a sketchy biography, and pictures of a young man wrapped in the American flag, saying that he is a “hometown guy,” and a sixth generation Valley City businessman and a church-attendee. Then I got another flyer paid for by “ColeChristensenforND.com:” that basically repeats the earlier card and adds almost nothing of substance as to what Mr. Christensen stands for – except, perhaps, the denial of other people’s fundamental rights.
His campaign platform is innocuous enough, promising the he will invest in our kids, by “fighting” to expand career and technical education in our schools; that he will work to improve North Dakota infrastructure; lower state taxes; and cut “job killing regulations.” This is pretty much stock-in-trade sloganeering by Republicans, and after nearly four years of foot- dragging by them in Washington, DC, virtually nothing has been done to rebuild our old and dangerously weakened transportation grid, nor to expand and build out new power generation schemes, or fund urban and rural water and sewage management efforts.
But what is particularly interesting about the first door hanger is its “provenance.” “Make Liberty Win,” from its own website (www. MakeLibertyWin.com), identifies itself and a companion “grassroots” recruiting effort – “Win at the Door – as initiatives by “Young Americans for Liberty ( YAL);” a political organization created by former Congressman and Libertarian heavy weight, Ron Paul – father of the Junior Senator from Kentucky, Rand Paul.
The elder Paul created YAL in 2008 as part of his failed presidential bid. It is modeled along the lines of the late conservative icon, William F. Buckley’s 1960s-70s “Young Americans for Freedom ( YAF)” and it has a platform objective to elect young, mostly white, male candidates to state legislatures in all fifty states. Their website identifies some 250 candidates who are running, not as declared Libertarians, but as Republicans! Mr. Christenson and two other “MakeLibertyWin” endorsed state house candidates Doug Larsen (D34 - Mandan) and Jeffery Magrum ( D28 – Hazelton) are on the November ballot as Republicans, not Libertarians.
What is also interesting about the door card is that while it clearly identifies as an independent organization not affiliated with specific candidates or committees, neither “Make Liberty
Win,” “Win at the Door,” or YAL are registered with the North Dakota Secretary of State as an agent of the North Dakota Libertarian Party, as a political action committee ( PAC), or as an independent organization; and despite multiple dives into the state’s complicated campaign reporting system, there’s no “there, there.”
2020 has proven to be a tough, challenging year for all Americans and in so many ways we “itch” to regain some of our lost liberties. But COVID19 is still a major force that has threatened our lives, our financial well-being, and every domestic industry and enterprise in the nation, and it is not going away anytime soon. And regrettably, North Dakota is now ranked as one of the top states per capita that continues to surge with new COVID19 cases. Our democracy is at a crossroads and there are many political groups that are flying false flags and disrupting citizens in the ordinary exercise of their constitutional rights; and this problem is likely to worsen. Shouldn’t we, as ordinary people expect some truthfulness from our elected leaders – simple truths like that of an old union marching song – “Which side are you on brother? Which side are you on, sister?”
I think it’s only fair we ask Mr. Christensen if he is a Republican or a Libertarian, and what that will mean if he’s elected to the North Dakota State House of Representatives? Allen D. Blume, Valley City, ND