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My Point of View by Jennifer Vogt-Erickson

Rep. Jim Hagedorn is soft on insurrection.

Hagedorn voted once again to buttress Trump’s far-fetched lies about the 2020 election rather than to defend truth and our democratic institutions.

This time he voted against an independent Jan. 6 commission to thoroughly investigate the violent assault on our Capitol, which threatened the lives of his colleagues, Vice President Pence, the police who protected them and our democracy. Thirty-five of his Republican colleagues voted for the bipartisan measure.

It’s astounding how indifferent Hagedorn is to the attack on our Capitol complex compared to the attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Libya. He said of then Rep. Walz in 2015, “Southern Minnesotans deserve a leader who will stand up to the national political establishment (especially leaders within his own party), demand the truth, and fight to defend the United States and protect the American people.”

Members like Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), Liz Cheney (Wyo.) and Peter Meijer (Mich.) did what Hagedorn called for. They bucked Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to demand the truth and stand for American ideals.

McCarthy is the same party leader who admitted that Republicans pursued Benghazi in order to hurt Hillary Clinton’s reputation. The motives were partisan then, and Hagedorn’s vote is partisan now.

According to the FBI, over 440 people have been arrested for their part in the Capitol insurrection. Police officials reported that 140 police officers were injured while defending the Capitol. One officer collapsed that night and died of a stroke the next day. Two more officers died of suicide within 10 days.

Officer Michael Fanone, the mother of Officer Brian Sicknick and the family of Officer Howie Liebengood asked Congress to support the Jan. 6 Commission. Why did this not sway Hagedorn?

Hagedorn backs law enforcement when it politically suits him, same as the military. He’s still the same partisan hack who called Vietnam triple amputee Max Cleland a “half soldier.”

Speaking of switcharoos, did you notice how quickly Republicans like Hagedorn got the vapors about “reckless spending” when President Biden targeted spending at ordinary people?

When it comes to tax cut packages that mainly benefit super wealthy executives and shareholders, like the 2017 tax cuts, Republicans hold a beer party in the Rose Garden. The Congressional Budget Office estimates those cuts will add $1.9 trillion to the national debt over 10 years.

Would you drink to that?

Study after study confirms that tax breaks like the 2017 billionaire’s bonanza create more inequality, not jobs. Demand is what creates jobs. When regular people have money in their pockets, they broadly increase demand for products and services. If they spend it locally, it has a virtuous multiplier effect in places like Albert Lea.

Undeterred by facts, Republicans continue to push tax breaks for their fabulously wealthy donors while balking at social spending that lifts people out of poverty and cushions the middle class.

Capitalism is great at producing economic inequality, and the top 1% now owns 38% of Wall Street’s value. Capitalism is not great at supporting families because labor is a cost, and costs are to be kept down. This is the contradiction that Republicans disingenuously straddle in their support for “free markets,” deregulation and tax cuts.

Republicans’ elite donors benefit from this inequality and demand that policies are written ever more in their favor, often with the pens of industry lobbyists. They strive to depress wages, lower their own taxes and reduce spending on public goods.

To borrow a Ukrainian saying about oligarchs, “Human life is the [manure] they grow their money in.”

Capitalism is spectacular for the top. For the rest of us, capitalism crushes and kills and doesn’t care. Regulations, worker protections and public spending are what make capitalism a shared boon.

The bottom line is, if your social circle has better access to mattresses and cookie jars than to Malta and the Caymans for stashing cash, you’re simply not in the class of people whom Republicans like Hagedorn primarily serve.

Democrats are the pro-family party, and they are addressing the systemic stressors that most families face. They seek to set a living wage, expand child care, invest in public education pre-K through community college and extend affordable health care with a public option.

Republicans deliberately divide people of similar economic interests by exploiting resentments based on race, religion, ethnicity, etc. In the past week, Hagedorn has posted 10 of 18 times on his congressional Facebook page about the southern border, and he’s not invoking Christian teachings like “Remember the poor” and “Who is my neighbor?”

Family values and capitalist values are in conflict, and Republicans value capitalism above all else. A party not friendly to the economic interests of working people is not family friendly, community friendly nor rural friendly.

It turns out that it is insurrection friendly.

Jennifer Vogt-Erickson is a member of the Freborn County DFL Party.