“Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other. We all, like sheep, have gone astray.
“America has fallen, our Constitution, our institutions, have fallen, because this second, unwritten Constitution has been all but destroyed. But not completely.
“The radical left has succeeded in convincing too many that God is dead, but he is not. They have tried to redefine marriage and undermine the family, but marriage is defined by a higher power than man. And the family, now under assault, persists. It is natural.
“So our unwritten Constitution, the one that animates or animated our written Constitution and enabled the rule of law and liberty, isn't completely gone.”
Tom Waits has a song for this Wardlow ideation, as with "The One That Got Away," (which awaits another separate post). Douglas Gary Wardlow might not like that song, to the extent his linguistically trained ear can track the lyrics, so, what song has Dominionist Wardlow in mind? Only one, clearly sung with his passion invested fully, played repeatedly, at full volume; sung locally, at every Wardlow fundraising rally, ONWARD. And that linked song-video, at fifty, fifty-four seconds, that's Doug, isn't it?
DFL, GOTV, please and decisively. Pardon that diversion, back to the story line. A moral and religious people the man intones. And yet, addressing Tea Party mavens, "gone astray." It calls to mind Patty Smith singing, "Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine." Clearly, Wardlow had the pulse of his audience with that "gone astray" business, him as Pied Piper.
In search of that divine Dominion, there are those troublesome ones, you know who Wardlow has in mind, because he names them.
Sorensen at BlueStemPrairie, link, posted in an entire set of screen captures on Scribe, --- several differing versions of Wardlow tithe-and-give-to-the-cause solicitation mailings; aimed at what audience?
Go figure. What target audience do you expect?
The Sorensen link quotes, along with screen capture snippets from the full image set she posted on Scribe; her post, in part explaining:
Visit Minnesota Republican Attorney General candidate Doug Wardlow's campaign website or read his twitter feed, and you'll discover there's no dearth of attacks on DFL Attorney General rontest opponent Keith Ellison.
Ellison is attacked for alleged extremism related to law enforcement, environmental regulation and immigration policy. One area where Ellison isn't criticized, however, is his Muslim faith.
But if you're unfortunate enough to receive a "Dear Fellow Republican" fundraising letter--one going on and on about how Wardlow perceives Ellison as "one of the most dangerous men in America"--there's plenty of heated rhetoric including the bold-face sentence in one letter, "As a Muslim, Ellison has hung around radical Islamic groups and defends known terrorists."
A post-script in the other letter reads:
P.S. Keith Eliison doesn't share the American values you and I do. He's in bed with in bed with radicals and terrorists, hangs out with racists and anti-Semites, hates President Trump, and wants to use the Attorney General's office to force far-left policies on us.
Keith Ellison is a very dangerous man and he must be kept far away from power.
I promise to adhere to the rule of law as Attorney General. But first I must defeat Keith Ellison. Please rush back a donation of at least $35 or $50 today. Thank you so much!
[...] A reader contacted Bluestem about the presence of the letters, which were mailed to a voter in Anoka County who is a Muslim. [...]
Thank you Doug. So much! For mailing to the Muslim person, who as Sorensen details, ultimately got them to her so she could post about it all.
Doug -- Got that donation idea, you're queued up behind a bunch of Democrats, but - keeping you in mind, ya betcha. Really. For the new year, maybe, but not earlier.
After all -
Them radical Islamists gonna get your first born, lest you pony the cash and dedicate your righteous rightwing vote to stemming the nasty turbaned tide whose name you know, per Wardlow.
He stands against an impending and inexorable tide, the ever threatening thing poisoning American Pie. Apple Pie. Cherry Pie. Your mom baked those pies with lard for the crusts, remember that, and these threatening folks are halal. Never forget that. Your mom knew best. But -- Put away that cartridge box, not needed, Doug has a plan. Doug wants you to use the ballot box to enable him to get into superhero mode, firing secular humanists wherever they lurk under desks and in the coat closets at the AG office, to be replaced with righteous soldiers of Dominion; excuse, believes in the "rule of law" (perhaps not that weaselly document a batch of successful revolutionaries signed onto after Confederation proved too tepid, but the blessed HIGHER LAW!! which he foretold at the 2013 Tea Party love-in). Really. That seems the Wardlow goal between those ears, viewed from outside by just me, a band of malcontents, Democrats, obstacles to Dominion, opposed to rule of the Natrual Law, rule of, etc., so forth, understand it is American Pie, Cherry Pie for all the loving might at risk this very day, at issue and do not doubt. Website Wardlow waffles a bit not naming the enemy clearly there, but mailings leave no doubt, catch the fire and march in anthem to the polls knowing the fire, feeling the fire, burning true in you to undo the raging heathen.
What does this suggest about Wardlow's view of Republicans? It is a serious insult to all members of the Republican party who are moderate and not bigoted against the Islamic faith. Unlike the propaganda organ, Alpha "News," which slings much bigot-friendly mud, there are some Republicans with enlightened worldviews beyond Wardlow's ideation:
With a reference to other Republicans besides the bigots, it is good Glen Taylor's Strib joined Alpha News to unseal the Ellison divorce files, because Strib fairly reported that there was absolutely no "smoking gun" Kieth Ellison abuse allegations, (with his wife's depression and MS reported as factors leading her to abusive conduct against Kieth) and then Strib also published fairly about Wardlow's negative campaigning and questionable worldview.
The Strib item on the divorce file: "Keith Ellison divorce file shows no abuse allegation against him by ex-wife -- Ex-wife, attorney general candidate wanted divorce file to be kept private. - By Stephen Montemayor Star Tribune - October 17, 2018 — 8:05pm"
Fairness is what is expected from an actual statewide in-print newspaper which also posts on the Internet; unlike the screeds Alpha News posts web-wise, as if it were a real news outlet instead of a propaganda organ.
______________UPDATE_____________
Read the Strib item about condemnation of the Wardlow fundraising mailings. It supplements and fleshes out Sorensen's posting rather than being cumulative. It is titled, "Faith leaders denounce Wardlow mailers attacking Keith Ellison -- GOP attorney general candidate's literature called anti-Islamic. By Jessie Van Berkel Star Tribune - October 18, 2018 — 10:26pm". It begins:
A group of faith leaders on Thursday condemned mailers sent out by Republican attorney general candidate Doug Wardlow as Islamophobic and intended to spread fear.
Wardlow's fundraising mailers lambaste his Democratic opponent, U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, calling him "one of the most dangerous men in America" and saying he "pals around with radical Islamic groups and defends known terrorists."
Wardlow's mailers "are a significant departure from what America is all about. He has chosen to attack his opponent's religion and he has chosen to attack religious institutions," said Imam Asad Zaman, who spoke at a news conference along with two Lutheran pastors and a rabbi.
Zaman is executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Muslim American Society, which paid for Ellison's 2008 trip to the holy site of Mecca. Wardlow's mailers note that trip, and call the organization an arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist religious and cultural organization with adherents in many countries. Some have accused the Muslim Brotherhood of being a terrorist organization, but it says it condemns violence.
Zaman said his organization is an American institution that provides community services and a place to pray. He charged that Wardlow is trying to "scapegoat" Muslim Americans.
The religious leaders said Wardlow should renounce the comments in the mailers and return any money he raised through them.
Wardlow's campaign manager, Billy Grant, countered that people should be concerned with Ellison's connection to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who has a history of anti-Semitic and homophobic remarks. Ellison participated in the group's 1995 "Million Man March." He has since disavowed Farrakhan.
Against Muslim, Lutheran, and Jewish faith leaders condemning the Wardlow mailers, there is Billy Grant with his dog in the hunt, trying to milk a long-dry cow. And after shamelessly mixing my metaphors; so long for now.
____________FURTHER UPDATE___________
Timmer at left.mn has a new post, and as here, a focus there is upon the Doug Wardlow candidacy. He discusses the St. Cloud marriage videographer pair that claim artistic liberty arising from their "religious" belief (and from their inherent artistic freedom) that gay marriages are not proper and that this combined basis leads them to refuse to take gay wedding engagements, presumably the money being as green as otherwise.
Read Timmer, the link's above and again here, because the remainder of this paragraph is thinking here and not to be confused with the Timmer post. Timmer writes an interesting item, but the basic truth is that if this kind of video people are forced to film against their will they can fully and "unintentionally" screw up the output and assert it is, to them, good art forced on them by bad policy. Get a reputation that way and wise couples will turn elsewhere and the St. Cloud pair can go that route without making a spectacle of themselves, but like Wardlow, they have an inexplicable drive to dump on other people as human as them, for hauntingly mysterious and flawed reasons. Wardlow divines a natural law appended to the actual Constitution as a Dominionist necessary and sufficient and overriding adjunctive proto-Constitution he touts to like-minded gatherings.
People like Wardlow with the Alliance Defending Freedom paycheck, doing that organization's bidding, if declining en masse, could put an end to the nonsense. However, there will always be a Robert Bork to be scratched up somewhere to fire an Archibald Cox and that keeps the ship afloat.
Bottom line, Wardlow did it - litigating on the trans lady losing her job, and appears to get his jollies out of hating on Muslims in order to raise campaign money via big-scare messaging, while the Muslims in Minnesota are folks who have done nothing beyond one of them having the temerity to seek the same public office Wardlow believes himself entitled to hold. Something like that is the thought here, but Timmer is far more analytical, so read his post.