It’s not fair that all the Great American mayoral discussion revolves around the coasts. Sure, Los Angeles has the one who oversaw the burning down of the nation’s second most populous city from halfway across the world. And New York City has been bleeding money as if it were the star of a sequel to “Brewster’s Millions,” but without the promise of a massive payday at the end.
Right in the middle of the nation, tucked into the banks and headwaters of the mighty Mississippi River, is Minneapolis: the little city that could, chugging its way full speed ahead – right off the cliff of Midwest sensibility, prudence and normalcy. Woke came to town, and it’s got a bone to pick with common sense. The city’s mayor, Jacob Frey – a kumbaya-type leader in a city on the verge of implosion – was forced to pick a side. The trouble is, he wanted to be on everyone’s side, which is the quickest way to be on nobody’s side.
Frey looks pretty darn good on paper. He’s got that milquetoast Midwest plainspeak that shows he’s not a threat. From the time he began his political career in 2014, he was that breed of young, hip, intelligent and very basic Democrat skating on a platform of affordable housing and improving police-community relations. He never strayed too far from the mainstream but also didn’t threaten city’s growing activist wing.
Then 2020 arrived. The Minneapolis of the George Floyd summer had no stomach for Jacob Frey and his 2017 politics. That year, Frey and Governor Tim Walz stood by as block after block disintegrated in a pile of ashes. Then the blame game ensued; finger pointing between the two so-called leaders left both paralyzed and a city under siege. An October 2020 report from the Minnesota Senate Republicans highlighted the dereliction of duty. “Governor Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey initially chose to negotiate with and appease the rioters rather than give law enforcement the authority to confront criminal acts with enough force to restore law and order,” the senators wrote.
Just days after the rioting, an activist mob gathered outside Frey’s home and demanded his allegiance to defunding the police. When asked by an activist if he would “Commit to defunding the Minneapolis Police Department,” Frey responded with the type of soft-peddling phrasing he’s come to be known for. “I have been coming to grips with my own responsibility, my own failure in this … I do not support the full abolition of the Police Department.”
Frey, clad in a black facemask emblazoned with the words “I CAN’T BREATH,” hung his head in shame as he slow-walked himself out of the demonstration amid boos and calls of “Shame!” The mayor had to atone for his sins; it was the only way he could overcome the unfortunate matter of his own whiteness. So, he kneeled, teary-eyed, at the golden casket of George Floyd at the televised memorial service alongside Reverend Al Sharpton.
He dragged his feet as lawsuits by city residents challenged the Minneapolis Police Department’s dangerously low staffing numbers amid a spike in street violence and murders. He made concessions to activists who controlled “George Floyd Square” – the intersection of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue in the city’s Powderhorn neighborhood. The area had been a no-go zone for police, emergency workers and regular people. Five years later, the area is still a mess, with Frey failing to garner support for a conclusive and expedient plan of action.
Now, Frey is waking up after the Democrat-Farmer-Labor Party – the Minnesota flavor of the national Democrat Party – endorsed his challenger, Minnesota State Senator Omar Fateh, at the state convention. Fateh doubled down on radical progressive policies that Frey tried to keep at bay with his appeasement talk. He apparently never walked the walk enough for the far-left faction that’s been festering in his city.
As New York’s Eric Adams and Andrew Cuomo learned with the rise of Zohran Mamdani, there is no room in radical blue cities for hardline criminal accountability, soft rent control or support for the police. And don’t even think about doing anything that could be construed as cooperating with Trump.
Frey continues to insist that “The opposite of Donald Trump’s extremism is not the opposite extreme. The opposite of extremism is good, thoughtful governance.” Fateh’s retort: “The only way to stand up to Trump and his posse of unelected billionaires is to create a city that is radically inclusive and stands up for those who are the most at risk. I am running for mayor so we can do that work together.”
No amount of woke or sacrifice at the altar of suicidal empathy could save Frey when he came up against an all-in extremist who is more in line with a city run by progressive activists and an activist city council. And the new Democratic party is putting all its eggs in the democratic-socialist basket. When asked about the DFL endorsement of Fateh over Frey, Hamline University professor and political analyst David Schultz told local CBS affiliate WCCO, “Does this suggest that the party is more unified? I don’t know. Does this suggest that maybe the progressive wing of the party has finally succeeded in taking over? Possibly.”
Minneapolis is about to find out just how progressive things can get.
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