The left’s path to permanent power

Minnesota shows the progressive formula in action and what happens when it is challenged

Politics

by Joe Rigney

Post Date:

February 3, 2026

Activists hand out flyers to motorists at a blockade set up to deter ICE vehicles in Minneapolis on Sunday.Associated Press / Photo by Alex Brandon

What is going on in Minnesota? Why has the state whose unofficial slogan is “Minnesota Nice” erupted (again) into a frenzy of protests, demonstrations, and violent clashes with law enforcement? In the midst of the chaos, it’s important for Christians to keep their eye on the ball.

Begin with the left’s unconstrained vision of society. As Thomas Sowell famously argued, the left is utopian; they believe that human beings are perfectible through the idealized use of power by anointed elites, whose good intentions more than compensate for any destruction that their policies actually cause. From progressivism to socialism to communism, the left is united by this “vision of the anointed,” and they are willing to unleash revolutionary zeal in order to accomplish it. The chaos of 2020—from COVID tyranny to the George Floyd riots—was rooted in this revolutionary vision of utopian justice.

This vision is fundamentally godless and inhuman (even when baptized by the platitudes of progressive Christians). From abortion-on-demand to the celebration of sexual deviancy, from soft-on-crime policies to wealth redistribution, the left is at war with Nature and Nature’s God, treating His moral boundaries as shackles to their unbridled passions. And thankfully, most Americans recoil from it when they actually encounter it, as evidenced by the mass exodus from blue states in recent years.

In the face of resistance to progressive governance, the left has settled on a three-pronged path to permanent political power.

First, build government bloat in order to bribe the base. From welfare to healthcare, from education to unemployment, government programs designed to “help the needy” have become slush funds to reward political client groups through the administrative state and the vast network of NGO’s created to receive taxpayer funds. Money confiscated from taxpayers is funneled to members of the coalition; some of it is returned to the politicians through campaign contributions; more of it is used to enrich the client groups at the public’s expense. In essence, the welfare state is a vote farm.

Second, import new client groups to receive these funds. For years, immigration has been core to the left’s long-term path to power. They had hoped that the gradual demographic transformation of the country through birthright citizenship and amnesty for illegals would lead them to a permanent Democratic majority. The rise of Donald Trump and the shuffling of the electoral coalition complicated this plan, as the working class abandoned the Democrats in order to Make America Great Again.

To compensate, Joe Biden threw caution to the wind and used every means at his disposal to allow foreigners into the country. From opening the border to illegals to the abuse of refugee resettlement programs and “temporary protected status,” millions of migrants were released into the United States from 2021-2024, often finding their way to “sanctuary cities” and “sanctuary states” that refuse to cooperate with federal law enforcement seeking to deport illegals. These new groups are folded into the Democratic coalition through the welfare-for-votes racket.

Denial won’t stop the revolutionaries. They are sold out for the cause, and they are determined to impose their vision on America.

But what good are non-citizens (who ostensibly can’t vote) in building electoral coalitions? This brings us to the third prong: Lax voting laws in blue states and urban centers. The 2020 election, with its unusual reliance on mail-in voting, was an effective trial run. Democrats have realized that they don’t actually need to persuade voters; they just need to chase ballots. Flood blue cities in states without voter ID requirements with early, absentee, and mail-in ballots, and then harvest them en masse in order to win close elections in swing states and maintain an iron grip on power in blue states.

The aim is to reach a tipping point, when the number of normal American voters is irrelevant to electoral success because the left has chased enough of them to Florida and Texas and has bought enough new clients with taxpayer money. At that point, the left can pursue their utopian vision unhindered, as in California, Illinois, and New York (and as Virginia is about to discover).

This is the left’s path to permanent power: Bloat to bribe the base. Import immigrants to plunder the purse. Flood cities with ballots and chase and harvest them in the days, weeks, and months leading up to (and after!) election day.

Which brings us to Minnesota. In many ways, it is the poster child for this Democratic strategy.

Bloated government, filled with programs ripe for fraud? Check.

Newly arrived immigrant groups (e.g. Somalis) who are ready to take advantage of that bloat by starting daycares (with no kids) and healthcare companies (with no clients)? Check.

Lax voter laws, including no voter ID, same-day registration, and a voucher system that allows an individual to “vouch” for up to eight other people in order to pack voter rolls with limited accountability? Check.

But then County Highway and Nick Shirley exposed the scandal of massive Somali Fraud, putting the spotlight on the North Star State and leading Gov. Tim Walz to withdraw from his re-election campaign.

The Trump administration responded with Operation Metro Surge, the largest interior immigration enforcement operation in U.S. history, and with promises of DOJ investigations of financial fraud.

This effort is a direct threat to the left’s path to permanent power, and so it’s no surprise that they activated an antifa-led insurgency masquerading as spontaneous “protests,” with Walz and other Democratic politicians publicly encouraging the lawless resistance (and allegations that state officials are actually coordinating the efforts to impede law enforcement).

The revolutionaries have adopted Hamas-like tactics to disrupt immigration enforcement: provoking and assaulting ICE and Border Patrol agents, effectively using their children as human shields, and even “laying their bodies on the line.” After all, propagandistic revolutions always need martyrs.

Many Christians struggle to admit that this is where we are. But denial won’t stop the revolutionaries. They are sold out for the cause, and they are determined to impose their vision on America.

The question is whether the Trump administration and its supporters will have the fortitude to see things through.

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