Liberty & Prosperity Blog

Aric Putnam is a polite-sounding hard-left leftist who's done a wonderful job ... if his job description included representing the Democrat Socialists of America, aka the DSA. These days, Putnam is majoring in running ads that make him sound like a moderate. That's what leftists do in election years. Aric Putnam is a fraud. While utility bills were climbing, Putnam cast THE DECIDING VOTE for Walz's Blackout Bill. That's led to higher utility prices AND brownouts in St. Cloud. Alpha News writes that Putnam's true colors are anything but those of a moderate. For instance, "Perhaps most interesting about his time in the legislature was his decision to support DFL Sen. Omar Fateh’s bid for mayor of Minneapolis." Omar Fateh was heralded as the "Midwest Mamdani." Fateh was endorsed by a local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) in his bid for mayor and is one of the most far-left members of the Senate. He supported a 2021 effort to ...

Jonathan Turley has long been an advocate for public education. He affirmed that in this Hill op-ed . He wrote "Despite my long support for public schools, I believe vouchers may be the only way to wrest control away from the education cartel by introducing real competition based on academic performance." Earlier in that op-ed, he wrote "In a prior column, I was particularly moved by the frustration of a mother in Baltimore who complained that her son was in the top half of his class despite failing all but three of his classes. Her story led to my changing my view of school vouchers." This will require a partnership between reform-oriented teachers and deep-pocketed philanthropist who share a vision for competition in K-12 education. This isn't meant to imply that increased funding leads to better outcomes. It's saying that we need philanthropisats to establish scholarahip funds that lead to greater competition. Without competition, rebuilding K-12 educatio...

Electing Democrats helps accomplish 2 things. First, it helps deplete the Medicaid funding for important programs like Housing Stabilization Services, Autism centers and "Learing Centers." The other thing it 'helps' is it helps criminals roam free . In this case, the criminals roaming free were confirmed to be Somali gangs : 🚨 BREAKING: The Eden Prairie Police Department officially confirms that last night’s shooting was gang related. These Somali gangs are out of control. It’s time to vote in new leadership that will actually work to keep Minnesotans safe. pic.twitter.com/GgtAwKcHPB — Dustin Grage (@GrageDustin) October 3, 2026 Thankfully, Gov. Walz is all over this: State officials are assisting local authorities to find those responsible after a shooting outside the Eden Prairie football game. No homecoming, in any community, should be disrupted by gun violence. Minnesotans are keeping students and families in our thoughts tonight. — Governor Tim Walz (@GovTimWal...

Friday night's KSTP scheduled debates had several distinct winners, including the moderators of the CD-2 debate, Tom Hauser, who moderated the conversations with GOP AG Candidate Ron Schutz, GOP Senate Candidate Michele Tafoya and GOP gubernatorial candidate Lisa Demuth. Further, Schutz and Demuth turned in impressive performances. Michele Tafoya didn't have her strongest performance but I'd still argue that she had a solid interview with Tom Hauser. It's difficult picking tonight's biggest winner so I'll pick several MAJOR WINNERS ! Tom Hauser's first interview was with Ron Schutz. What struck me is the contrast between Keith Ellison's defensive bragging, most often while defending his inaction against preventing or prosecuting fraud. In many of these instances, Ellison was caught by Bill Glahn to not told the whole truth. In Schutz's interview, he often displayed a commannd of the law and a passion for ethics. AG Ellison's name will never be a...

It's pretty obvious that the DFL's major statewide candidates won't strike fear in people's hearts when it comes to debating. Let's be undiplomatic about tonight's scheduled KSTP debates. KSTP reports that "Next Friday, Oct. 2, 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS will host primetime statewide debates focused on the races for Governor, Senate, and Attorney General. Invitations were sent out after the primaries, and 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS continues to speak with the campaigns. So far, Lisa Demuth, Michele Tafoya and Ron Schutz have confirmed plans to appear." Confident candidates can't wait to debate their opponents. In 2024, President Trump couldn't wait to debate Joe Biden. That turned into the biggest debate bloodbath in political history, even surpassing Reagan's thumping of Jimmy Carter. Then, too, Carter still had a functioning brain. Biden didn't. But I digress. There's a strategy to the DFL's skipping of debates. Klobuchar is the only DFL candi...

After reading this Alpha News article about Minnesota's disturbing test scores, people HAVE GOTTEN IMPATIENT with Minnesota's educational decline. Minnesota's parents aren't satisfied with EdMinn's and the DFL's failing status quo. I say failing rather than failed because Minnesota's public schools haven't reversed the course. Luke Sprinkel reports "According to 2026 data from the Minnesota Report Card, MDE’s online portal for student achievement scores, just 48.6% of students are proficient in reading. Meanwhile, only 44.9% are proficient in math and just 25.5% are proficient in science. Data from the Minnesota Report Card shows math proficiency has hovered between 44% and 45% since 2022 while science proficiency was 26.2% last year. Similarly, reading proficiency was at 51% in 2022 and dropped to 49.5% by 2025." We're entering an AI world. How can Minnesota compete when only 25.5% are grade-proficient in science? That's a recipe for...