How We Got Where We Are

Minnesota is a complete mess, and if there is a silver lining, it is that most Minnesotans understand how bad things are. You can’t solve a problem until you admit that you have it, and in American Experiment’s Thinking Minnesota Poll, 58% say their state is on the wrong track.

How did things go so disastrously wrong? Taxes are absurdly high, for one thing: Minnesota, for example, taxes small businesses more heavily than any other state. But Minnesota has become infamous, more than anything else, for an incompetent state government that has allowed thieves, overwhelmingly Somalis, to steal billions of dollars with an ease that could be likened to taking candy from a baby. But that would be unfair to babies.

The roots of the fiasco lie deep; this video of Senator Amy Klobuchar reveals the attitudes that made industrial-scale fraud inevitable. Klobuchar was actually proud of the fact that she made it easy for Somalis to send money back to their home country; it turned out that much, likely most, of that money was stolen from Minnesota’s welfare programs. And in a sea of Somali flags, Klobuchar sees nothing but DFL votes. Assimilation? Who needs it?

In this video Amy Klobucher, campaigning for Minnesota governor, speaks Somali, happily accepts an upside-down American flag, and brags about making it easier for Somalis in America to send money (much of it fraudulently acquired) to their home country. https://t.co/BXt4B1fOct

— L A R R Y (@LarryOConnor) October 4, 2026

Klobuchar was in the Senate throughout the time when fraudsters fleeced federal programs administered by the Tim Walz administration to the tune of more than $9 billion. Not only did she do nothing to stop the fraud, she actually made it worse through her earmarks.