October 12, 2020 at 10:33 a.m.
The return of the jackbooted liberal, with an elitist twist
The return of the jackbooted liberal, with an elitist twist
Over time, in the middle of the 20th century especially, the phrase became coopted by those in positions of power over others, to show those they commanded that they could act in any way they wanted to, while those below them had to conform to their commands, even if those commands stood in direct contradiction to their own behavior.
Overbearing parents did it to their children - I don't have to put my things away, but you do - employers did it to employees, tyrannical teachers to their students.
In recent years, the phrase has become a way of life for the leftist elite in the world. Environmental elites clamor for climate change policies - and for criminalizing those who disagree with those policies - while living exactly the lives they warn against, such as when Prince Harry and Princess Meghan flew around the world in private jets to lecture everybody.
Anti-gun rights celebrities don't want average citizens to have firearms to protect themselves and their families but have no problem walking around with battalions of private, armed security guards.
And on and on it goes, the mantra of the left: Do as I say do, not as I do.
All of which brings us to Kirk Bangstad, the Democratic nominee for the 34th Assembly district seat and the owner of the Minocqua Brewing Company. Mr. Bangstad has seen fit to hang a huge Joe Biden banner on the side of his business.
We say huge because it looks huge to us, not that we know how big it actually is. But to the county zoning department, which regulates signs, it looks huge, too, meaning larger than the county sign ordinance allows.
So zoning director Karl Jennrich sent Bangstad Properties a letter telling Bangstad he was in violation of the ordinance and to remove it. This apparently offended Mr. Bangstad, you know, that someone might actually tell him he had to follow the law.
The Minocqua Brewing Company (MBC) - obviously Mr. Bangstad, who owns it - responded on Facebook, railing against the "ludicrous letter" he received from the "aging white male Republican County Board Supervisors" that told him he was in violation and proclaiming that "whatever ordinance they have against our sign violates our first amendment rights."
Mr. Bangstad started raising money off the letter, because, the post said, if the sign wasn't taken down, the letter warned that "we will be fined daily until it is." He wanted to raise $17,000, not just to pay off the fine but to spend the rest against "Republican Lance Krolzyk, the County Board Supervisor that represents our Brewpub, the next time he runs for office."
Mr. Bangstad - ur, MBC - said he was "absolutely sure" that if this were a Trump sign, "we wouldn't have received this ludicrous letter yesterday which is posted here."
Finally, to close things out, our classy candidate called county supervisors "bungling right wing dotard County Board Supervisors."
So let's address the most egregious thing about this first: Mr. Bangstad doesn't want to abide by the ordinance. Just like any leftist, he's offended he has to.
Think about it. Here's a man running to become a lawmaker who doesn't want to obey laws. You know, he wants to be able to do whatever he wants.
On the other hand, he wanted people who refused to abide by the governor's face mask mandate to pay the price, and he called upon the Minocqua police department to enforce the mandate to make sure they did.
Do as I say do. That's right, when it comes to obeying laws and ordinances, Mr. Bangstad doesn't believe he has to when he disagrees with them, but when he does, he surely wants lawless rogues punished.
Do as I say do, not as I do.
But wait, you ask, Mr. Bangstad believes the ordinance is unconstitutional, so why should he obey it? Surely, you wouldn't stand for such a trampling of liberty and free speech?
Well, first, we would point out that those who violate the mask mandate also believe it is an unconstitutional use of executive power, so that doesn't resolve the double standard. Second, if Mr. Bangstad truly felt it was unconstitutional, why isn't he challenging it in court?
After all, the mask mandate has been challenged in court on behalf of all those who think it should not stand. But Mr. Bangstad appears not to be willing to undertake a similar challenge over free speech, or to organize one. By his statements, it appears he is just going to defy the law, pay the fine, and let it stand so others can be punished down the road.
What a principled guy!
All this tells us two things. First, as Mr. Bangstad probably knows, the regulation is constitutional. The ordinance regulates size, placement to ensure safety, duration, and a few other things. The important point is that it doesn't regulate content, which the Supreme Court has held is unconstitutional.
There's no ruling that prohibits other regulations so long as they are applied to everyone in the same way and are reasonable. It seems to us that the allowable size of the signs is a reasonable regulation, given that they can be as large as other signs allowed in the ordinance. And we can certainly see Mr. Bangstad's banner.
To be sure, Mr. Bangstad says he's sure he wouldn't have gotten such a letter if it had been a Trump sign, but, as any reader of this paper knows, we have never thought of the Oneida County zoning department as a hotbed of Republican activism. Their comfort and even love for the over-regulation of property over the years speaks otherwise.
On top of that, Mr. Jennrich is on record as saying he has received no specific complaints about specific oversized Trump signs. If he did and was given a location, he would act in the same manner, he said.
Which brings us to the second point about Mr. Bangstad's posturing. His response - well OK, again, it's written under the name of the brewing company he owns, not him, but does that fool anyone? - his response is full of falsehoods and inaccuracies, seemingly designed to benefit his political race.
It's a stunt.
He says he received a letter from the board of supervisors, apparently so he could frame an attack against them, but in fact the letter came from Mr. Jennrich, who received a complaint. In fact, Mr. Jennrich said none of the supervisors, including Mr. Krolczyk, had any knowledge of the letter, and, in sending it, he was just doing his job.
Mr. Bangstad's falsehood allows him to unleash an attack on those "aging white male Republicans" that he says they all are. But since those are nonpartisan positions, we really don't know, and, from our perspective, given some of the votes they have taken, we believe quite a few, if not a majority, are Democrats, or at least hold Democratic viewpoints.
How else to explain a county government that continues to grow its bureaucracy and that protects and defends low value and wasteful programs such as the UW Extension and the Oneida-Vilas Transit Commission, even as its fiscal outlook weakens.
As for Mr. Krolczyk, who represents the district in which the Minocqua Brewing Company sits and whom Mr. Bangstad also branded with the Republican label, where is the evidence that he is a Republican?
He may be, and we have criticized Mr. Krolczyk when we thought he was wrong, but we find nothing in his voting record to indicate either conservative Republican bias or liberal Democratic bias. Mr. Krolczyk has sided with conservatives on a number of issues where there were clear-cut partisan divides, but he has also sided with liberals on other partisan questions, such as when the county voted to prohibit mining on all county lands, a vote that was opposed by conservatives and Republicans but that Mr. Krolczyk supported.
He also sided with liberals on the board when he voted against a petition to rezone land in Hazelhurst to pave the way for a gravel pit. Mr. Krolczyk's voting record offers no partisan pattern.
But Mr. Bangstad creates one out of thin air, on a letter Mr. Krolczyk had nothing to do with.
So it's a stunt by Mr. Bangstad, a calibrated effort to mislead his own supporters so he can raise money.
It's true to the mold. The left loves to tell people what they can do, so long as they themselves can do as they please, and they love to accuse those who oppose them of spreading lies and misinformation, when in fact leftists are the biggest purveyors of dishonesty.
Just read the MBC's trail of deception in the Facebook post. Oh, and one more deception in that post, when the MBC writes that, until the sign is taken down, "we will be fined daily."
But Jennrich's letter doesn't say that. It says the department "may seek injunctive relief and/or forfeitures" in court.
Mr. Bangstad wants to play the victim persecuted to the hilt, but neglects to say that the county states it's only a possibility. Besides that, it tells us the county is willing to go to court to defend an ordinance passed by our elected representatives, but Mr. Bangstad, the wannabe lawmaker, won't go to court to challenge it.
Either he doesn't have the courage of his convictions, or he simply has no convictions.
Take your pick. He's a coward or a con artist. One thing's for sure though, if he's elected, he Will believe that you should obey the whip of his law, while he rides rogue in the streets.
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