As Kamala Harris and Tim Walz meander through states pitching their 2024 platform, many people are exhuming the Minnesota governor’s past. With November fast approaching, residents of his home state are speaking out on how Walz heavy-handedly managed Minnesota during the pandemic. Lisa Zarza told The New York Post, “I think he’s an evil man who overstepped his role as the governor. He took small businesses and ripped them up. He destroyed us.”
Some might think Zarza is overreacting. Maybe they’ll dismiss her. Others might say Walz was only doing what he thought was right in a troubling time. Excuses are free and easy to repeat. No matter the case, Walz’s previous conduct should be examined more thoroughly than his supposed achievements. He is, after all, a potential United States vice president.
One Walz to Rule Them All
By October 2020, many stores in Minnesota, such as Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and Target, had all reopened. But bars, restaurants, and salons were still closed under Walz’s command. “Everyone was open 100 percent,” Zarza told the Post. “The same exact order that shut us down, opened them all up.” She and other local restaurateurs feared financial ruin, were fed up, and disobeyed the order. Zarza was soon threatened with handcuffs and fines as Walz’s control tightened. She spent $300,000 on legal fees and filed for personal bankruptcy. She even lost the license to operate her bars in Minnesota. “I had to leave the state to be able to legally work and make a living.”
Zarza will soon move to Wisconsin, where she opened a bar in 2022 called The Outpost. She hopes never to return to Minnesota. When she learned Harris had picked Walz as her VP nominee, she said she nearly fell to her knees. “I was literally sick to my stomach. Everything that he did to our state came back. I rode an hour to work and cried the whole way. . . . [Walz] took away rights from the American people and from Minnesotans that he did not have a right to take.”
Another Gopher State resident who recently vocalized her opinion of Walz was Lisa Hanson, a grandmother and small business owner. During the pandemic, she watched as Walz “renewed [the] shutdown order for bars and restaurants six times between December 2020 and January 2021,” according to Fox News. “November came, and again, I told my husband, I said, ‘we can’t do this. We can’t survive another shutdown.’ So I had two choices. I decided I was either going to close my business permanently because we couldn’t afford to stay in business any longer, or I was going to open up fully, see if we can survive this.” She defied Walz’s order and reopened her restaurant.
In December 2021, Hanson faced several criminal and civil cases, was charged with misdemeanors, fined $1,000, lost thousands in legal fees and penalties, and spent 60 days in jail. “When I faced these tyrannical leaders, if you will, there were no rights,” Hanson told Fox News. “This is a really important story that needs to be shared. America needs to know what kind of a man Tim Walz is.” Hanson’s restaurant was “forced to close while under intense pressure from the government.” She now lives in Iowa.
Actions Speak Louder Than Smiles
Destroying small businesses hasn’t been Walz’s only charm, though. Many people remember how slowly he responded to the protests following the death of George Floyd. Images and snippets flooded the internet and every mainstream news channel, showing Minneapolis engulfed in fiery orange, windows smashed, stores looted, and police officers attacked. But hey, at least nobody was socializing in bars. Protesters and rioters didn’t have to worry about mask mandates, either. Not to mention, those jailed had Harris’ support, according to a Kamala Tweet Fox News shared: “If you’re able to, chip in now to the @MNFreedomFund to help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota.”
Shortly after the vice president chose the Minnesota governor as her sidekick, Liberty Nation News Senior Political Analyst Tim Donner summarized Walz’s unsettling history as Minnesota’s leader:
“His record is brimming with far-left policies and statements. Perhaps his most revealing remark was that ‘one person’s socialism is another person’s neighborliness.’ But his words are less disturbing than his actions – or lack thereof. His first executive order as governor was to form a council on DEI – diversity, equity (not equality), and inclusion. He stood by and did nothing until it was too late, as violent BLM-inspired rioters set fire to Minneapolis in 2020. He supported defunding the police. He proposed a carbon-free agenda and an end to all carbon-based fuels in his state by 2040. He has embraced policies allowing convicted felons to vote and for illegal aliens to receive taxpayer-funded healthcare and free college. He advanced a law to require tampons in boys’ bathrooms at public schools and created a hotline for citizens to report their neighbors for Covid protocol violations.”
As time passes, more and more people might accept such behavior because “a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right,” as Thomas Paine wrote in Common Sense. “Time makes more converts than reason.”
Any progressives hypnotized by the left’s illusion of caring might view Walz’s actions during the pandemic as a tradeoff: freedom exchanged for public health and a false sense of security. Some may not know enough about liberty to understand the seemingly autocratic behavior Walz exerted under the guise of safety. Many Minnesotans have probably forgotten or misremembered 2020 and now think, “Eh, it wasn’t that bad.” Regardless, people should take heed here and analyze the history of Harris’ running mate. She chose him for a reason, and it probably wasn’t because she thought he looked nice in a suit. Her choice plausibly reflects her intentions and might advertise what voters could expect from their administration. Both have already shown the nation who they are.
