The Land of 10,000 Lakes has been hit with a massive wave of fraud inside its own borders, largely stemming from Somali immigrants living in the state. The scandal has cheated Minnesotans out of at least a billion dollars, and on today’s edition of The Editors, Charlie responds to this story by reminding listeners about last week’s conversation on America as a creedal nation.
“I said, yes, it is [a creedal nation]. And as a result, it is extremely important that we insist upon acquiescence to the creed. . . . The United States is different. It’s different because it has a particular culture, and that culture is superior to everywhere else. . . . And if you don’t demand that your superior culture, your different culture is maintained, then it will go away.”
Charlie points out that he is “very strongly of the view that anyone can become an American. But the word that really matters in that sentence is can. Anyone can become an American. I know great Americans from France and Japan and Russia — people who exemplify what it is to be part of this country’s story. I don’t think that we could say the same writ large of the Somali community in Minnesota.”
He is clear that he’s “not saying no Somali can become a good American. Of course I’m not. . . . I’m not saying there aren’t good Somalis who have become Americans in Minnesota. I am saying that I don’t think that that is a success story.”
Charlie identifies two key problems here: that “the political center of gravity in Minnesota is not geared toward demanding that those who move here become of us,” and that “the process by which people who move here become of us requires certain sacrifices that are eased and often removed by generous welfare systems.
“I think if we, as we should in our 250th year . . . want to redouble our effort to ensure that we maintain that character that has made us different and to ensure that America looks more like the successful assimilation stories . . . then we have to be able to identify where we’re failing and why we’re failing. And Somalia in Minnesota — and I say that quite deliberately, given the way that, for example, Ilhan Omar and other politicians talk — doesn’t work.”
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