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The classic question to ask a leftist true believer is “How much progress is too much progress?” In other words, at what point would today’s radical iconoclast turn into tomorrow’s stodgy reactionary? While important regarding the nature of today’s politics, this question is essentially beside the point, since whoever would answer it honestly likely has little control over the ebbs and flows of history. They would be concerned about right and wrong, good and evil, and hence be too nice to make much of a difference.

A more pertinent question would be, “How much power is too much power?” Because that is what this is all about: power. For the cynical leftist, there can never be too much power.

To illustrate the difference, imagine an openly race-realist white doctor. A leftist “true believer” might wish to cancel him because he cannot be trusted to care for non-white patients. Immoral people will do immoral things, after all. On the other hand, a cynical leftist—that is, a person bent on effecting historical change—will wish to cancel such a person because, by merely existing in the public square, he becomes both an impediment and embarrassment to leftist power. Because there can never be too much power, that cannot be tolerated.

I was reminded of these questions when learning recently that Tim Walz, vice-presidential candidate on the 2024 Democratic ticket, signed a bill back in 2023 which adjusted the Minnesota Human Rights Act to no longer exclude pedophilia from the state’s definition of “sexual orientation.” Previously, there had been explicit language excluding “a physical or sexual attachment to children by an adult” from the accepted definition of this term, thus freezing out pedophiles from potential legal protection. The assumption was that pedophilia is a mental disorder as well as a crime, and not a proper sexual orientation. No one could ever place pedo colors on the Minnesota rainbow flag.

Well, that’s gone by the wayside thanks to transgender Minnesota legislator Leigh Finke. This person went out of his/her way to strike the above verbiage from the state law.

MXMNews has the story:

According to a Twitter thread by user @xxclusionary, Leigh Finke introduced H. F. No. 1655 on February 13th, 2023, which redefined “sexual orientation” by removing the section that explicitly excluded pedophilia. The bill passed through multiple revisions, and in every revision, the exclusion of pedophiles remained crossed out. This amendment was ultimately included in the “Take Pride Act,” which was signed into law by Tim Walz. @xxclusionary emphasized that this change reflects a dangerous shift in legal protections and could lead to pedophilia being protected under the guise of sexual orientation​.

Finke characterized the amendment as “modernizing” the terminology to reflect supposedly contemporary understandings of sexual orientation and gender, while Republican lawmakers, including GOP House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth, have described the decision to strike this language as “disturbing and inexplicable.”

Of course, Finke did not need to do this. Would the transgender agenda have actually lost any ground if the good citizens of Minnesota had continued to view pedophilia as a bridge too far? Probably not. If anything, drawing a line in the sand against molesting children would have only enhanced the reputation of transgenderism in the eyes of Americans who haven’t made up their minds about it yet—especially those who actually have children.

But the point here was never to hold ground, but to gain it. This is the purpose of progressivism: to surge forward like the Terminator, regardless of whatever destruction gets left in its wake. Assuming that this Finke person and Governor Walz are leftist true believers, they will likely explain the Take Pride Act in same way progressives have always explained the changes they initiate—as an altruistic act of empathy for a disadvantaged and marginalized subset of our population. Years ago, such beneficiaries were children working in factories, or blacks laboring on chain gangs, or women toiling in sweatshops. These days it’s people haunted by a rare and perverse sexual desire that can ruin young lives and get the perpetrators thrown into prison (or off of buildings in certain parts of the world). It’s all the same, right?

Perhaps Finke has this desire his/her self? Or perhaps Finke knows people who do and sympathizes with them over the children they victimize? Who knows? In any event, the Humbert Humberts and NAMBLA types of the world are breathing a little more easily these days because they know that, thanks to their frizzy-haired paladin in the Minnesota government, things are beginning to swing their way just a little bit. And if the history of progressivism in any indication, things ain’t gonna be swinging back any time soon.

But what if Finke and Walz are not leftist true believers? What could their motivation possibly be to crack open the door to child molestation a little bit more than it already is? Well, assuming they are cynical leftists, their motivation is to weaken the Right. To humiliate and bewilder them, to lower their morale and standing in our society, and to give the Left more opportunities to brand the Right as bigoted and out of touch. Basically, to thumb them in the eye and kick them below the belt in our cultural struggles—which many are beginning to learn never had any rules to begin with. This is how you win, and the cynical Left wants desperately to win—because this is the surest and quickest path to power.

So, viewed through the lens of zero-sum realpolitik, the changes to Minnesota’s Take Pride Act are not inexplicable at all. That they are a grotesque betrayal of an impressionable and vulnerable part of our population is not important—at least not when compared to the leftist need to wield power. Maybe Finke and Walz are true believers as far as it goes, but expanding breathing room for pedophiles is such a treacherous act, I have to suspect that naked ambition for power has more to do with it than reflecting “contemporary understandings of sexual orientation.”

This November, when Tim Walz and the Democrats attempt to hold on to the US presidency which they fraudulently acquired back in 2020, American voters should hold their feet to the fire over our presumptive vice president’s indulgent attitude regarding the rape of children. Yes, we can hit him for his stolen valor, for declaring Minnesota a sanctuary state for transgender youth, and for allowing Minneapolis to burn during the Summer of Floyd, among other things. But most importantly, we should frame him as an enabler of pedophilia. And we should not let up since the lives of children are literally at stake here. A vote for the Democrats in this instance would be a vote for pedophilia, either today or tomorrow. It doesn’t matter. Progress will get us there eventually—unless a critical mass of Americans finally realize that the leftists in power indeed have too much power, and that we reached the point of too much progress a long time ago.