In a recent fundraising letter, Congressman Erik Paulsen went beyond his usual partisan talking points and sprinkling of half-truths and waded into the territory of unfounded conspiracy theory.
He warned against a “flood” of outside “paid liberal activists” and labeled opposition in his district as “all the paid volunteers George Soros’ money can buy”. This is the same language used by extreme-right conspiracy theory sites like Info Wars and Breitbart.
Of course, there’s no evidence to back up these claims, and it’s insulting to his constituents to dismiss their concerns this way. It’s deeply cynical and un-American to falsely claim that those engaged in the political process are only doing so because they’re being paid.
But what’s more concerning is that he is willing to spread that falsehood for his own gain and that he is using the same tactics of division, deception, and delusion that we saw from the Trump campaign and continue to see in the Trump administration.
Paulsen’s letter demonstrates, along with his record of voting in-line with the Trump agenda 98.5 percent of the time1, that he’s not the mild-mannered moderate that he works so hard to convince us he is. In fact, he’s fully behind everything Trump stands for and claims him in his letter as “our reform-driven president.”
Paulsen’s unwavering support of this historically unpopular presidency reveals his disconnection from his constituency and brings into question his fitness to be its representative.
Rob Wilcox, Eden Prairie
Eden Prairie News, February 22 2018