MINOT, N.D. -- Recently, I was writing a column about the District 42 North Dakota Democratic-NPL and their ill-fated Facebook boycott, and I got to thinking about how incompetence can be an inoculation against criticism.
The Democratic-NPL has become so pitiful, their misdeeds, which would garner a great deal of attention if perpetrated by a more capable political organization, tend to fly under the radar.
Some Republican-leaning readers might choose to interpret this as bias in the news media, but I suspect a better explanation is pity.
Let's consider the record.
The most recent misadventure from our Democratic friends is the aforementioned Facebook boycott in District 42. With a withering torrent of sanctimony, local party leaders announced the move on Facebook in late June.
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"Facebook has shown that in the wake of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery, Rayshard Brooks and so many others, they idly have allowed their platform to incite citizens to violence against protesters, against their fellow citizens in the streets fighting for racial justice in America," the post read.
"Therefore, for the month of July, District 42 will not purchase advertising services on Facebook," the post continued.
By July 10, District 42 House candidate Adam Fortwengler was already violating the boycott with a Facebook ad. The post announcing the boycott was deleted from Facebook. Neither Fortwengler nor the District 42 Democratic-NPL would comment on this turn events.
Had a local chapter of the NDGOP perpetrated this stunt, it would have been important news.
Since it's just the North Dakota Democrats, it's a dog-bites-man story.
On the statewide ballot, the Democratic-NPL has an Insurance Commissioner candidate in Travisia Martin who has admitted to voting in Nevada in 2016. To hold that office, a candidate must have five years of residency in North Dakota. Voting in Nevada, as you might imagine, requires residency there. One cannot be a resident of North Dakota and a resident of Nevada at the same time. Yet Martin is refusing to acknowledge the problem, forcing the NDGOP to file suit to remove her from the ballot .
Dog bites man.
In the last election cycle, the Democratic-NPL, which can often be heard making accusations of voter suppression against Republicans, attempted to suppress votes with phony claims, made by way of a fake hunting group they created on Facebook, that North Dakota hunters might lose their hunting privileges in North Dakota if they voted in the 2018 election .
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The claim was a complete fabrication.
Dog bites man.
That same cycle, the Democratic-NPL sent out multiple expensive mailers promoting the candidacy of Michael Coachman, a very pro-Donald Trump Republican who was running for Secretary of State. The Democrats, who ridicule Trump as a racist and a bigot, were happy to promote an ardent supporter of his because they thought it might split the vote in favor of their candidate, state Rep. Josh Boschee.
It didn't.
Dog bites man.
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Rob Port, founder of SayAnythingBlog.com, is a Forum Communications commentator. Reach him on Twitter at @robport or via email at rport@forumcomm.com .
