Trump/Frey Spat Suggests DFL Stands for “Different standards For Liberals”

Today is the day that President Trump arrives in Minneapolis for a rally as he ramps up his efforts to carry the state in the upcoming election.

President Trump is always seeking to be the center of attention, but Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has added fuel to the fire by taking unprecedented steps by attempting to prevent the rally from occurring. Interestingly, the controversy has brought to light a double standard that is becoming more and more evident in Minnesota, liberals are held to a different standard than conservatives.

For example, the Star Tribune writes:

“The city has historically not charged for similar events in the past, although the scale of those events were “much smaller” than Thursday’s rally, Bergstrom said.

In February 2008, then-Sen. Barack Obama held an election rally at Target Center that was attended by 20,000 supporters. The Star Tribune has requested but not yet received data about the city’s security expenses for that event, and who paid for them.

The message from City Hall to the candidate at the time was vastly different. Then-Mayor R.T. Rybak was Obama’s campaign chairman in Minnesota. In an e-mail Wednesday, Rybak, now the president and CEO of the Minneapolis Foundation, said he could not remember how the costs for the rally were handled.

Rybak said he had previously raised concern about city expenses related to political rallies, saying “the costs incurred by local communities are completely out of line.” He said he supported Frey’s comments on the issue.”

Mr. Rybak may indeed have forgotten how the campaign costs were handled, but I must say it seems awfully convenient.

In contrast to Obama’s visit, Mayor Frey has demanded that the Trump campaign pay $530,000 for additional police and public safety spending up front, before the event.

I have no problem with the Mayor deciding that anyone who puts on an event in Minneapolis should have to pay for their own security, whether it is Donald Trump, Elizabeth Warren, the Superbowl, or the Doobie Brothers, but everyone should be held to the same standard.

Unfortunately, it has become increasingly clear that liberals are held to a different, less-stringent, standard than conservatives, as Tom Steward eloquently writes in the cover story of the latest issue of Thinking Minnesota.

This is the opposite of everything America should strive to be, a place where everyone is treated equally before the law, regardless of their race, sex, religion, or political beliefs.