That’s some headline I saw on the front page of the Star Tribune this morning.
Fed up with attacks, Minnesota Republicans wage war against far-right group
Republicans push to “cut out the cancer” of Action 4 Liberty, a group that has repeatedly attacked elected officials and tried to replace them with hardliners.
Say what? Republicans opposing the extremists in their ranks? This is good to see…except the mainstream Republicans are only opposing this one radical group because it’s fighting against the extremism of the mainstream Republicans.
Top officials in the Minnesota Republican Party recently gathered to take an unprecedented vote: formally condemning a right-wing group that has antagonized GOP elected officials for years.
Action 4 Liberty was repeatedly attacking Republicans in the divided Minnesota House for compromising with Democrats, while also encouraging “grassroots Patriots” to oust party officers at local conventions and replace them with hardline activists.
The state GOP’s executive committee declared that leaders of Action 4 Liberty are more focused on “tearing down Republicans” than helping the party win elections: “The leadership of the organization instead works only to enrich themselves, attack those actually making a difference, and claim victories they had nothing to do with,” read the declaration brought forward by committee member Bobby Benson, who’s the state chief of staff for Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer.
This is a counter-move led by Tom Emmer’s wing of the party, and Emmer is an unpleasant conservative hardliner and big fan of Donald Trump. Action 4 Liberty is just an even more extreme subset of the Minnesota Republicans — they call Tom Emmer a Globilist[sic] RINO
which tells you how far out these guys are. This isn’t an effort to make the Republicans a little more sane, it’s just a civil war within the party that’s going to bring more chaos to the far right, and leave them unchanged.
Action 4 Liberty has had some recent successes, which leave me unimpressed.
Action 4 Liberty has enlisted grassroots activists across the state in its effort to push the GOP further to the right, telling them to seek party positions and primary incumbent lawmakers. Its success has varied over the years, with many of its candidates losing primary battles to more moderate Republicans. But last year, the group rallied activists who ousted state GOP Chair David Hann, endorsed far-right Republican Royce White for U.S. Senate and blocked GOP U.S. Rep. Michelle Fischbach from winning the party’s endorsement.
Michelle Fischbach is my representative, and she’s a horrid conservative. I am pleased to see her blocked from accomplishing anything. It is amusing that it’s her fellow Republicans who are busy standing in her way.
The DFL doesn’t care which crazy faction controls the MNGOP, since they’re going to suck no matter what.
Minnesota DFL Chairman Ken Martin released the following statement after MNGOP Chair David Hann was deposed on Saturday with the help of far-right activists, including the group Action 4 Liberty.
“The Minnesota GOP has been completely captured by the most extreme, fringe activists in Minnesota politics,” said Minnesota DFL Chairman Ken Martin. “Control of Minnesota’s entire state government is on the ballot in 2026. Today’s chaos shows that if Minnesota Republicans regain power, they will be beholden to the same far-right fringe that now dominates the national Republican Party.”
The Minnesota GOP has not won a statewide election in Minnesota in almost two decades.
Mmmmm. Smell the coffee of internecine squabbles. Let me make some popcorn. Whenever GOPers get into power, they always seem to throw their weight around trying to privatize various gov’t agencies, pissing off a lot of their followers and/or they fight with each other over “purity” values. Then in four years, the Dems are put back in power to clean up the litter box, only this time the poop is getting scattered all over the house.
Progressives really need to learn from this – what these wingnuts do, so can people who are tired of the Democratic party’s complete unwillingness to do anything. Get involved, FFS. Join local committes, run for office, vote in primaries and help candidates willing to take on the party structure.
Sure, the democratic party has stacked the deck pretty thoroughly against anyone trying to change it – but it’s basically your only option at this point, it seems, other than to just keep voting ‘D’ and hoping the party might grow a spine.
Within Team Trump there’s been a rift between Bannon and Muscovy Elon. Both are odious regardless.
In Florida the disgusting Randy Fine has been in a running spat with Desantis. The Florida legislature itself has been ignoring some of Desantis’ desires. Hopefully after his term ends Desantis slithers away into obscurity. Sadly Fine is now in Washington representing Florida in the House.
I agree with Desantis that Fine repels people:
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/02/desantis-fine-florida-election-underperformance-00266106
That may be true but the Minnesota GOP still holds a lot of power in Minnesota.
Up until a month ago, the Minnesota GOP actually controlled the state legislature.
After an election, the state legislature is now evenly split.
Internal warfare is a feature of fascist regimes – it keeps competent rivals in check from challenging the Leader as they vie between themselves to prove their loyalty.
This is not a bug, it’s working as designed.
PZ said: “it’s just a civil war within the party that’s going to bring more chaos to the far right, and leave them unchanged.”
My translation says, no matter which far right groups wins the people of Minnesota still lose.
“Two far right extremist GOP groups enter, one far right extremist GOP group leaves!”
“Nah, let’s just torch Thunderdome once the door is locked.”
History shows that internal fightings are common to extremists groups. Unfortunately, it doesn’t weakens them as a group. It just makes one faction stronger.
“The leadership of the organization instead works only to enrich themselves, attack those actually making a difference, and claim victories they had nothing to do with.”
And how is this any different from what every mainstream Republican does?