By now, for example, you've seen the heartwarming footage of children hug-bombing Walz as he signed a law providing universal free school lunches and breakfasts. But that specific law Walz was signing - a key plank of the MAMA agenda - happens to be quite good policy, too. Making nutritious meals available to kids, without stigmatizing the poorest among them, is a valuable public investment. A recent meta-analysis of past studies on universal school meals found positive associations with children's diet quality, food security and academic performance.

Other policies that he's pushed also look like good stewardship of public funds - in addition to being, you know, compassionate.

For instance, Minnesota is developing a program to ensure that kids on Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program are continuously insured from birth to age 6, rather than periodically kicking them out of the program if their family's income fluctuates slightly.

This is no small mercy. The paperwork required for reapplication is burdensome. It often results in eligible kids losing access to needed medical coverage because of administrative errors, even when their family's income doesn't change. Similar programs have been associated with improvements in kids' health.

Minnesota's version looks like a pretty good bargain for taxpayers, too. Research suggests that historical Medicaid expansions for kids offer high returns on investment. These policies often "pay for themselves," says MIT economics professor Nathaniel Hendren, because of "improved later-life health of those children (which reduces future Medicaid spending) and increased later-life earnings (which increases tax revenue)."

A recent survey conducted by Morning Consult found that 82 percent of registered voters support paid family and medical leave. Among the supporters: 76 percent of Republicans. I supposed that means three-quarters of Republican voters must be "communists" like Walz, too.

Many of his other reforms have historically received bipartisan support, such as expanding the child tax credit and investing in affordable housing. And once again, they're further evidence that one major party cares about children and families; and the other does not.

If states are the laboratories of democracy, Walz has proved himself an outstanding laboratorian. Americans could do worse than enduring a more widespread expansion of his "radical" experiments.

By continuing to follow Trump's demented lead, the current Republican Party is marching straight towards a political reality they've been able to avoid for decades due to their repeated use of fearmongering, scapegoating and scare tactics. The faux reality and the herd mentality that they create inside their media sphere is finally smacking up against the impenetrable truth: Many of the things Republican politicians staunchly stand against are things working class Americans actually want and benefit from. And these same programs not only benefit individuals, they provide positive benefits to employers and actually do improve the quality of people's lives.

And Minnesota stands as a sterling example of what America can achieve if more emphasis is put on providing common sense assistance to families instead of more tax cuts and breaks for wealthy business owners and the investment class.

Americans have been lied to for decades since the so-called Reagan Revolution. We (since every person in America either pays taxes directly or has someone paying them as a matter of personal consumption) have been told that America can't afford the things which improve lives on Main Street in deference to prioritizing Wall Street. Minnesota shows that this is not the case. We can - and should - invest in the lives and wellbeing of all taxpayers with programs that improve future outcomes on multiple fronts. Life is not always zero sum as Republicans want everyone to believe.

Slowly but surely Democrats are coming around to embrace their connection and support for what Republicans call radical agendas, marxist policies, and other falsely inflammatory language that demonizes Americans who want better for struggling families, not just those already gliding carefree through their ivory towers.

For decades Republicans have convinced their supporters in middle America that if Democrats are allowed their policies, their own personal freedom will suffer under the yoke of government dictats. Democrats are finally flipping this script on its head by pointing to all the positive impacts realized throughout our households and our society by prioritizing the wellbeing of children and workers - keeping children healthier by feeding them in school, and providing parents with needed paid sick leave and time off for the childbirth. It's hard to be free when one is tethered by the demands and pressures of life.

And none of this real pro-family agenda is "radical" or "communistic." It's simply us taking better care of more of us - as any nation as blessed as ours should do willingly as a matter of American comity.

I checked and Minnesota benefits from having several high income earning industries in medical, IT, manufacturing and financial services.

Expanding that to the federal level would be great.

All you had to do is read the freaking article and you would have been disabused of your ignorance before displaying it for all to see. Minnesota's high rankings started over a decade ago when then Democratic governor Mark Dayton implemented completely different programs and priorities as did their neighbor Republican Governor Scott Walker in Wisconsin who governed from the typical post-Reagan Republican playbook.

And the Chef's kiss aspect of Walz' Minnesota record is this: Paid sick leave, paid family and medical leave, universal school meals, tampon provision in schools (just like providing toilet paper and paper towels), state child tax credits, streamlined and expanded children's medicaid insurance, state investment in affordable housing - most of these things poll as popular with over 75% of Republicans, so are these majorities also "socialist" or "commies" as Republican politicians try to imply?

All this shows is that in the real middle America, it's the GOP who's out of touch with what voters really want government to do as it regards improving lives on Main Street. And cutting taxes for the wealthy isn't on the list.

And the ultimate beauty of the above reality is that each thing listed enhances every adult's and child's ability to live freer lives as a result of government intervening to improve health and educational outcomes while making it easier to find affordable housing for families.

What is there to criticize in this equation when the government is providing these things while being fiscally responsible at the same time?

The secular world doesn't fit neatly into your world view. It's one evil force or another.

It's becoming more evident the last few years the way Christianity and Judaism are under attack.

I was baptized into the Roman Catholic church when I was 3 days old. I went to parochial school through 8th grade. I received all the living sacraments, was an altar boy, and used my classical piano training to sometimes play organ during mass. I also went to and graduated from The University of Notre Dame du Lac - which is how my sheepskin reads. Today, I no longer attend the church, but I remain a spiritual person that tries to follow the Beatitudes/Sermon on the Mount as my path towards the divinity that matters to me.

Never in my life have I participated in attacking my own religion or anyone else's.

You've taken this thread on an unnecessary tangent that brings nothing to addressing this thread's topic. The fact that anyone chooses to take offense to Minnesota schools providing a paper product that half the students use to hygienically contain their biological menstrual blood-flow inside their bodies isn't a political nor religious/secular issue. It is no different than schools providing both sexes with toilet paper to use. This provides a direct benefit to those who're unable to purchase their own products and bring them to school when needed. Many who can't afford simple paper tampons often stay home from school to avoid obvious embarrassment. Now those children can attend school like all the others. There is nothing more Christian than being our brother's - and sister's - keeper when they have an easily correctable need.

I forgot to comment on this:

The secular world doesn't fit neatly into your world view. It's one evil force or another.

John 4:16 - We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.

Matt - 5:11-12 "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

"There is nothing to fear but the fear of itself."