I Governor of Minnesota: An Ideography -- from EPIC to DO GET USE

This book is foundational for my 2022 campaign for Governor of Minnesota (but also for an “interim” campaign for Congress, more on that -- and possibly future campaigns.) The campaign is framed as a kind of remake of an earlier, then-famous (but now forgotten) and surprisingly successful campaign: Upton Sinclair’s 1934 run for Governor of California.

Chapter one digs into Mr. Sinclair’s 1934 campaign. Today’s technology makes it possible for a campaign to “go viral” in ways that simply were not possible in 1934. I’m hanging my hopes on this.

Of course, America is also incredibly divided. Without flat-out denying reality, I’m committed to challenging this – including with a Republican-Socialist dialogue – something this book is heavily weighted towards promoting. My sense is that a lot of people are looking for a way out of today’s division.

Briefly, I am both a long-time Republican, but also a charter member of the “Never Trump” camp. Since 2016 I’ve been convinced that Trump is manifestly unfit and unqualified to be President. In 2017 I published Break Glass Impeach Trump –showing both why and how I thought he could be impeached.

Republicans simply must face up to the Trump disaster. He is an insurrectionist who must not be allowed to appear on a Federal ballot again. The recent Russian invasion of Ukraine has brought this issue to a boil. And let’s remember – there is strong if not overwhelming evidence that the 2016 U.S. Presidential election was stolen… not by Trump, but by Putin and Russia.

End Poverty In California – EPIC – was the centerpiece of Upton Sinclair’s 1934 campaign for Governor. This was the height of the Depression; California was hard hit, like the rest of the country. Sinclair’s main idea was simply to put people to work in factories and on farms – producing things they could both use and sell. It was sensible and popular as a basic concept.
My campaign has a similar acronym approach, but with three acronym words – DO GET USE -- not just one. This “triple acronym” is also presented in detail. The essence of DO GET USE is based first on the idea that a lot of progress has been made since the Great Depression. America does now have an economic safety net that was lacking back then. But we should reemphasize a basic idea: It still makes sense to first expect people to DO something – typically work -- but with needed exceptions for those who can’t work. In return for work, people GET something – typically income… but I’m willing to consider other options. Finally, people USE what they GET – they provide for themselves and their families. I think this DO GET USE idea should remain the foundation for our economy.

But I also understand that everyone, Republicans included, must also seek new and better ways both to provide for “the public benefit” and to safeguard and improve our environment. DO GET USE lays out plans for doing this. A lot of this is based on the opportunity to use technology in new and better ways. As just one example, Chapter 6 introduces one of my patent-pending inventions – a global thermostat that can literally set the temperature of planet Earth while also generating enough solar electricity to pay for itself. How’s that for audacious? Please note: this is subject to scientific verification. Here’s my challenge: show me where I’m wrong in my facts and reasoning.

Chapter 5 (out of order) introduces more radically innovative thinking about how we can develop infrastructure using both Electric Vehicles and vehicles powered by hydrogen gas using Internal Combustion Engine technology. This can also be zero-emission – we can capture and recycle Carbon Dioxide produced by vehicles burning fossil fuel, and we can recycle that Carbon Dioxide into synthetic liquid fuels that can also power existing ICE vehicles. Again: show me where I’m wrong.

That’s the guts of what this book is about.