The Head of the North Dakota College Democrats Needs Some Remedial Work on Vocabulary

Last week I wrote that Senator Heidi Heitkamp is the most disingenuous politician in North Dakota. That’s because she’s pretending as though she’s undecided about a 2018 run for the U.S. Senate even as she raised a massive (by North Dakota standards) $1.6 million for her re-election campaign already and then leaked favorable facts about that fundraising to the media.

Feigning uncertainty while you’re really certain is a disingenuous thing to do.

Flash forward to today, a Mr. Ryan Gilbertson – executive director of the North Dakota College Democrats – has a letter to the editor of the Fargo Forum saying I’ve got it all wrong.

“The assertion that anyone other than Rep. Kevin Cramer is North Dakota’s ‘most disingenuous politician’ is laughable,” Gilbertson writes. He then goes on to list a bunch of policy positions Cramer has taken – such as his stance on health care – which aren’t so much disingenuous as just things most North Dakota voters undoubtedly support.

Which makes me uncertain whether Gilbertson knows what “disingenuous” means.

It means, “not candid or sincere, typically by pretending that one knows less about something than one really does.” Which describes Heitkamp’s position on her re-election campaign exactly.

It does not mean “says and does things left wingers disagree with.”

I get why Democrats want to change the subject to Cramer. Beating the tar out of Cramer to keep him from giving Heitkamp the re-election race of her life is part of the incumbent Senator’s re-election strategy.

But still.

Gilbertson, somehow a University of North Dakota student apparently taking college level courses, could use some work on his vocabulary.

If this is the future of the North Dakota Democratic Party I don’t think the NDGOP has much to worry about.