Francesca Hong’s campaign reveals her true hatred for American culture. She struggled with having a half-white, half-Korean son because it put her in “proximity to whiteness.” She helped incite aggressive protests against law enforcement, even after a knife-wielding man injured a cop in her own city. She wants to implement communist-style government-run grocery stores, abolish ICE and the police, and bashes the service industry for being a racist institution founded on white supremacy. The list of Marxist-adjacent policies she wishes to implement as Wisconsin governor goes on and on: Universal childcare, an anti-business Worker’s Bill of Rights, breaking up agricultural companies, and overturning Act 10. And, of course, she advocates for transgender rights and wants to “Free Palestine.”
Fourteen years before Hong decided to run for Wisconsin’s highest political office, my grandfather, a Korean War vet and Wisconsin native, passed away from a severe case of Alzheimer’s. I was young when he died, and the few memories I have are when his mind started to fade. My mom played violin music to help him remember because it was something he loved as a young boy in the 1930s. I shared cookies with him while sitting outside in the garden at his assisted living facility. He didn’t know who I was, but he was happy to have company while we munched on oatmeal raisin cookies.
Towards the end of his life, his Alzheimer’s and PTSD made communication difficult. While serving in the Korean War, he executed dangerous missions overseas, often slipping behind enemy lines. He never talked about his war-time experiences with my mother or grandmother, but before he passed, he shared a little: tearfully recounting how he heard his fellow soldiers shot or crushed by enemy tanks while they hid. He couldn’t move or make a sound for fear of discovery.
My mother often told me he was proud to serve his country. He helped bring democracy to South Korea and contained Soviet-backed communist threats in the North. He enjoyed going to Japan, where he bought a set of gilded china for my grandmother and a pair of chopsticks that he taught me to use when I was three. After leaving the service, he and his brother ran a machine shop in Milwaukee, he got married, and had three beautiful daughters. His army rucksack, emblazoned with his name, and two American flags hung proudly over his garage door. Despite his patriotism for the war effort, he struggled with the trauma of his experiences for the rest of his life — haunted by the horrors he saw.
Francesca Hong’s parents immigrated from South Korea in the 1980s, 30 years after my grandfather fought there. Unlike her ancestors, Hong grew up in the incredible city of Madison, Wisconsin where she lived out the American Dream. She got married, had a son, and opened a small business working as a chef. In 2020, she ran for a State Assembly — affording her the opportunity to represent the virtues and values of America.
Why, then, did Hong decide this land of opportunity needs to be torn apart? Why has she chosen to squander the gift of American excellence bestowed on her and her family by joining the Democratic Socialists of America?
The DSA’s current platform includes the abolition of the Senate, Presidency, and Supreme Court, as well as defunding the Pentagon — the nation’s first line of national defense. DSA leaders continue to call for mass amnesty and open borders for illegal immigrants, the abolition of criminals in prisons, a wealth tax for the biggest earners in our society and Medicare for all. As a member of the DSA, Hong joins a list of radical figures like Ilhan Omar, Omar Fateh, and Hasan Piker, who famously proclaimed: “Let the streets soak in their f*cking red capitalist blood.” She aligned herself with radicals who have defended terrorist attacks. As a member of the DSA, by default she supports the destruction of America’s constitutional government.
Hong is not a public servant — she’s an authoritarian whose socialist political platforms are a direct betrayal of what my grandfather fought for in Korea. He served and suffered to protect the world from the threat of Communism, to defend the west and bring peace to Korea. Instead of being grateful for the sacrifice of over 1.78 million Americans, and the gift of growing up in the freedom and prosperity of the U.S, Hong is trying to destroy their legacy. Francesca Hong advocates to abolish the very systems of government that granted her family an opportunity in this country. Hong is wrong – and the people of Wisconsin will see right through her.
