Ilhan Omar (D-Mn.) is getting called out by her hometown newspaper for her vicious ingratitude to America, the country that graciously took her in from war-torn Somalia. 

In an op-ed in the Minneapolis Tribune, author John C. "Chuck" Chalberg chided Omar by comparing her to the last Republican to hold her seat, Walter Judd.

Omar ripped in op-ed

Judd, a native of Nebraska, was welcomed to Minneapolis despite being an outsider, Chalberg noted. But he had a markedly different attitude.

The Republican - who served the Fifth District from 1943 to 1963 - had a fundamental belief in America's goodness in the world.

"The contrast with today's Fifth District officeholder could not be clearer. For Ilhan Omar and the American left, this country has been largely a force for ill in the world — and will continue to be just that until it is in some way fundamentally transformed," Chalberg wrote.

Judd was a fervent internationalist at a time when many Republicans advocated a hands-off, "America First" approach to foreign policy that has since experienced a resurgence today, under the influence of Donald Trump.

Chalberg likened right-wing isolationism to the foreign policy of left-wing progressives like Omar, who often condemn American intervention overseas as a form of racist "colonialism."

Elephant in the room

Of course, "America First" Republicans - of whom there are many today - would quibble with being compared to Omar, but Chalberg's commentary on her lack of gratitude is spot on.

"Meanwhile, one might think that a young girl from Somalia would be overflowing with gratitude to a country that offered her refuge, welcomed her and elevated her to national leadership, and to a city that has accepted her with all the nonchalance it might show a new arrival from, say, Rising City, Neb. Yet Omar seems to have few doubts about the failures and sins of her America," Chalberg wrote.

Left unmentioned in Chalberg's piece is the role of demographic change.

Like much of the country, Minneapolis has undergone rapid transformation in recent decades as a result of immigration. Omar, a refugee from Somalia, is a symbol of that change.

Her inflammatory, America-bashing rhetoric is a clear example of the wider failure of many immigrants to assimilate to their new home.

Instead, Omar constantly attacks America as a racist place while advocating sweeping, fundamental changes to the country's government and culture.

But Omar has been given no reason to moderate her rhetoric, thanks in large part to the demographic changes that made her rise to power possible.

Perhaps the real lesson of Walter Judd is that it is a privilege to be called American, one which should not be bestowed willy-nilly on anyone who shows up at the border with a pulse.