The Gestapo-like invasion of Minnesota is an unmistakable sign that this administration intends to impose a draconian form of authoritarian rule on the United States. The failure of Republican congressional leadership to offer anything other than mumbled excuses reveals a profound absence of moral integrity.
Only history will fully unravel how the nation arrived at such an ignominious state of political depravity. To be sure, well-intentioned political leaders in decades past often failed to listen carefully to large segments of the population who felt ignored, displaced, and forgotten. That resentment was deliberately and malevolently stoked by right-wing talk radio and allied media. But whatever its origins, resentment does not justify the dishonorable loyalty the MAGA movement has given to an administration that holds its most ardent supporters in contempt.
There are, nonetheless, signs of hope. If we are able to emerge from this period with our democracy intact, we will do so chastened and humbled—no longer able to claim unquestioned leadership of the free world, no longer able to assume that our president stands as first among equals on the global stage. Any measure of restored credibility will have to be earned slowly and deliberately.
Let us begin with those signs of hope. They are evident in the people of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, who are courageously refusing to cooperate with ICE and actively seek to impede its operations. It is especially heartening that this resistance includes elected officials and law-enforcement agencies in the Twin Cities area.
Mass demonstrations in cities large and small are another sign of hope, as are polling numbers showing overwhelming public disapproval of the administration and its agenda. Courts, too, are beginning to assert their independence, thanks to lawsuits brought by concerned citizens. That hope would be strengthened further if mainstream journalists pressed administration representatives with direct, sustained, and probing questions instead of allowing them to escape accountability through rehearsed evasions and distractions.
I also look to the possibility that senior military officers may find ways to restrain the administration from indulging in chest-thumping military actions that serve no strategic purpose beyond satisfying the president’s ego and the neo-Nazi agendas of some of his subordinates.
Finally, I place hope in the resilience of the American people. We will never rid ourselves entirely of powerful interests determined to rule others as though it were their natural right—politically or economically. Human beings are notoriously susceptible to the selfish pursuit of power, status, and wealth, even at the expense of the common good. It is not a uniquely American failing, nor one confined to our time. It is a universal and perennial temptation.
Our brief 250 years of national life have been marked by a continuous struggle to restrain those forces and to subordinate them to the welfare of all. That effort was most successful in the decades following World War II and lasting into the mid-1980s. They were not “golden years,” but they were years in which the benefits of national prosperity were more broadly shared and in which we became increasingly conscious of those who had been excluded—and more determined to include them.
The same cannot be said today. Still, we should remember that the nation once overwhelmingly rejected the chaotic incompetence of Donald Trump’s first term. We are only a year into his second attempt. As dangerous as the present moment is, he can succeed only with the cooperation of compliant institutions and citizens. If we refuse that compliance—even in the face of armed ICE agents enforcing it—he cannot prevail.
Nonviolent noncompliance begins with ordinary people in ordinary neighborhoods living their ordinary lives with courage and resolve. It requires a willingness to endure confrontation and, at times, coercion. The people of Minnesota are showing us what such noncompliance looks like—and what it costs. My hope is that this is a cost people will be willing to bear in towns and cities across the country.
Perhaps the courage of grassroots, nonviolent resistance will also inspire those entrusted with high public office to act with similar resolve—not merely as individuals, but as members of institutions sworn to defend our constitutional democracy.
Thank you!