Community ties can help save us from efforts to undermine American Democracy and wage war on everyone.
This weekend’s brutal weather – coupled with the horrific events in Minneapolis – made for prime doom scrolling.
Like many of you, I spent much of the weekend following the murder of ICU nurse Alex Pretti at the hands of ICE agents, and the defense of his killing by Homeland Security Kristi Noem and her Gestapo cosplaying minion, Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Greg Bovino.
I watched Pretti’s death, captured on video by brave Minnesota protesters, over and over again, and news conferences in which mournful, irate local officials implored ICE to leave their city.
I read every account and snap analysis of the terror inflicted on Minnesotans, and by extension, all of those who dare oppose the Trump Doctrine of cruelty and oafish authoritarianism.
However, it was the insights of renowned historian Heather Cox Richardson that resonated most deeply with me.
Without fanfare or hyperbole, Richardson said:
The thing to remember going forward in all of this, is that what people like Stephen Miller, and the goons in the street, and Trump to the degree that there’s anything left between his ears, what they are declaring war on is us, is American communities.
Richardson is right. The deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, the beatings of anyone who stands up to ICE, the detainment of immigrants and Americans alike, is a declaration of war by Trump on us all – including those who support him.
Because if you think being faithful to Trump, while only questioning his decision-making on the rarest of occasions, will save you from his wrath, then you are more deluded than the president, who thinks threatening NATO over Greenland and economy-crippling global tariffs are good ideas.
Ask Marjorie Taylor Greene whether her unwavering fealty to Trump bought her any grace when she questioned his hankering to cut Medicaid.
Ask Mike Pence, who was nearly strung up by the neck for failing to do Trump’s bidding on Jan. 6.
Ask any member of his first cabinet, many of whom warned us that returning Trump to office would be disastrous for our democracy.
Ask Kristi Noem, who looks like she’s about to be thrown under the bus for the fallout over Pretti’s public execution.
Trump is waging war on all of us. And he won’t be satiated until he is sitting atop the smoldering ashes of American Democracy in a gilded throne while the entire world genuflects at his feet.
At the risk of sounding Pollyannish, the only thing that can save us from such a fate is each other. Community in the face of crisis will pull us through these dark times.
Don’t see how? Look no further than the people of Minneapolis. They’re proving it every day. In bitter cold, facing potential detention and now death, they are standing up for their community, and by extension, the rest of us.
And watch, when the weather breaks, more Americans will join them. Folks who still believe in this country are gearing up to travel to Minneapolis to put their lives on the line so that, as Abraham Lincoln so eloquently put it in his Gettysburg Address:
That government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
They will continue standing up for that community and all Americans because tyrants only win when we give up.
I’m certain there will be more violence. Even if ICE eventually withdraws from Minneapolis, it will wreak havoc somewhere else. There’s already talk of a major ICE deployment to Philadelphia, which would be the most significant tactical mistake since Custer’s Last Stand.
Talk about community. I lived in Philly for a long time, and I maintain that they are the most loyal friends a person can have. They will fight to the death for one another and have ICE goons pissing in their fatboy cargo pants.
Now I almost wish ICE tries it.
