Why the Minnesota Resistance Matters

This week has shown us the worst of America. The Minnesota protesters are the best of it.

I’m not sure quite how to describe the emotional experience of the past week, with the murder of Alex Pretti coming so quickly on the heels of the murder of Renee Good, both by ICE agents, and both followed up by blatant lies from Trump administration officials who have refused proper investigations and slandered these average, decent Americans as “domestic terrorists.” I do not understand how anyone can watch the videos of these shootings and justify ICE’s actions, let alone justify the administration refusing to allow a full investigation. I do not understand how anyone is so happy being obviously lied to — even if you think ICE was justified, Good and Pretti were not engaging in terrorism, and the suggestion that they were is an insult to our collective intelligence.

That anyone can watch what’s happening in Minnesota right now and decide it simply doesn’t matter because their lives feel normal? I don’t understand that. I don’t understand how anyone can look at a photo of five-year-old Liam Ramos, with his little hat with the little ears and his scared, stoic face, and not see their own child, scared and confused and trying not to cry, surrounded by men with guns — could not feel, across every inch of their soul, that something is very wrong here.

I feel, in other words, further away from my fellow American citizens than ever before. I feel angrier at them than ever before. I am stunned at the depth of my venom for those who justify this, and my contempt for those who choose to ignore it.

And I have felt more heartened by them than ever before, more awash with gratitude and admiration, as I watch thousands and thousands take to the streets in Minneapolis. Contrary to the claims of right-wing conspiracy theorists, these are not career agitators or professional activists. They are average people, good people, who see wrongdoing and decide to look it in the eye.

This resistance matters. And not just because high-profile members of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement team are getting demoted and possibly canned. It matters because Minneapolis was very clearly a testing ground for a strategy the administration planned to use across the country. And thanks to the protesters, the administration and their bozo paramilitary are failing.