Finding the Light of America

Friends,

One of the few advantages of being as conspicuous as I am is that many people come up to me whom I don’t know, to give me their views about what’s happening in America — as if I’m a free-floating focus group.

This morning, I was at a restaurant counter finishing my breakfast when a middle-aged man sat down next to me, turned to me, and said, “I don’t want to intrude.”

He just had just done so, so I put down my knife and fork, wiped my mouth with my napkin, turned toward him, and asked, “May I help you?”

“I’ve been a life-long Republican,” he said, “but the events of the past weeks have caused me to leave the Republican Party.”

“I’m happy to hear that,” I said with a smile and turned to finish my breakfast.

“I’m from New Hampshire, and many of my Republican friends are leaving the party, too,” he said. “Minneapolis was the last straw.”

I put down my fork and turned toward him again. “I assume you’re talking about the behavior of ICE and Border Patrol agents there, and the killings?”

“All terrible, of course,” he said, shaking his head. “But what really finished me were the lies — Noem. Miller, Bovino, Vance, Trump.” He frowned. “They all lied through their teeth. I saw the video! They’re a pack of liars.”

I agreed and then turned back to my breakfast, explaining that I had to finish to get to an appointment.

But his words stuck with me.

There are two ways to look at what’s happened in Minneapolis. Two different tipping points for America.

The first is to see the nation tipping more deeply toward Trump’s fascist police state. ICE and the Border Patrol have now become vehicles of state terror. They’re engaged in extrajudicial executions with apparent impunity.

This tipping began with Trump’s purging of federal prosecutors who tried to hold him accountable for his attempted coup. It continued with his pardons of the January 6 rioters, his pardons of his allies and wealthy friends, his criminal prosecutions of James Comey and Letitia James, and the criminal investigation of Jerome Powell.

Now, we’re at full tilt. Trump’s inadequately trained, trigger-happy goons — outfitted with guns, pepper spray, and riot gear — have been bullying, beating, and murdering the residents of Minneapolis.

The regime refuses to allow Minnesota to investigate the killings, won’t criminally investigate the shooters, makes wildly false accusations about the victims, and claims that federal agents responsible for the killings have total immunity from prosecution.

But there’s a second way to see what’s happening in Minnesota — a tipping point of a different kind. The fellow from New Hampshire who sat next to me at breakfast this morning typifies it.

It’s America tipping toward mass revulsion of Trump and the people around him.

His latest lies and those of his surrounding sycophants are so blatant and disgusting that some Republicans, like my breakfast companion, are abandoning the GOP altogether.

Americans are coming together to defeat Trump’s fascism, just as they’ve come together in Minneapolis. Not just demonstrating — but also participating in neighborhood watches, standing guard outside a local mosque during Friday prayers, sending out encrypted messages about where agents are lurking, and taking videos of ICE’s atrocities and sharing them widely.

I hear from friends and former students in Minneapolis about an extraordinary outpouring of cooperation and mutual aid. They’re organizing deliveries of food and other necessities to families afraid to leave their homes, picking up groceries for immigrant families, driving vulnerable families to doctor’s appointments, and taking immigrant kids to school.

One friend tells me he’s lived in Minneapolis for 40 years and has never felt the city as closely bound together. “I think we’ve discovered the real meaning of community,” he writes.

A former student says that despite the subzero weather, he and everyone he knows have been involved in organizing — both against ICE and for one another. “This goes far deeper than a protest,” he says. “It’s a new way to live here.”

This upwelling isn’t limited to Minneapolis. I’m hearing from friends and former students across America who are seeing something similar where they live.

“You wouldn’t believe how this community has come together,” writes an old friend from Portland, Maine. “I’ve lived here for more than 20 years and don’t recall a time when we felt as united.”

Both tipping points may be true: We’re tipping toward Trump’s fascist police state at the same time we’re tipping toward a new era of community and solidarity. The latter is the consequence of the former.

I don’t buy the predictions of a second civil war. I think Americans are better than that. If polls are to be believed, most oppose the way Trump has been implementing his immigration policies. Most don’t accept his fascist police state.

As the nation shudders on the edge of his police state, we’re gaining stronger unity against it and taking more responsibility for the well-being of each other. In the darkness of Trump, we’re finding the light of America.

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