Dixie has risen again by Barry Rosenbaum

A few days before the start of the second Trump Administration, Heather Cox Richardson wrote: “It’s as if the Confederates’ descendants have captured the government of the United States.”  We now know that it’s no longer “as if,” it is now the reality we face. While supporters of this reign of terror may not be direct descendants, although many are, they all have retained the same warped mindset and ideology—that certain people, almost always exclusively white males, unless they happen to be non-Christian, have the right to subjugate everyone else. They view others as being less than and, therefore, undeserving of being treated with basic humanity. 

We bear witness to this daily. We see ICE agents pulling people out of cars after breaking the windows, invading their homes with door rams, and kidnapping people off the street, with no cause or risk of discipline. Now ICE is indiscriminately murdering us. This is no law enforcement organization. It is the American Gestapo.

Trump is a mob boss, with an administration that governs with zero adherence to the rule of law.  He has unleashed a violent horde, just like he did on January 6^th, but this time on a vastly larger scale.  Just like Trump, they view their actions as above reproach.  ICE and CBP are the modern-day KKK, except operating in broad daylight. They are invaders directed by Trump to do grave harm to the cities that they occupy. They are a pestilence bringing death and destruction to every community that they feast upon.  

Make no mistake, he is doing exactly what he said he would do. The fact that we allowed him back into office might be explainable, but can never truly be fathomable. As Timothy Snyder said well before the 2024 election, “We can have the Constitution, or we can have Trump,” but we can’t have both. Knowing that, a majority of voters returned him to office anyway. Extraordinarily unfortunate as it is, we are where we are, and right now, we must rise up as one, both those who have opposed Trump since 2015 and those who are now doing so for the first time. We must hold him accountable and all those in his Administration who, in any measure, have willingly participated in this grossly illegal and immoral escapade. 

There is a rot in this country that must be excised NOW. This is no time for spacing out, as tempting as that might be. Silence is no longer an option. That time has long passed. Amplifying this view, Jon Favreau wrote last week: “[S]aying something now—doing something now—will begin to rebuild some of what we’ve lost in this country over the last decade: our humanity.” The average Minnesotan did not ask to put their lives on the front line. But they have done so time and time again for all of us. The risks are patently clear, yet they persist as we all must persist and play a role in stopping this.    

Heather Cox Richardson recently reminded us that “elected Republicans could stop this tonight if they wanted to” since it would only take sixteen Republicans voting with the Democrats to put an end to it. Their decision not to do so puts blood on their hands, too, and Republicans must be made to bear a very high price in November.

So what can we do? Among other things, we can target Republican senators and House members to switch parties or become independents; we can participate in demonstrations against Trump so they grow in sizes that just can’t be ignored; we can support general or focused economic boycotts; we can blow whistles and record ICE when they invade our communities; we can work or contribute towards a Blue wave in the 2026 Congressional elections. And we can be part of the next No Kings protests on March 28.

It’s not too late to reverse this tragedy and begin to restore our country as a land of freedom and opportunity. This time, these freedoms and opportunities must be for all. As former Republican Congressman David Jolly (now running for the governor of Florida as a Democrat) said in a remarkable speech about Minnesota after Alex Pretti was murdered, “we must choose the right side of history.” I have faith that we will.

God bless Minnesota, and God bless America and the Constitution upon which our country was founded.