This country is in a state of crisis that began decades ago and will continue for decades more, if we are fortunate. The worst outcome would be a quiet that meant the exhaustion of the public resistance to the post-democratic, post-constitutional movement that controls the government at present. The disorder we are seeing now is a show of force for its own sake encountering resistance that is entirely to be anticipated, since, as a matter of common sense, these cities that have offered sanctuary to immigrants do not want to see them abused or expelled. If they were, in any significant numbers, the gangsters and criminals and the burden on resources President Donald Trump says they are, hundreds of thousands of people would not be turning out to defend them, to help them stay.
It is clear from what Trump frequently says about immigrants and the countries many of them come from that he quite sincerely despises them. He earnestly wishes that America could be the pure white country it never was. But there is a profounder issue here, that is, whether the American people really do have the right to govern themselves. Federal troops have surged into blue cities, cities that usually elect Democrats to govern them, that provide necessities and amenities to their populations with a freer hand than might be done elsewhere, that embrace new thinking about the definition of family or about environmental issues, for example. They tend to be prosperous and well educated, and to love themselves. And they tend to know their rights. Minneapolis is a prime example of all this. Renee Good and Alex Pretti were credits to their community.
