GOP’s war on Minnesota

The Republican Party is mounting an unprecedented federal invasion of Minnesota for political purposes, and it’s already led to the unnecessary death of Renee Good, a 37-year-old Minneapolis woman and mother of three.
Sadly, we can expect much more disruption and violence to come in our state as part of the GOP’s war on Minnesota. It’s a blunt instrument that Republicans are deploying in hopes of ending the DFL’s longtime lock on state offices, and we have top GOP-elected officials in Minnesota openly coordinating and supporting this dangerous effort.
That’s disqualifying. Elected officials are supposed to represent all of their constituents and look out for their interests — but that is clearly not happening here. Republican congressmen Pete Stauber and Tom Emmer have joined the assault on Minnesota. So has Republican Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth, who is now running for governor. She has stated publicly that she coordinated with Nick Shirley, the 23-year-old out-of-state YouTuber whose misleading video purportedly showing fraud at several Somali-run day care centers in the Twin Cities created a political firestorm and prompted President Trump to say he was cutting off federal funding for the Child Care Assistance Program, or CCAP. Fortunately, for now, a federal judge has determined Trump’s threatened cutoff of funding is illegal.
That doesn’t lessen Republican culpability.
Demuth’s decision to facilitate a false smear on Minnesota, for her own political purposes, was then used as justification to send 2,000 more ICE agents to Minnesota. If you want to investigate fraud, you send accountants, not armed ICE agents. These federal forces have no role in investigating alleged fraud in day care centers, but as we’ve seen, their aggressive and often brutal tactics against immigrants and American citizens alike, have been very effective at generating civil unrest, which is Trump’s primary objective.
Indeed, it was ICE that created the unsafe situation that led to the death of Renee Good last week. Imagine had the agent who approached Good’s vehicle aggressively and yelled “Get out of the f---ing car!,” then grabbed at her door handle and reached inside trying to grab Good herself, had acted in a professional manner. Imagine he had walked calmly up to her vehicle, said “Ma’am, you’re blocking the road in an unsafe manner, could you please move your car?” Renee Good would still be alive today.
But that is not the way that ICE agents are apparently being trained. They are using aggressive and abusive tactics specifically to intimidate and generate fear in the community, and they have been unleashed on Minnesota like nowhere else. Gov. Tim Walz was correct when he noted the unprecedented nature of the state’s current situation.
The federal government’s war on Minnesota is already having significant consequences for the residents of the Twin Cities and that impact is likely to spread to other communities in the state. Schools in the Twin Cities are closing or shifting to remote learning as ICE agents target students and parents as they drop off or pick up their kids, significantly impacting attendance. Local businesses are suffering as residents and workers opt to remain in their homes to avoid harassment by the heavily armed and masked ICE agents. ICE isn’t going after criminals, as they like to claim. They’re targeting families and immigrants here legally, because these people are the easiest to catch and they’ve got quotas to meet. They’ve been blocking off entire neighborhoods and going door-to-door, frightening citizens and legal immigrants alike.
Residents in the Twin Cities, who aren’t used to seeing heavily armed masked men roaming their neighborhoods or hear military-style helicopters overhead, are living in a state of high anxiety, and many are rightfully angry that they have become the victims of yet another one of Trump’s wars of choice.
And Republican politicians, like Stauber, Emmer, and Demuth have made it clear: In this war, they are not on the side of Minnesota.
What we have seen are Republican officials in the state who are completely unwilling to stand up for the truth or the interests of the public. When asked if it was appropriate for Secretary Noem to smear Good as a “domestic terrorist,” Demuth declined to answer. Our own Eighth District Congressman, Pete Stauber, blamed the violence on Democrats. Sixth District GOP Congressman Tom Emmer had the audacity to accuse DFL leaders of “spewing lies and hateful rhetoric.” Take a look in the mirror, Tom.
It’s time for these politicians to get over their fear of Donald Trump to start standing up for Minnesotans and for basic decency. We deserve at least that much from our elected officials.