Resistance moms will save us

One of the most disturbing videos of Donald Trump‘s invasion of Minneapolis features federal agents manhandling two Target employees, who scream their names at onlookers and insist they’re citizens (which appears to be true). A few minutes later, the victims were released in another parking lot, injured and bleeding. All the details are disturbing, from distressed onlookers trying to get the young men’s contact information during the initial assault to people yelling “they tortured him” as a newly released victim sobs like the child he reportedly is. But the moment that stood out most to me was when one good Samaritan asked plaintively while helping the distressed teenager, “We got to be able to call somebody.”

In a sane country, that guy would be right. In a country that elected Trump to a second term, however, this is more a lament for what has so quickly been lost, as he proves himself every inch the fascist that “hysterical” progressives said he was. In the ongoing war on this once-peaceful Midwestern state, Trump and his Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have been trying to impress upon people a sense of hopelessness.

After the Jan. 7 shooting of Renee Nicole Good by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jonathan Ross, Trump’s corrupt administration has been in full cover-up mode, signaling to immigration officers on the ground that they can do whatever they want to people — including kill them — without any consequences. The goal is to scare ordinary people into giving up and hiding in their homes, afraid they will be the next to be shot or taken away in a van to be tortured.

Instead, the opposite is happening. Realizing there is no one out there who will swoop in and save them, the everyday people of Minnesota are, like Good, standing up for their community. Alex Tabet of MSNOW reported Monday that community organizers in Minneapolis told him there has been a “surge of volunteers” since Good’s death and “more more people are raising their hands, asking to help out, resist the ICE raids” — all “despite the fact that it’s clearly a dangerous behavior.”

The videos pouring out of Minnesota onto social media right now are horrific, showing both ICE and Border Patrol agents acting like the Gestapo by assaulting peaceful people with impunity and suggesting that they will kill more people if residents don’t submit.

But time and again, those videos also show reason for hope: Ordinary people are refusing to comply. They film Noem’s secret police, blowing whistles and making a fuss, even as those masked cowards attack them. They calmly reply, camera in hand, “Go to church,” as ICE officers bellow violent threats at them. Crowds gather and run ICE agents off — just by being peaceful but annoying. In one incident, a woman at home with her baby gives sanctuary to her DoorDash driver, yelling at officers outside that she will not open the door until they return with a warrant.

My heart went out to the man who said, on behalf of a beaten and terrified teenager, “We got to be able to call somebody.” But by being there — by helping the kid and documenting the incident — he’s doing what needs to be done.

Institutions are failing us. The FBI is thoroughly corrupted, more interested in covering up ICE crimes than fighting crime. Local Democratic officials are trying, but they are hamstrung by bureaucratic red tape and the slow-moving court system. The business class is too worried about infuriating a vindictive president to stand up for their workers and customers. Institutions are proving to be inadequate to face down the fascist threat.

People are realizing that the only heroes coming to save us are us: regular folks in their leggings and puffer jackets, armed only with iPhones and understanding that we are Americans, and we do not put up with this. It’s unfair that it has to be this way, that so many of the elites are unwilling to give back by sticking their necks out. And it’s incredibly unfair that Renee Good is dead, that her wife is a widow and her son an orphan. It shouldn’t have to be this way.

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But the good news is that normal people have far more power than they often think. Good has become a genuine martyr, inspiring people and making them realize that they can make a significant contribution with the power of a camera phone and a red beanie cap. She set out to help her neighbors that day and ended up shocking a nation — hopefully into waking up to the fact that yes, this is fascism, and no, it’s not “Trump derangement syndrome” to say so.

In the early days of the first Trump administration, the “resistance” took on feminine identity that, as the years went by, became seen as increasingly uncool and embarrassing. The one thing that centrists, MAGA types and wannabe hipster leftists could agree on was that they hated the middle-aged wine moms in pink knitted pussy hats, with their earnest fears about the collapse of democracy, who watched MSNBC. This loathing of normie liberals was always rooted in misogyny, even when coming from other women, who were usually pulling a “I’m sexy and cool, not like those cat sweater ladies” move, but making it political. And it came at the high cost of signaling to ordinary people that they’re being “hysterical” if they think either that Trump is a serious threat or that it’s important to put up a real resistance to Trumpism.

Well, as Michelle Goldberg wrote in the New York Times on Monday, “the shrillest of Resistance libs have always understood Trump better than those who make a show of their dispassion.” Or, as independent journalist Leighton Woodhouse admitted on X, “The hysterical pussy hats were right.”

I’m tempted to offer a lecture on how the 2017 Women’s March was about liberal women correctly understanding that a man accused by over a dozen women of sexual abuse was throwing up red flags about how he’ll govern, but there’s no reason to gild the lily here. What matters now is that resistance moms were the vanguard then, and they are the vanguard now. As police, government officials, federal watchdogs, businesses and universities fail to take a stand, normie moms like Renee Good are putting it all on the line to stop fascism. And while critics of the pussy hat crowd have always gendered their targets as annoying white women who need to STFU, the reality is that the regular folk who are ready to step up have always been a diverse crowd. I was at the D.C. Women’s March in 2017, and I saw every race, gender and age marching, cringey pink hats and all.

Over the past year, the biggest victories against Trump have come not from the elites or institutions, but from college kids and office workers, cat ladies and Uber drivers. When Trump tried to censor Jimmy Kimmel, it was the pumpkin latte drinkers whose ire forced ABC to bring him back on. When the president sent National Guard troops to terrorize cities like Portland, D.C., Los Angeles and Chicago, people who still wear skinny jeans turned off Netflix, inflated the frog and unicorn costumes, and resisted the invasion until Trump finally gave up. And I believe time will show that Good, by pulling her Honda full of stuffed animals onto a street in Minneapolis to bear witness to ICE atrocities, will be remembered as a hero that activated thousands more like her.

Democracy is often an all-too-abstract concept, but this is what it looks like: moms in cars, armed with nothing but iPhones and a clear view of right and wrong. The cavalry is here to save us, and she’s driving a minivan.