America is coming together in a 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.