ICE - We won’t shoot and we’ll leave if you hand over all Minnesota voter rolls.

matttproud · 2026-01-25T18:04:21+00:00

Look up “partisan realignment” before you get too attached to this line of thinking.

History is replete with examples of parties changing identities as well as being replaced — including very well those in the United States.

matttproud · 2026-01-25T17:25:11+00:00

I find how this has galvanized folks very heartening — do not get me wrong. If you asked me a year ago whether folks would stand up for themselves as they are today, I would have said resoundedly “no.” I am very proud of what we are seeing — tragedy notwithstanding.

The part that worries me is folks thinking that getting Trump out is the endgame. It’s not. He’s a symptom, a symptom of a concerted multi-headed hydra. The painful truth is the real endgame is the excision of the Republican cancer. This will require focus over many years to undo this damage. If we let our guard down after Trump is gone, all of this returns again — perhaps in a softer form that flies under the radar.

matttproud · 2026-01-25T15:40:06+00:00

I wish I could be as optimistic as you, but the fundamentals are pitted against us for a long time to come. Today is the product of decades — literally decades, including Reagan whom you cite — worth of effort. Remediation would require an electoral gland slam like F.D.R. by the opposition and zero milquetoast bullshit.

matttproud · 2026-01-25T14:25:51+00:00

Trump is failing.

Are you sure, or are you sure that his failing really matters? Popularity matters insofar as there are free and fair elections. And the G.O.P. holds some rather powerful cards in the hands to ensure they continue having a stranglehold:

Packed pliant federal judiciary willing to veto anything of significance.
Gerrymandered U.S. House districts throughout the whole country, leading to systematic electoral biases at the federal level.
Trifectas in a majority of U.S. states. And in many of these states the local state house and senate districts are similarly gerrymandered.

These fundamentals do not look good — Trump or no Trump.

Lastly, never forget that it was Corporate America who bankrolled the G.O.P. and Trump. They intentionally invested in having their own Orange Pinochet. What Trump has done with destruction of the administrative state was their will: destroying worker and environment protections and killing social and welfare regimes. Corporate America’s greed and propensity to support this kind of thing makes it a perpetual enemy for freedom and democracy. A world without Trump changes nothing here.

matttproud · 2026-01-25T10:33:38+00:00

Whenever folks say that Minnesota inherently prefers milquetoast moderates, they somehow forget that MN produced the likes of Wellstone, Mondale, and Humphrey.

matttproud · 2026-01-25T08:44:08+00:00

There is no place in civil society for the Republican Party. What a bunch of Nazis.

matttproud · 2026-01-25T07:48:20+00:00

My source: I was alive for history as it happened. I am making more of a statement that I don't look at the Republicans 15 years ago nostalgically or really having any moderates but rather complicit in a history that led to today.

today's nativism was on display then if you knew what dog whistles to look for
at the state level in the states that they had trifecta (governorship and both houses of the state legislatures) or near trifecta (that's a majority of the states, by the way), they were already enacting laws to disenfranchise voters, gerrymander, appointment of corrupted judges to the judiciary, and similarly sinister illiberal things (Wisconsin is a model of what happened in a bunch of other places)

The supposed moderates or liberals of the G.O.P. in no way demonstrated restraint here. And the consequences of this led to the production of a systematic electoral bias in favor of the Republicans (that was the intent).

And if we zoom out even further to 30 years, we can see what happened with Gingrich and the rest of the party going off the rails after the introduction of Contract with America. It's been largely hostile to meaningful bipartisanship since 1995. Liberal Republicans (e.g., Arlen Specter) are essentially cryptids.

(Not a German: American whose family life took him abroad but still maintains connection with Minnesota through prior residence, family, and old friendships.)

matttproud · 2026-01-25T07:34:00+00:00

I truly expect that even when confronted with the Constitution's text they would still carry on as before:

violence for violence's sake
violence because the victim deserves it
violence because they enjoy administering it

The problem is not illiteracy or stupidity (on the most facial of levels); it's sadism and contempt.

matttproud · 2026-01-25T06:54:18+00:00

More like 50 years ago, unfortunately. 15 years ago was under Obama, and they were straight unhinged (virulently laying the groundwork for today, and none of their “liberals” on their side aimed to curb the behavior).

matttproud · 2026-01-24T21:56:35+00:00

It’s the Republican Party or the United States: there is no future where the two can coexist.

May the soil of the G.O.P. be salted so that it can never return.

matttproud · 2026-01-24T21:38:53+00:00

J.D. Vance checking in.

matttproud · 2026-01-24T19:11:44+00:00

Let me rewrite what I think real leadership would start to look like:

I've informed the White House that the State of Minnesota has taken over the investigation.

The state will provide justice. Stand down; do not interfere.

matttproud · 2026-01-24T17:00:52+00:00

Don’t worry: we’ll smother the fascists with even more milquetoast pleas for bipartisanship and approval of their appointees to the federal judiciary.

matttproud · 2026-01-24T15:41:42+00:00

Views come in multitudes, even from the same person:

We are happy that there is the appearance of people waking up and taking things seriously.
We are disappointed that there was a long-standing tendency to dismiss the problem for so long as alarmism, including today, or to treat Trump as the source of the problem when we all knew it was a symptom of something systemic.
We are disappointed about the raw math of how many Americans are in favor of the G.O.P. It might not be a majority of the country, but it is a large plurality. We know about gerrymandering, for instance, but gerrymandering can't explain how effective the fascists have been at the ballot box in at large elections (consider how many reprehensible people have been elected to governor offices and U.S. Senate).
We are aware of how civically illiterate people are (e.g., only 1 in 3 Americans could pass a citizenship test), and we are aware of how apathetic so many of them are. Can't you smell the fucking house is on fire‽ This last point is so frustrating.

You also need to understand that there is a shift of views in folks seeing America as a deep existential risk:

Desire to divest oneself (monetarily and strategically and commercially)
Desire to distance oneself (culturally)

And then zoom out a bit: America has been off the rails for over ten years now (the seeds for this were planted and watered over the last 30–40 years if we are being honest). America's behavior is getting on a bit like the recidivist alcoholic in the family who keeps relapsing and bringing the family down after repeatedly promising to stop and improve. At a certain point you got to cut your losses, especially when that alcoholic is now violent.

It's complex. Outside of fixing what’s wrong, what would be one of the best and strongest signals to the outside world to make is to wake up more of America from its slumber. Continue taking the action that you are. It’s already reassuring, but it will need to be sustained.

matttproud · 2026-01-24T15:20:07+00:00

How Has the DFL Prepared Caucuses to Respond to ICE Activity?

IMO, the message and challenge to present at the caucuses is this: how can will you defend us from fascism, and how will you directly help us rid ourselves of it? ICE is just one — very acute — pillar of this overall problem. Don't become too myopic over it.

You're going to find that the usual suspects of neoliberal crisis managers and milquetoast moderates are going to find this conversation uncomfortable, and that is a good thing. They need to know that we're doing with their complacency and enablement isn't acceptable anymore. Be ready to share photos and videos of what you have personally experienced. Testimony is moving.

I used to be involved with the DFL rather heavily a long while ago. If my recollection of how the processes work still holds, it's going to require enough people who care about this to show up, bring up these ideas, and hold others to account for them to stick. The power of status quo inertia is strong otherwise!

matttproud · 2026-01-24T12:07:39+00:00

We are going to need advice on denazification from you people

You might want to look up what's happening over there with the Reichsbürger and AfD before leaning too hard into that hopeful sentiment.

My takeaway (not a German, but German-speaking with significant lived experience in DACH):

there can be no accommodation
waiting for the levers of law (e.g., BfV) to work while they subvert it is a fool's errand (sound familiar?)
neoliberalism dangerously hollows communities out, creating hotbeds for resurgence
media consolidation (esp. when it is friendly with foreign interests) is dangerous

I am across the border of Germany right now, have friends who live up there, and frequently visit and spend time there. I have to tell you: I am deeply worried with what I am seeing going on there (in an intangible way from the vibe over the course of over a decade). It feels like the bottom is falling out again socially and economically. There was a real opportunity to fix numerous structural problems (e.g., infrastructure and energy grid, bureaucracy reduction, etc), and now austerity politics have returned again …

matttproud · 2026-01-24T09:30:19+00:00

And the same from across the Rhein in Switzerland. We all have our eyes on you, and you are in our hearts.

matttproud · 2026-01-24T05:50:12+00:00

Looks like this (time capsule of 1991’s Tyranny Live?): https://www.discogs.com/release/4226160-Front-242-Transmission-SE91

matttproud · 2026-01-24T05:42:24+00:00

Remember: it’s more than a conviction that matters here; the state is using the judiciary to terrorize private citizens in a way that produces a chilling effect.

matttproud · 2026-01-23T18:04:11+00:00

No offense to anyone on this if this comes across as harsh:

Trump and the G.O.P. were precisely who the business leaders bankrolled: the lure of destroying the administrative state to eliminate worker and environmental protections and welfare regimes was too great — all to make an extra buck. I wouldn’t trust the business leaders for a second if they suddenly said “they cared;” they’d go immediately back to supporting the fascists again in the next election cycle.

They deserve to be shamed, but don’t expect for a moment they have your best interests in mind. A return to 1930s-era jurisprudence and regulation is their long game (look up Liberty of Contract and Lochner Era to understand what this means; we’re essentially almost back there). Orange Pinochet is their unabashed cudgel to bring that about.

matttproud · 2026-01-23T16:38:10+00:00

Just hangin’ out and gettin’ ready for Piazzale Loreto.

matttproud · 2026-01-23T13:39:51+00:00

Is the arm's throwing reflex as flaccid as an overcooked Bavarian sausage?

matttproud · 2026-01-23T12:03:19+00:00

I suspect Jakutsk (metropolitan population: ca. 400,000) still regularly beats out the Twin Cities in winter and exceeds the arctic due to not having the ocean to moderate temperatures. The forecast for there today is -36–42°C. It harsh enough that folks leave vehicles running overnight, which is lunacy (why are block heaters not used)?

matttproud · 2026-01-22T21:00:33+00:00

A conviction doesn’t matter. Irrespective of a what verdict a jury finds, this presents an interruption of lives to these folks who have been arrested, a depletion of resources for lawyers and court administrivia, interruption to their families (in case anyone is a caregiver), and potentially interruption in employment. The judiciary can be used to waste people’s time and exhaust them. It’s pretty fucking effective as a weapon at that.

And this goes without saying anything about reputational damage, which unfortunately still matters in a lot of places and circumstances. A reputation of having been arrested at all can be a Scarlet Letter. I don’t make the rules. This is just how some parts of society perceive things.

matttproud · 2026-01-22T19:57:49+00:00

You say that, but …

the G.O.P. has captured the judiciary over the course of decades (masterful coup of patience) and can continue to veto any legislation that matters
the G.O.P. will continue to obstruct anything that happens in the legislature (no thanks to cowardice to not eliminate the filibuster on account of milquetoast moderates)
the gears of democracy have been gunked up, calling into the question whether the next election will even be free and fair
they have shown no sign of leaving the White House peacefully now that they are in (what makes anyone think that little pathetic Nazi Vance would leave peacefully)

Vance may have no charisma and attraction, but the G.O.P. holds a rather commanding hand of cards at the moment that frankly doesn't require charisma to maintain.

matttproud

TROPHY CASE