Trump Gets His Trophy From The City Of Lakes

For nearly a year now, the sociopaths of the Trump administration have been doing everything imaginable to incite an escalation of the ruinous culture war.  The backlash from their critics has been largely, and inconveniently, peaceful for most of the last 12 months as liberals have more or less recognized they have no cards to play and have held their fire.  Unsatisfied with the number of gazelles roaming the savannah, the apex predators of the administration just kept laying out more tempting bait so that the lionesses among them can have their chance to bloody their feral fangs upon a fresh kill.

It was inevitable that they would eventually induce enough fury that they'd be get their green light to "own a lib" by way of emptying their clip upon them, and it should come as no surprise to anybody that this inevitable outcome played out in the form of a blood-soaked snowbank in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Am I exaggerating?  In normal times, it would be fair game to say so.  Renee Good was quite stupidly obstructing federal law enforcement from carrying out their work, and when you play stupid games, you win stupid prizes.   But these aren't normal times or anything close to them.  The only reason ICE had a serious presence in Minneapolis in the first place was for Trump to settle a score against Minnesota's Governor over an unrelated political rivalry.  Their electoral prospects sagging amidst growing disapproval, the administration was counting on a localized backlash where they could simultaneously flex the might of the federal government upon a protestor and reset the culture war on terms they believe are favorable to them.

The clearest visual cue of the administration's giddiness about this outcome was Kristi Noem emerging almost instantly after the shooting in a press conference decked out in a 10-gallon cowboy hat.  Kristi Noem enjoyed gunning down her dog so much that she wrote about the incident glowingly in an autobiography two years ago.  And now, Kristi Noem enjoyed gunning down Renee Good so much that she cosplayed Wyatt Earp meets Annie Oakley, signaling that she was untouchable and signaling that she fully intends to kill again....and will continue to enjoy it when she does.

And then we get J.D. Vance absolving the ICE agent shooter of his sins in real time with maximal condescension and horrifyingly prescient proclamations of the agent having "absolute immunity" for all past, present, and future lawbreaking he might indulge behind the cover of his badge.  This is enough to mollify the half of the country that he cares about, aware that there won't be a nanosecond of critical thinking about the binary choice he's presented us by those who reflexively side with the conquistadors.  To this half of the country, there's no reason at all to be concerned about the formation of a Praetorian Guard allowed to shoot first and ask questions later without any fear of reprisal, confident that it's always gonna be "those people" on the other side of their gun barrels.

The worst-case scenario for the national recriminations here?  I keep refreshing my computer wondering if I'll see a headline of a protest in Minneapolis that triggers a Trump-approved mass annihilation that exceeds the body count that the Islamic Republic has piled up among Iranian protestors this very day.  I'd bet my paycheck that Trump is in the White House today vocally expressing his jealousy of Khamenei for being able to kill hundreds of protestors that Trump has not YET had the opportunity to.  I really hope that the Minneapolis protestors pull back before they give Trump and Noem the excuse they're looking for to "own" a whole bunch more libs than just Renee Good.

The best-case scenario for the national recriminations here?  The still-ugly alternative of voters doubling down on siding with the fascists on the binary choice they're been given on liberty versus security.  The public is expressing exhaustion with Trump's excesses on a wide range of issues, but Trump and his people are savvy enough to realize that they'll be positioned to pounce on the reaction of the left who can be counted upon to overplay their hand as they always do. Expect the left to once again reframe their anger and grief as cluelessly as they did over George Floyd.  Yesterday's calls for defunding the police and institutionalizing collective guilt in the form of expansion-pack DEI will likely be reinvented with a renewed call for ending immigration enforcement.

Needless to say, this is not only a fight that the Trump administration wants, it's a fight they're actively fomenting, baiting the left into taking the stupidest possible positions as they did in 2019 and 2020.  And it will probably work.  The majority of voters value personal security and hate cultural change.  While most outside the MAGA hivemind might be uncomfortable with much of what they see from the Trump administration, they're ultimately gonna side with law enforcement and border enforcement over those who think we should have less of both.  And since most people are comfortable that it won't ever be one of their own loved ones whose blood is spilled all over the snowbank at the hands of a law enforcement officer who is bequeathed "absolute immunity", they're comfortable looking the other way and trade their liberty for security.

Here's your latest reminder that I predicted only 14 months ago that the future was autocracy.   The forever autocracy is upon us, and only in its infancy.  The path back to whatever America was 14 months ago couldn't possibly be more elusive.