1. United States
2. Mass.
3. Letter

Last week’s public execution of an unarmed Minneapolis mom engaged in routine ICE-watching feels like a critical juncture in the Trump administration’s attempted authoritarian takeover of the United States. And while congressional Democrats may sometimes take too much heat from activists for not doing things they literally can’t do, this escalation of internal repression coincides with another impending January 30 budget deadline. To keep funding the government, Republicans either need to win at least seven Democratic Senate votes to keep the government open or nuke the Senate’s filibuster rule and own it all. For Democrats, this shouldn’t be hard. If the party can’t take a stand here for their own voters in the Twin Cities and elsewhere who are effectively living under an open-ended, vengeful military occupation, it may fritter away what looks like a decisive advantage in the upcoming midterm elections. Many Democratic voters now keen to have the party begin the long fight to reclaim basic constitutional protections and democratic traditions shredded by the Trump regime. Do your part or you have lost my vote.