Who Are Those Masked Men Invading America?
Except for Zorro and Batman, people who put on masks to hide their identity when going to work are rarely up to any good.
As Americans learned decades ago, when members of the Ku Klux Klan covered themselves from head to toe, the bigger the mask, the greater the evil hiding behind it. Which brings us to “Operation Metro Surge.”
This is the muy macho public relations slogan for the Republican Party’s militaristic invasion of Minneapolis, Minnesota, which was later extended throughout the state. (Other operations throughout the United States have similarly sadistic names, such as “Operation Midway Blitz” in Chicago, Illinois, and “Operation Catch of the Day” in Maine, for example.) By deploying U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and other bastions of authoritarian power, thousands of massively armed federal belligerents in full assault gear have been rampaging through peaceful neighborhoods in violent and murderous mass sweeps.
This is an un-American attack by this country’s own government on the founding ideals of liberty and openness. The defining symbol of this government repression is that its forces are all hiding behind full face masks.
Of course, if I were doing some of the stuff ICE commandos are doing, I’d want to cover my face, too. But, like the Klan, masking up the oppressors is not merely about cloaking their personal shame—it’s an added ploy by the perpetrators to terrify anyone who might dare to stand up to them.
As usual, though, the authoritarian powers misunderstood the United States and underestimated the deeply rebellious nature of our gutsy, grassroots people. Some 30,000 volunteers in Minneapolis, for example, have become trained Constitutional observers to police the police, and a citywide whistle brigade rushes like Paul Revere to alert neighbors when ICE agents invade their neighborhoods.
Their ethic of “neighbors helping neighbors” recognizes their power to “do what’s right.” It’s the best of America standing up to confront the worst.
United States Mission Geneva
Reverend Jesse Jackson speaks at the United Nations for the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, March 2012.
Jesse Jackson’s Most Consequential Power Was His Vision
In 1988, I was one of only two white elected Democratic officials in the entirety of the United States to endorse the Reverend Jesse Jackson to be our party’s nominee for President. (He was also endorsed by Bernie Sanders, then the mayor of Burlington, Vermont).
As a Texas politico, my endorsement of the fiery Black leader was both derided as political suicide and hailed as gutsy. But it was neither—it was just the right thing to do. As I had learned from an old-time Texas Democrat, “Every now and then, a politician ought to do something just because it’s right.”
In the 1970s and 1980s, I had gotten to know and work with Jackson. A renowned orator, he was an even more effective thinker and uniter. For example, he was able to link white, conservative farmers and ranchers in common cause with impoverished farmworkers and inner-city families battling chain-store profiteers.
So, when he ran for President, I had to ask myself: If this guy 1) was standing for the progressive populist values I believe in; 2) was standing with the grassroots families I’m fighting for; and 3) had the populist grit to stand up to the moneyed elites, why wasn’t I standing with him?
Millions of us responded to his deliberate campaign trying to forge a multiracial populist movement, and it’s up to us to carry that historic mission forward. Jackson’s “Rainbow” vision was not one of fluffy hope, but rather one of profound intentionality. That means doing the grunt-level political work of strategizing, organizing, and mobilizing to make good things happen. Especially in these dark, Trumpian times, emphasizing Jackson’s deliberate determination is the best way to honor this true champion of democracy.