Who drove back the invaders from America’s Blue Cities, was it thehleaders or the common people? The answer is self effacing and revelatory at once. Change never comes from the top, always from the bottom. While frustrating it is also the most important vital sign of the health of a democracy.

When Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said of the DHS action in Minneapolis, “The federal occupation of Minnesota long ago stopped being a matter of immigration enforcement. It is a campaign of organized brutality against the people of our state.” He was on to something. ICE has been converted into Donald Trump’s personal private army, paid for by you and I.

Modeled after Putin’s Russian National Guard (Rosgvardia) or the Cold War era East German Stasi Trump’s ICE force is intended to be his Pretorian Guard. To answer directly to him and carry out his dictates, often through brutal means. Comment

When so-called Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem repeatedly describes ICE agents as “federal law enforcement officers” she does so with a purpose. To create a false public perception of normalcy or regularity. In fact there is nothing normal about the heavily armed forces Noem is deploying to American cities at the behest of Donald Trump. They are not intended to enforce law, they are intended to impose the will of a corrupt tyrant on peaceful communities.

One of the primary tenants United States Constitution are sovereignty of state’s rights. The Tenth Amendment provides the architecture for the federal government and the states to share power. The caveat is that that power sharing agreement is predicated upon mutual consent. The courts have consistently ruled that the tactics employed by Trump’s forces are abusive and unlawful. Faced with that challenge it is the sworn duty of state officials to defend their residents and their sovereignty.

There have indeed been noteworthy instances of state officials threatening to hold the federal abusers to account and, in fairness a number of significant legal actions. But when it comes to standing face- to-face with Trump’s enforcers in the streets of the targeted communities there hasn’t been a state law enforcement officer to be found. Standing in the gap have been community leaders. Faith leaders, teachers, nurses and yes a poet. Rev. Dr. Michael Woolf brutalized and arrested in Chicago, the Rev. David Black shot in the head with pepper ball while praying, Marimar Martinez a teacher’s aide shot 5 times with an assault rifle, Alex Pretti a Veteran’s Administration Nurse shot ten times from behind and killed, Renée Good a mother and a poet shot three times in the head at close range also dead. And countless others

The entire burden of defending democracy is being borne by the citizens and residents not by the elected officials. It is noble and it is admirable but it is also very dangerous. Making matters even worse when state based officials do make the decision to authorize use of law enforcement it is almost always against civilian protesters never against the heavily armed and invasive agent provocateurs.

It is reassuring to see local officials thank civilian protesters for their courage in resisting the oppression. It would be a lot better if those officials would authorize local law enforcement to take action to protect the brave community members they now applaud.

What steps could local officials take? Today Trump's border czar Tom Homan announced that a small security force would remain in Minnesota for an unspecified period of time, ostensibly to protect ongoing immigration operations, the investigations into welfare fraud and the disruption of a church service that was covered by Don Lemon, Nekima Levy Armstrong and Georgia Fort. That security force should instead be state-based and staffed by local Minnesota law enforcement personnel, with assistance from Minnesota National Guards as needed.

Such steps could be justified under a mission designed to maintain public order and safety. Not just to local residents but for the safety of the federal agents, something Kristi Noem loves to cite as an urgent matter. While that might make it more difficult for federal immigration forces to meet Stephen miller’s ethnic cleansing quotas, it would significantly reduce violent confrontations between federal enforcement squads and residents and restore regularity to a dangerously chaotic situation.

Today our defenders are the clergyman, the teacher, the nurse and the poet. And those are the people Trump’s private army is most capable of exacting his most violent retribution upon. The people that are the most vulnerable are showing the greatest courage. Build monuments to them they are the real cornerstones of our democracy.