Which City Will Donald Trump Bomb First: Tehran—or Minneapolis?

It’s worth asking how things came to this. We’ve done a lot of terrible things over the decades—installed dictators who imprisoned and murdered their people, armed death squads, and so on. But somehow, through it all, we’ve remained an international beacon for small-d democrats, immigrants who aspire to come here, and many others.

I’ve often wondered why we still have that reputation, which in some ways we don’t deserve. Some of it has to do with history, and the way we opened our doors to multitudes who came here to escape oppression. But most of it, I think, has to do with the fact of our democratic durability: We have survived, with all our tragic flaws, as a democracy for coming up on 250 years, years during which we have for the most part improved that democracy. No one else can say that.

Trumpism is actively trying to destroy these things. Trump and Stephen Miller want to close our doors to the multitudes, reversing what is arguably the central trait that has given our nation its rich flavor and character. And, of course, they have contempt for our democracy and, in these past 12 months, have set about to weaken and cripple it in any number of ways.