I've got a theory. It goes something like this.
- The party that occupies the White House tends to get clobbered in the midterms.
- The conventional wisdom is "if the Democrats can just not act crazy, they should be a shoo-in to beat the stuffing out of the GOP this fall".
- Therefore, the best GOP strategy is to do whatever it takes to bring out the crazy, and keep it out front.
I'm not sure if that's the strategery behind the visibility of the ICE surge in Minneapolis - to provoke an opposite and vastly unequal, insane reaction from Democrats. That may be giving everyone more credit than they rate.
But if the Trump administration were trying to get Big Left to unfurl its freak flag and let it fly between now and November, I'm not sure what they'd be doing differently.
The next part of the plan sounds like something out of 1920s Germany, 1930s Spain, or 1970s France; a "General Strike", happening tomorrow in Minnesota:
🚨NEW: A large group of DFL legislators just declared their support for this Friday's general strike and 'ICE Out of Minnesota' Day.
— Minnesota House DFL (@mnhouseDFL) January 21, 2026
DFLers are standing with Minnesotans, this Friday and always.
Solidarity with workers.✊ ICE OUT NOW! pic.twitter.com/YyB0R1ShHX
And the strike is getting some teeth...
The unions in Minneapolis are leading a mass general strike on Friday, January 23 to demand that ICE leave.
— Karlyn Borysenko, anti-communist cult leader (@DrKarlynB) January 19, 2026
Never forget the unions are controlled by the far left.
All of them. pic.twitter.com/3rgPlJuA2N
...although some have questions:
Just think how dumb a bus driver has to be want open borders.
— Area Individual (@Areaindividual1) January 17, 2026
Who's behind it all? Big Leftymoney, of course (this tweet from the middle of a long, very-worth-reading thread):.
Pulling the threads together, the Minnesota protests look less like a local eruption and more like the latest deployment of an international revolutionary machine:
— Insurrection Barbie (@DefiyantlyFree) January 8, 2026
•Local ICE‑watch networks seeded by grants and built through years of organizing were already tracking federal…
Although, as with much of Minnesota's Big Left, it's the taxpaying schmuck who is going to get stuck with some of the tab. The local Democrat Socialists of America are teaching people how to use the state's new, fraud-prone, exquisitely expensive "Paid Family Leave" program to pay for it:
🧊❌ Here's how you take off work on January 23rd! No matter what your employment situation is, we're here to help you organize your workplace and participate in the strike.
— Twin Cities DSA 🌹 (@TwinCitiesDSA) January 20, 2026
All links here: https://t.co/swQBVJorBw pic.twitter.com/cu80PvzBvI
On top of that, a bunch of businesses think it's worth their while to close for the day ... why?
And surely, all this signaling of virtue is going to stick it to the man, right?
Right?
Well...
Adam Platt is the editor of Twin Cities Business, and a longtime journalist in the Twin Cities. I'm not entirely sure of his politics (we used to hang out in adjacent crowds back during Ronald Reagan's second term). And he's got questions, too:
As I tried to make sense of the ever-mounting list of businesses closing this Friday in solidarity with what is a union-led movement to shut down Minnesota’s economy, I became increasingly confused. The effort seems designed to send a message to ICE (Immigration & Customs Enforcement). The message? Whatever harm you want to impose on our community, we can impose a bit more.
Maybe it’s not supposed to make sense. Maybe it’s just misdirected rage from a community under a sort of siege, struggling through a bad winter with the baddest of vibes. When I look at the list of businesses closing, I see mostly retailers and restaurants. Businesses that are the most vulnerable to sick-outs, intimidation, and social media misinformation.
However, the fact is that most of us will be going to work on Friday, even in Minneapolis. I looked through the list of stores that'll be closing - and I personally patronize exactly one of them; my life will be unaffected.
But you know whose lives will be affected?
Because, see, shutting down workplaces that primarily employ tipped workers and Latino folks is merely going to impose more harm on people who have seen the most financial loss during ICE’s reign of error. Saturday will dawn and they will be a day’s wages poorer and the activists will say, “We won!”
I have never really warmed to the earnestness of Minnesota politics. Those people, both well-meaning and not, who wrap their identity in “doing the right thing.” It’s always struck me as somewhat performative, egocentric, and unsustainable. It worked when Minnesota was 97% white, in 1980, but as the state has gotten more diverse, and as political consensus has become elusive, the noblesse oblige school of governance seems like an expression of privilege or perhaps guilt.
Just like the 2020 riots (which were precipitated and cheered on by many of the same people), it's the people who can least afford to pay for progressives' self-esteem boost who will suffer the most. Progress!
