We’re All Domestic Terrorists Now

How Events in Minnesota are Radicalizing Parents in Real Time.

This week, on the way to school, my son told me that he hoped they would play the same game they had the day before. When I asked him what the game was, he explained that everyone hid in an enclosed space and practiced being quiet so that the scary things in their classroom wouldn’t hear them. My husband and I exchanged a look as we realized the kids had gone through their first active shooter drill. And that we should probably start thinking about how to talk with them about mass shootings, adding it to the list of things we’ll have to explain to them as they grow older.

I bring this up because being a parent in America right now is absolutely insane. School shootings, a pandemic, the childcare crisis, public education, RFK Jr’s MAHA death cult (and his recent assertion that good mothers don’t trust the experts), even the price of milk and blueberries. The infrastructure for American families has been crumbling for decades and now you have the Trump Regime not just ignoring the problems that parents face, but actively trying to destroy the systems and resources we rely on. They actively cause harm to children and families across the country every day and seem to take joy in that.

Most of the parents I talk to regularly have kids around my age. Our children were born during Covid and it’s been a shitshow ever since. I live in a solidly blue city and state, but at least in my neck of the woods, parents are radicalized and becoming even more so. Generally, I don’t want to talk politics to my parent friends, but every part of our kids’ lives has become politicized, so talking politics has become a necessity as we navigate what fresh hell awaits our kids each week.

That’s a big part of the reason why Renee Good’s death has struck such a chord. She was a middle aged Mom who’d just dropped her kid off at school. She tried to help her neighbors and paid for it with her life. The Trump Regime has circled the wagons around the man who murdered her, and it’s clear he won’t face any accountability from his employer or federal law enforcement. Now the Regime is attempting to rewrite her story in real time, and six DOJ prosecutors in Minnesota have resigned after being pressured to investigate and find a way to criminally charge Good’s widow.

Good’s memory is now receiving the she was no angel treatment. The Trump Regime has tried to suggest that because Good served as a board member of her child’s school, which gave parents information and training resources on monitoring ICE, it was even more evidence that she was a domestic terrorist. CNN happily played stenographer and turned this propaganda into an article.

As a parent, I can tell you that we talk about ICE and what to do if they show up at our kids’ schools or in our neighborhoods a lot. How do we protect our kids, their teachers, and other families in our community? What is our school’s policy on letting ICE access the building? What can and should parents be doing? I asked some parent friends across the country for examples of this, and here’s what they gave me:

• Whisper networks where first-generation families share information

• Choosing a daycare based on how well they understood threats of an ICE raid or had policies in place

• A parent volunteer being asked to watch for suspicious activity at a school event

• Know Your Rights signage posted in daycare and school classrooms

• Families organizing to raise money for one family’s asylum appeal

• Children missing several days of school due to rumored ICE activity in a community

• A belief that ICE won’t show up at schools where the PTA is especially active and parents are known to be heavily involved

Using MAGA’s logic, we’re all domestic terrorists now. Not for any protest or civic action, but for trying to keep our kids and our communities safe. What we’ve learned from the events in Minnesota is that any one of us can be murdered for trying to help our neighbors. Our children can be orphaned, our spouses widowed, and their personal safety threatened, potentially for the rest of their lives, as MAGA attacks the victims and protects the perpetrators, further victimizing them in the service of the Regime.

It only gets worse from there. Six children in one family, including a 6-month old baby who stopped breathing, were hospitalized because ICE agents threw flash bangs and tear gas into the family’s minivan. White House Aide Stephen Miller has told ICE agents – and everyone else, since his message was a public statement – that they have full immunity for their actions and the harm they cause. Local schools remain hybrid because so many families are terrified to send their kids to school, and communities are organizing ICE patrols, grocery runs, and school transportation for vulnerable families.

Good’s murder and other incidents have allowed more and more Americans to see this clearly: ICE isn’t protecting our kids but endangering them. Some of us will retreat, but a growing number of us will organize and fight, using networks and communities that already exist.

American parents are exhausted and beaten down. By design. But I also believe we’re a core component of the opposition movement. We have built-in networks around our shared priority: our children. Schools, sports leagues, daycare, dance lessons, carpools, the list is endless. We’re desperate to keep our kids safe and eager to build a better world for them than the dystopian hellscape that the Trump Regime is currently making. We know our kids deserve better than this, and we’re willing to fight for it.

There’s a lot more I could say and dive into. Parents are why Zohran Mamdani and Katie Wilson (and their calls for universal childcare) are now the mayors of NYC and Seattle. Parents are why Ms. Rachel won’t be canceled, no matter how hard the Right tries. Parents canceling Disney+ is a big reason why Jimmy Kimmel is back on TV. That’s not even getting into what the power parents organizing locally have accomplished, because there are too many examples to count. Parents will be on the frontlines as we move into more direct actions, such as Minnesota’s upcoming General Strike, demanding an end to the madness and a better future for all of our kids.

Hearing my son describe an active shooter drill broke my heart, but it also strengthened my resolve. I’ve done political work my entire life, but as a Mom, that work hits different. Every day, my children remind me why giving up isn’t an option. And why I will continue to fight the MAGA movement until we win.

---

ICYMI

What to Do if ICE Invades Your Neighborhood (Wired) A handy one to bookmark. It’s free from the paywall, so anyone can access it.

You’ve Heard About Who ICE Is Recruiting. The Truth Is Far Worse. I’m the Proof. (Slate) A friend joked to me that we should all join ICE and then do The Purge every night. Then I saw this and realized she might have a point.

How ‘Synagogue of Satan’ Went From New Testament Phrase to Antisemitic Catch-All (The Forward) Fascinating and unsettling history of a term I hadn’t heard of until Candace Owens started using it.

Want even more content? Subscribers receive bonus content on Fridays.

---

Coda

That’s all for this week. Please take care of yourselves and one another. Solidarity is the only way through. You deserve a treat, so here’s a short video of ICE agents slipping and falling on ice. I’ll talk to you again next Sunday!

---

Advertise in this newsletter

Do you or your company want to support COURIER’s mission and showcase your products or services to an aligned audience of 190,000+ subscribers at the same time? Contact advertising@couriernewsroom.com for more information.

---

Support COURIER’s Journalism

Democracy dies behind a paywall, so our journalism is and will always be free to our readers.

But to be able to make that commitment, we need support from folks like you who believe in our mission and support our unique model.