Conrad Zbikowski, Minnesota Reformer

We can beat Trump together — but there's only one way to do it

The headlines over the past few weeks have been unrelenting. The Trump administration is activating the full power of the federal government against perceived enemies, from liberal groups to elections officials to a former FBI director.

Meanwhile, autocratic powers like China and Russia are running influence campaigns and cyber attacks to pit Americans against Americans.

China currently has the ability to track Americans’ locations and unencrypted communications on American telecom networks, as well as movements and communications abroad, the Wall Street Journal recently reported.

Russia has been perfecting the art of social media influence, with apparently great success in the case of President Donald Trump’s first election.

China and Russia want to crack the idea that we are a rainbow of many colors, a multiracial, multi-faith, representative democracy where we respect each other and celebrate our diversity in all its joys. They know America is weaker domestically and on the world stage when we are fighting against each other, both online and in the streets.

The more we hate each other, the more our fabric of American government pulls apart and frays. While I strongly disagree with Charlie Kirk’s message and its impact on marginalized groups, political violence is always wrong and is a dynamo that is hard to stop.

Here in Minnesota, we had one our toughest summers since 2020. House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman, her husband Mark, and their beloved golden retriever Gilbert were assassinated. It’s only by luck that State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette survived the assassin’s bullets, and that the killer failed to harm the dozens of other leaders on the kill list.

One of my closest friends was on the first page of the kill list. It’s scary. It’s easy to be anxious and paranoid. I have been threatened at my own home.

The only way to defeat us is if the Trump administration and the movement that undergirds it manages to divide us. We can’t let that happen. To win as a majority coalition, we must always invite everybody who believes in civil liberties and human rights.

In a time when the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, labor allies, and the left needs to be organized, there is an ongoing rift between factions of the DFL Party.

In Minneapolis, the party convention’s endorsement for mayor of state Sen. Omar Fateh was appealed to the state party and invalidated. This did not end the question. If anything, it made each intra-party faction feel ever more strongly that the opposing side was corrupt and self-dealing at the expense of the greater Democratic project.

Minnesota has been a shining eight-pointed North Star, strong on civil liberties, human rights, and economic opportunity. Gov. Tim Walz recently announced that he is running for a third term. There is an open U.S. Senate contest with Sen. Tina Smith retiring from public service next year. This is a real opportunity to earn back a DFL trifecta with two legislative majorities and the governor’s signature pen. The stakes are high.

Keeping a big tent party unified in these times is incredibly difficult. I know first-hand as the former chair of the DFL local party unit that trained the most volunteers and raised the most funds of any DFL local party unit statewide. But this commentary isn’t about water under the bridge.

This November, voters in Minneapolis and Saint Paul will elect city leaders for the next four years. The first Tuesday of next February, thousands of DFL members will gather in the cold night for precinct caucuses. We will host yet more intra-party contests at in-person conventions across the state of Minnesota. It will get nasty. There will be hurtful language that threatens the inclusiveness of our party. How we react and lead will decide the path forward.

Words matter. Actions matter more. We on the left side of the spectrum — from moderate Democrats to liberals to leftists — have a role to play to invite Minnesotans into the greater Democratic project. You can invite your friends to a virtual training. You can attend the “No Kings” protests across Minnesota on Oct. 18. You can register your family to vote where they live so they can vote in elections that affect the community they call home.

And you can give family, friends and random people online a little grace. There are plenty of bots trying to gin up conflict, and real humans like us don’t have to add to that.

We are in the real fight against fascism now, here, in America. If you thought Joe Biden was using rhetorical hyperbole when he said in 2019 that there was a battle for the soul of this country, well, we are here now.

The words we use and the actions we take will have significant consequences over the next months and beyond. Majorities are only built with addition, not subtraction. To help make it happen, you can get involved, bring your friends, make calls, knock doors, write postcards, protest, and exercise our First Amendment rights to protect the Fourth Amendment rights and all the rest they are coming for.

We can do this, but only if we do it together.

Conrad Lange Zbikowski is a longtime Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party activist

We can see Minnesota House GOP power grab for what it is: opinion

Minnesota House Republicans’ refusal to guarantee they’ll seat the fairly elected Rep. Brad Tabke, DFL-Shakopee, should be viewed for what it is: an undemocratic power grab. Democratic-Farmer-Labor lawmakers are right to do everything they can to thwart it.

Thankfully, on January 24, the Minnesota Supreme Court backed the DFL House caucus, ruling that Republicans’ attempt to seize control of the the Minnesota House without a quorum violated the state Constitution, with the six justices ruling unanimously that 68 members of the House must be present in order to conduct business.

Everything that has happened in the chamber and committee rooms, at taxpayer expense, since Jan. 14, is at the end of the day smoke and mirrors to distract from the truth that Republicans don’t have quorum, didn’t really elect a speaker, and can’t pass legislation that would pass constitutional muster.

House DFL members have been focused on working directly with constituents in their districts and are ready to bring that important work back to the Capitol.

But first, Republicans must stop trying to overturn an election they lost and agree to seat Tabke. And, they must share power once the House returns to a 67-67 tie — as expected — after a special election in District 40B.

In the first days of the second Trump administration, many of us are asking ourselves, “Can he really do that?” Can he really block funding appropriated by Congress? Can he really fire agency inspectors general, FBI staff, and civil service employees without cause? Can he really declare by fiat that certain Americans born in America — like me — are not American citizens?

The answer to all of those is, yes, he can do it for a day, he can do it for a week, but when something is against the law and against the Constitution, eventually the slow gears of justice will work their will. If they don’t, it will be too late.

By seeking to grab power without an electoral mandate, Rep. Lisa Demuth and the House GOP are trying something similar.

But the courts have already ruled here in Minnesota against GOP lawlessness. First, a judge ruled that Tabke’s victory, however close, was legitimate. Then the Minnesota Supreme Court made its ruling that Republicans cannot elect a speaker without 68 present in the House. We are not through the looking glass here in Minnesota. Up is not down and down is not up.

Now, Republicans are wasting still more time and resources by launching another frivolous lawsuit in search of power the voters didn’t grant them.

On the other side of the Minnesota Capitol, the DFL-controlled Minnesota Senate will not accept House Republicans’ bills, no matter how many mock sessions they run. For our bicameral Legislature to pass any budget or bills, Republicans will need to accept reality and enter into a power-sharing agreement with House DFL members as the voters asked for when they elected a 67-67 House.

Republicans need to return to the negotiating table so that we can govern together as Minnesota voters chose on Election Night. DFL members are ready to roll up their sleeves and get to the negotiating table immediately.

At stake is the state budget. Millions of Minnesotans are relying on the Legislature to pass a budget by June 30 to fund schools, public safety, roads, health care, parks and aid to their cities and counties for the next two years. If the Legislature doesn’t pass a budget by June 30 and forces a government shutdown, the blame will solely rest with Rep. Lisa Demuth and the House GOP for the time they wasted playing pretend with the gavel.