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We had a couple of long travel days — crossed into the US yesterday and we’re crossing Texas today — but I did have a chance to listen to a couple of political podcasts that I had backlogged. One was the Josh Marshall podcast, which covered Walz’ decision not to run and noted that Amy Klobuchar is the most popular politician in Minnesota.
It’s interesting how a politician can be generally popular yet disappointing to the base, and Klobuchar is a great example. The reasons for popularity are difficult to gauge. Is Klobuchar “popular” because she generally delivered for constituents and most of them appreciate that? Is she popular because she’s careful to keep her public pronouncements bland enough that the right wing leaves her alone? It’s unclear to me.
That said, I think this piece gets to the core of why more politically engaged Democrats find statements from Klobuchar and other centrist Democratic Senators very disappointing. First, Klobuchar’s skeet about the shooting in Minneapolis:
By refusing to coordinate with local law enforcement, ICE is not making our community safe. It is making it less safe. www.startribune.com/she-was-an-a...
— Amy Klobuchar (@amyklobuchar.com)2026-01-08T13:48:50.612Z
The response by Albert Burneko at Defector:
This makes me feel insane. Does it make you feel insane? A masked government agent, a member of Donald Trump's unaccountable racist paramilitary force, shot one of Sen. Klobuchar's constituents in the head and killed her, in response to her, at absolute most, having moved her vehicle a few feet instead of allowing herself to be violently accosted by men in masks. The outrage is not that the agent did so without having coordinated that action with local cops. The outrage is that he did it at all.
Why does the mainstream Democratic response to authoritarian violence always have to be abstracted like this? What would it take for these freaks to voice objection to the actual fact of state terror happening right in front of their faces, rather than raising limp procedural qualms over Trump not having filed the proper paperwork to inflict it with sufficient bipartisanship? What conceivable abuse by the Trump administration would give Klobuchar an easier opportunity to simply believe in right and wrong—or even to mount a cynical performance of believing in right and wrong—than a masked goon whipping out a pistol and murdering one of her own constituents, on video, over nothing? Would Renee Good's summary slaughter at the hands of the American gestapo have been tolerable with buy-in from the Minneapolis Police Department? How fucking hard is it to simply and absolutely oppose the murder of innocent people by federal agents? How hard is it to respond—as Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar did, and reliably does, despite being a constant target of racist malice from the president himself—like an actual human being?
Here’s a response from an actual human being:
BONUS THREAD: 🧵 This poised Rockstar chose the perfect response: AOC: “I understand that VP Vance believes shooting a mother of 3 in the face 3 times is an acceptable America that he wants to live in, & I do not — That is a fundamental difference between VP Vance & I."
— Melissa Nadia Viviana 🐸 (@resistrebelrevolt.net)2026-01-10T00:41:16.983Z
Let’s be frank about why Klobuchar and others (I’m not trying to pick on Klobuchar specifically, there are a lot like her) can’t react like AOC. First, they’re afraid that criticizing the actions of ICE will hurt them by making them appear soft on immigration enforcement. The majority of House and Senate Democrats are full of briefings and polls telling them that Americans want more immigration enforcement, never mind that people hate masked thugs wilding in the streets. Second, they’re afraid to say anything negative about police, no matter what the police do. Again, this is learned defensive behavior brought about by the right wing freak out over any effort to make police accountable for their actions. (My own take is that polls that were phrased correctly would bring out a real public distaste for the way that police have become arrogant bullies in the last few years.) Third, they’re all wrapped around the axle of worrying about messaging about affordability or healthcare and avoiding “distractions” like the murder of an innocent mom in Minneapolis. Finally, they’re afraid of coming out loud and proud in defense of a lesbian. The right wing propaganda on this is trying to tell us that she didn’t matter, she was a non-person, because she was a liberal and a lesbian, and a certain kind of feckless Democrat is going to quietly agree with that.
I’m afraid that these folks are so far behind the curve that they won’t even consider Josh Marshall’s good advice on this subject [gift link]: it’s time to break up the Department of Homeland Security. I’ll add that we need to cut back ICE funding (which AOC is calling for).
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