If you enjoy this preview, I hope you’ll consider upgrading to a paid subscription, for access to everything we do. Alternatively, if you don’t have or want a Substack account, you can keep Off Message going with a donation. All support is appreciated, but donations of $75 or larger come with a comped annual subscription—all content unlocked and emailed to the address provided. You make Off Message possible. Thanks again. After MinnesotaThe objectives must be: Free Minneapolis, no more invasions, and insurance against election sabotage.Recording Politix on Tuesday, I began thinking aloud about the kinds of conditions under which Democrats might agree to fund the Department of Homeland Security without betraying their voters and the broader democracy. What if Republicans, worn down by backlash, were to hold this line: We can’t agree to legislative concessions amid a government shutdown, but we can agree to staffing changes. No more Kristi Noem, no more Stephen Miller, DHS will be overseen by a more normal, humane, and independent Republican, who would commit to ending the most glaring abuses: quotas, masks, roving patrols, and Kavanaugh stops. Would that be enough? The allure there is Stephen Miller, the sociopath who orchestrated the attack on Minneapolis. He should not be in government, and his comeuppance would be cathartic. But as of Tuesday, I hadn’t quite convinced myself this would be enough. Later the same day, Ruben Gallego, the ambitious Arizona Democrat, proposed a similar idea, and my sense is it has been well-received within the pro-democracy community. |