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Minneapolis became ground zero for resistance to ICE in 2026—and Michelle Phelps, sociologist at the University of Minnesota and author of The Minneapolis Reckoning, argues that’s not a coincidence. She joins the show to trace how networks, muscle memory, and skepticism of official narratives built during the 2020 protests carried directly into this year’s mobilization. We discuss why the city was already on the Trump administration’s radar, why the pullback of federal enforcement counts as a limited but real win, why Phelps calls it a “hollow” or “pyrrhic” victory given that deportations continue quietly elsewhere, and why she pushes back on the popular narrative—including recent comments getting called “woke 1.0”—that 2020 was simply a mistake the left overcorrected on.
Right Now with Perry Bacon: a twice-weekly show diving into U.S. politics, democracy, and the authoritarian threats facing America. Each episode, Perry strives to go beyond daily headlines and actually connect the dots to what’s happening in America.
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