‘We have met the enemy and he is us.’ Only we can restore order from anarchy.

“These are the times that try men’s souls:” So wrote Thomas Paine in the brutal winter of December 1776 as George Washington’s ragtag Continental Army made ready to cross the Delaware River and confront British troops.

Nearly 250 years later, as winter grips much of our nation, we’re watching the ongoing confrontations between federal immigration law enforcement officers and the protesters against them. The anger, vitriol, and violence on display remind us that these times also try our souls.

When Paine’s words first came to mind, I re-read the pamphlet that started with that famous line. It’s a succinct description of the conditions faced by the outgunned and outmanned soldiers of the nascent United States of America. Interestingly, regardless of your partisan leanings, those who read it for themselves will likely find analogs to their chosen heroes and villains of our present crisis.

Depending on your perspective, federal immigration enforcement officers are either akin to agents of a tyrannical king, or patriots risking their lives to evict foreign invaders. Those who resist the officers could be either rebels against a tyrant or traitors to our constitutional republic.

The chasm between these two perspectives is best described in a 1970’s “Pogo” comic strip, in which Walt Kelly’s character mused: “We have met the enemy and he is us.” While Kelly’s strip was about the pollution of our natural environment, the disorder today is caused by those who pollute our civic environment.

Our Declaration of Independence explicitly states that government derives its “just powers from the consent of the governed.” In our constitutional republic, that consent involves agreeing to abide by the laws passed by our elected representatives and enforced by our elected president.

The present conflicts over immigration enforcement can only be understood as a rejection of this founding principle. And it’s led to mayhem.

The law is clear: anyone who “assaults, resists, opposes, impedes, intimidates, or interferes” with federal law enforcement officers doing their job is committing a crime. Investigations will determine if Reneé Good and Alex Pretti, the two Minnesota protesters killed by officers, had done so. While they chose to insert themselves into active law enforcement operations, their deaths are nonetheless horrifying. So is the unchecked lawlessness that set the stage for these tragedies.

The Biden administration opened our borders to more than ten million illegal immigrants and abused “Temporary Protected Status” provisions for other immigrant groups. “Sanctuary cities” implemented policies to harbor and support all these new illegal and unvetted arrivals with billions of taxpayer dollars. It’s hardly a stretch to see these policies as a concerted effort to create a fait accompli future administrations would be reluctant to reverse.

Voters then chose Mr. Trump, in no small part because of his promise to do just that.

The sanctuaries of lawlessness and coordinated propaganda of activists opposed to the voters’ mandate created the conditions of conflict in Minnesota. We can and should debate the tactics used by federal immigration law enforcement officers, but such debates would be moot if the immigration lawlessness hadn’t been encouraged in the first place.

It’s not just a Minnesota problem. The Columbus Education Association recently declared the officer involved in the Good shooting to be a murderer — before any charges have been filed, let alone a jury having reached such a judgment. Some teacher’s unions even call on teachers to leave classrooms and take to the streets, continuing an unprofessional intrusion of non-education related political activism over teaching.

Such irresponsible polemics deserve condemnation. Public school teachers have a unique position as they’re both representatives of our government and responsible for objectively teaching our children about its structure. They are paid by all taxpayers — not just those who vote their way — to use approved curriculum to teach students how our laws are made and who makes them.

By encouraging rejection of law enforcement efforts while smearing officers as criminals, they are directly subverting our constitutional principles and teaching our children that elections don’t matter if you don’t like the results. Such subversion doesn’t teach justice; it teaches anarchy.

It also weakens overall support for public education and creates more social division leading to fewer children growing up with a shared — and honest — understanding of our constitutional heritage and obligations.

American citizens have the power to elect representatives and a president who we think will make policy in line with our policy preferences and constitutional principles. In 2024, we did just that. Just as the January 6th, 2021 mob at the U.S. Capitol didn’t get a violent veto of Biden’s election, the mobs in Democrat controlled cities and states around the country don’t get a violent veto over the promised policy results of Trump’s election.

Since the federal government’s immigration authority has long been considered to be plenary (i.e. absolute), federal law is supreme. That was made so by the consent of the governed in the same way we elected representatives and a president who explicitly promised to enforce those laws. Trump’s robust immigration enforcement is similar to President Obama’s. The Constitution doesn’t permit cities and states to be “sanctuaries” that thwart the enforcement of the laws that these two presidents obeyed.

Peaceful protest – I remember when that term wasn’t ironic — and civil disobedience have a long and storied history in our country leading to important social changes. Anarchy doesn’t.

As tragic as the deaths of Reneé Good and Alex Pretti are, those who create the conditions that lead to anarchy don’t get to complain about the consequences of the anarchy that results.