When Small Men and Women Rule*

*People of Character Stand Up

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The murder last weekend of Minnesota Democratic legislator Melissa Hortman and her husband by a masked shooter who also stalked, shot, and attempted to murder Rep. John Hoffman and his wife, left tens of millions of Americans shaken. Many heard the news of the shooting as they were setting out for a day of protests slated to be held nationwide, that would express outrage and opposition to Trump’s authoritarian excesses.

The more we learned, the more our horror grew. The shooter had planned the attacks from a list of potential targets. The shooter is a Trump supporter and anti-abortion zealot. All of the elected officials on the target list were Democrats. He posed as a police officer, wore a mask, and demanded entry to his victims’ homes in the middle of the night. It was, according to the U.S. Attorney who later announced the indictment of the shooter, “the stuff of nightmares.”[i]

But not all Americans were outraged. At least not enough to constrain their cruelty. Some saw in this horrific event an opportunity to play a round of the sport favored by unhinged right-wingers, incels, and Elon-worshippers – the game of “owning the libs.” U.S. Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) was one of them. He posted a set of loathsome tweets on the social media platform, X.[ii]

Think pieces and cable news segments were devoted to exploring how someone like Mike Lee had descended to the MAGA depths.[iii] He had once been a widely respected constitutional lawyer, a former Supreme Court clerk, and the son of a former U.S. Solicitor General. He vocally and passionately opposed Trump’s nomination in 2016.[iv] But by 2020, he was among the coterie of lawyers who worked hard and long to find a nonexistent rationale that would support throwing out the results of the 2020 election.

How did Lee fall, many wondered last week. What happened to this prominent member of Utah’s Mormon Brahmin class?

But what does it mean to ask, “what happened to Mike Lee?” Or to Lindsey Graham? Or Sen. John Kennedy. Or Ted Cruz. Or to Maria Bartiromo. Or to Tim Scott? Or even to Elon?

I am convinced that nothing “happened” to them.

Trump’s cruelty, his bullying, his endless money-making scams, his threats, and his unchecked abuse of power do not have the ability to change the character of anyone. But proximity to wealth and power can, and often does, reveal the depth of one’s existing character.

Hard as it is to face, what makes Trump 2.0 so painful is that we are compelled to confront the moral degradation, self-absorption, and reckless irresponsibility of so many of those in leadership positions in this country. But confront it we must.

None of Trump’s excesses would be possible without the prostration of Republicans in the Congress led by Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (D-La) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD). To have signed up to enable Trump’s presidency despite his looney conspiracies, his slavish devotion to Putin, his irrational tirades about tariffs, his ignorance about the American economy, his off-the-charts corruption, his rank bigotry, and his 34 felony convictions, requires a moral constitution that is already damaged or compromised. To continue to express shock and wonder at the fervor with which those who were once deemed to be “centrists” or “institutionalists” or even just “conservatives,” have embraced MAGA ideology, is to cling foolishly to the idea that some temporary madness has taken hold of these Republican leaders.

No. This period has revealed how many American leaders were already lacking in character, and how many are, when push comes to shove, utterly agnostic about whether this nation remains a democracy. What matters to them is that they lead. That they are in positions of prominence. That they hold on to and make ever-more millions of dollars. That they are “in the room where it happens.” And that they never have to step out of a place of privilege to assert what is right and to stand up for those without power.

We have learned that there are law firm leaders, corporate CEOS, tech leaders, elected officials, university leaders, and tens of millions of American voters who place profits, “the bottom line,” access, mergers, influence, position and the freedom from moral constraints, over the maintenance of democracy in our country.

Masked, armed agents of the state kidnapping people off the streets? No problem. Disappearing innocent men to foreign gulags with no opportunity to argue their innocence? Due process is just not that important. Kids deported or separated from their parents? Well, they should’ve had better parents. Threatening to take over by force sovereign nations who are our allies? Well, we need that land. Hire incompetent, deranged people to lead federal agencies? Well at least they aren’t Black. Giving away American global leadership in the world? Well, we didn’t need it anyway.

We are faced with a crisis of character in the leadership class in this country and the fish stinks from the head. It is a fundamental weakness of character that has left so many members of Congress who know right from wrong, mute in the face of Trump’s authoritarian takeover and daily cruelties.

Think about the words and actions of Arizona Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA), last week who doubled down on loathsome comments she made at a town hall. She went to the trouble of videotaping herself in a cemetery to deliver a cruel and sarcastic message.[v] It was unhinged. Was Ernst trying to “own” her own constituents?

The answer is simple. Ernst simply does not have the character and integrity to lead at a time when cruelty, insensitivity and ignorance are the easier path.

And that brings me back to the murder of Melissa Hortman. Because with her murder we lost someone of tremendous character and integrity. Every person I met in Minnesota this week spoke highly of her. Many speak about her leadership of the Minnesota House when so many critical initiatives were stewarded through the legislature. Governor Walz called her “the most consequential Speaker in the state’s history.”[vi] Both U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who know how exacting I can be about the integrity of elected officials, each told me separately about Rep. Hortman, “you would have loved her.”

I believe them. Although I heard a great deal about her extraordinary leadership in the closely divided Minnesota legislature, that body passed critical legislation. She was a real legislator – doing what was necessary to pass important legislation – garnering support and making concessions where needed.

But I only recently learned that Hortman first came to prominence in Minnesota when she was a relatively new lawyer and won the largest ever housing discrimination award in the state’s history (at that time - 1997) on behalf of her client, an African American mother of three.[vii]

Years later she showed her fearlessness and character when she upbraided fellow legislators for sitting in a back room playing cards while fellow legislators were debating a public safety budget bill. That the card game was unfolding while two Black women legislators were speaking was a fact Hortman refused to ignore. During her remarks on the floor, she admonished those she saw participating in what she called the “100% white male card game in the retiring room” and slammed the growing “disregard for debate and discussion” in the legislature. [viii] That members of the card game were of both parties did not stop her derision.

Hortman was what we call in my community a true “ally” in the best sense of that word. She possessed integrity and fearlessness. She was a leader of character and conviction. And it becomes more evident every day that such leaders are not thick on the ground in Washington, D.C., in Silicon Valley, or in states and cities across this country.

That is why it was so important that millions turned out to the “No Kings” marches last Saturday despite the threat of violence in Minnesota and around the country. It wasn’t just Rep. Hortman’s murder. The day before the march, President Trump had threatened Americans with “heavy force” if they dared protest his “miliary parade”[ix] scheduled for the same day. Several days earlier the sitting United States Senator, Alex Padilla (D-CA), was physically removed, tackled, and handcuffed at a press conference of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. The violence was ratcheting up.

But still, from Tuscaloosa to Boston, from Bowling Green, Ky to Los Angeles; West Palm Beach, Florida to Philadelphia, New York, and hundreds of across the country, Americans came out with colorful and clever signs, with determination, and resolve.[x] This is what it means to lead. To step forward even in the face of threat and danger. To stand for what you believe no matter what.

And that is the great story of this past week. Americans who believe in democracy are not looking to members of Congress, political party leaders or tech billionaires to lead. We are leading – demonstrating the kind of character and integrity that holds together a democracy. Instead we are marching, boycotting, speaking, writing, organizing, litigating, advocating, demanding - not because we have no fear, but in spite of our fear. The State of the People Power Tour finished up in Los Angeles and opened in Baltimore.¹ Black communities across the country ended the week with joyful “Juneteenth Day” celebrations. The determination to celebrate liberation in the face of all we are confronting is also a demonstration of leadership and character. We will not relinquish who we are, and what is important to us, despite the threats of the moment.

We must force ourselves to remember that there are law firm leaders that caved to Trump, but also those that did not. There are universities that sought to accommodate Trump, and those that refused. There is the cowardice of Speaker of the House Mike Johnson. But there’s the dignified nobility of Senator Alex Padilla, the proud and dignified Latino Senator from California, who despite being shoved, tackled, forced to a prone position and handcuffed for asking a question at a press conference held by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, expressed his concern first and foremost for “farmworkers, cooks, day laborers” who are subject to the brutality of this Administration far from the camera’s glare.[xi]

So why must we contend with this? Because we are in a time of a great and increasingly dangerous crisis. And things are moving quickly. Trump and his supporters in the cabinet and in Congress will ratchet up the pressure as they become more unpopular. Law enforcement will, more often than not, throw in their lot with this Administration’s excesses. We do not know yet what the military will do. Senator Padilla noted painfully on the floor of Senate earlier this week that the National Guardsman and FBI agent who had escorted him into the room and knew well who he was, stood by silently while he was attacked and taken to the floor by agents in the room.[xii]

We are living in the time when small men and women rule. Our only hope is to become bigger ourselves. More focused in our determination to fight. More robust in our advocacy. More strategic in our planning. Firmer in our conviction. More compassionate and loving in our communication and actions with those who are joined with us in this great struggle. More unwavering in our character and integrity. More unified and resolute. And even more ruthless in our analysis. No one is coming to save us. We will need to save ourselves.

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[i] https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/prosecutor-reveals-chilling-details-attacks-minnesota-lawmakers-rcna213304

[ii] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/16/us/politics/mike-lee-minnesota-assassination-democrats.html

[iii]

[iv] https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/10/senator-mike-lee-trump-support/679565/

[v] https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2025/05/31/iowa-sen-joni-ernst-posts-sarcastic-apology-after-viral-medicaid-comments-we-all-are-going-to-die/83967492007/

[vi] https://www.axios.com/local/twin-cities/2025/06/16/melissa-hortman-policy-reform-legacy

[vii] https://minnlawyer.com/2018/11/17/lawyers-take-top-two-house-leadership-posts/

[viii] https://www.mprnews.org/story/2017/04/04/house-dfl-leader-hortman-slams-white-make-card-game

[ix] https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-warns-protesters-military-parade-met-heavy-force/story?id=122692921

[x] https://www.theatlantic.com/photography/archive/2025/06/photos-no-kings-protests-america-trump/683195/

[xi]

[xii] https://www.yahoo.com/news/padilla-chokes-senate-floor-recounting-180500484.html?guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAF5kCIkq1u0pUCgWgXGMj57TEx5XVmeRI9W2r45szwCndy30l7ZmOcrLugcf85ar-9_DGrxQUdjT0KruC68PtWwK6yc3EI3YSUdc9kiyr3MQ_JudyZlDxTRNHoeIaPphoI2BV80Gv-0My7CxtAnNk4DP8HTBkTb8DhqlpFDcYjcA

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