Democracy will be decided on the streets of Minneapolis, and America

When former Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello introduced Bruce Springsteen to an amazed audience at Minneapolis’ First Avenue on Jan. 30, Morello said:

“I believe that the future of democracy in this country will not be decided in the courts. It will not be decided in Congress. It will not be decided on social media. I believe the future of democracy in this country will be decided right here on the streets of Minneapolis.”

I’ve been teaching constitutional law for nearly 50 years. I agree with Morello.

The Boss, of course, sang “Streets of Minneapolis.” Naming names. Lifting hearts. Announcing stakes. Decrying the occupier’s boots. Raising the flag for those who died. Demanding ICE OUT NOW. Aching to banish “Trump’s private army” — “guns belted to their coats.” Describing the “bloody footprints” where “mercy should have stood.” Two “left to die on snow-filled streets, Alex Pretti and Renee Good.”

Mainly though, Springsteen offered an ode to the inspiring souls of Minneapolis — breathtakingly courageous patriots, “singing through the bloody mist” taking “their stand for this land, and the stranger in our midst.”

In a reality almost impossible to believe, more people were in the streets of Minneapolis after the killings than before. So much for intimidating Minnesotans. I’ve always thought democracy would be saved in America from the South. I apparently underestimated the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

I, of course, didn’t underestimate Springsteen. I listened to him say, four decades ago: “We learned more from a three-minute record baby than we ever learned in school.” It probably sunk in. Bad news, perhaps, for a professor.

There’s a refrain in “Streets” that sticks with me, whether I want it to or not. After saying ICE’s claim is self-defense, just don’t believe your eyes, Springsteen sings: It’s our blood and bones And these whistles and phones Against Miller and Noem’s dirty lies.

Tough stuff. Not very moderate, not nuanced, not accommodating. Not Democratic (capital D). The words of one who has come to realize that literally everything is on the line. And perhaps like Morello, one who recognizes we aren’t going to be saved by the judges or the politicians or the consultants or the professionals. Or the professors. That when all the guardrails are demolished, or more typically, when they’re surrendered — the only thing we can depend upon is each other. The ennobling and sometimes terrifying work of engaged and enraged citizens. The work being carried out, to our literal astonishment, on the streets of Minneapolis. And often, less obviously, in communities across what Springsteen described, in introducing the song, as “our good country, the United States of America.’”

And the line drawn, at long last, is the one he casts — between our blood and bones, our whistles and phones, and Miller and Noem and Trump’s relentless and brutal lies. It’s the line for Minnesotans. It’s the line for Tar Heels. For all Americans. It couldn’t be plainer.

God knows I wish that I knew the whistles and phones and stunningly stout hearts will ultimately prevail. I admit I don’t. But Trump and his collaborators have at least done the favor of making it patent, undeniable — even for those who deny, daily. Minnesota represents the battle for America. We’re all in it. On one side, now, or the other. As for me, I’m with the Boss.

 Contributing columnist Gene Nichol is a professor of law at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. This column was originally published in The News and Observer, February 4, 2026.