Thomas L. Friedman

And along came a man named Donald Trump who said, I will build a wall.

The wall was not just about immigrants.

It was a wall against the gale forces of change.

And I have a lot of sympathy for these people.

And we need leaders who can help us navigate this transition.

And that's why I keep coming back, and I warned at the end of this column I wrote to Democrats that it is absolutely vital that you couple every protest in Minneapolis or elsewhere with a very loud commitment to a high wall with a big gate, to creating a legal process.

If Donald Trump won't do that, then make sure every American understands you will do that.

It's vital that Democrats make clear that if they get in power, they're not going to do it to open the border.

That was the disaster that got Trump reelected.

They're going to do it to partner with Republicans to create that legal framework to manage our opportunity and our challenges of immigration.

I just say one thing about my fellow Minnesotans, who I'm really proud of for the way they have risen up against this

What is a deliberate provocation, basically.

It's a unique place.

You know, I always tell people this story.

When I was like five years old, there's actually a Jewish mafia in Minneapolis.

And my dad grew up with a lot of these guys.

They're mostly bootleggers.

And one day when I was young, my dad came home and said, one of his friends had been sent to jail.

And when you're like five years old and your dad says he knows someone who went to jail, like, I just like, wow, I just blew me away.

I said, dad, what did he do?