Minnesota Governor Tim Walz stepped outside the gate of his mansion and told a crowd of protesters that they should “cause good trouble,” invoking the late John Lewis as justification for disruptive action. The comment came amid a wave of demonstrations over a controversial ICE operation and the death of Renee Good, and it was captured on video that quickly made the rounds online.
The timing could not have been worse: Walz is facing intense scrutiny, including grand jury subpoenas tied to the state’s response to ICE activity, yet he chose to cheer on civil unrest instead of calming it. That contradiction—preaching defiance while he himself is under investigation—has a whiff of political theater, not leadership, and it should alarm every citizen who cares about the rule of law.
Conservative voices across the country, including prominent commentators on national programs, rightly called the governor’s remarks absurd and dangerous. When elected officials encourage “disturbing the peace” with sanctimonious language from behind private security gates, they are signaling permission for lawlessness while keeping themselves safely insulated.
Walz leaned on the legend of John Lewis and even referenced his visits to the Anne Frank House to justify a posture of nonviolent resistance that edges toward civil disobedience. Borrowing the rhetoric of civil-rights heroes to legitimize modern political protests is a rhetorical sleight of hand that ignores context: Lewis’s actions faced overt lawlessness and brutality, not federally lawful immigration enforcement operations that provoke legitimate public policy debate.
This is not a debate about sympathy for victims or the need for accountability; every American should want justice and humane law enforcement. But calling for “good trouble” as a blanket prescription lets Democrats outsource responsibility to the mob and normalizes breaking laws when it suits a political narrative. That calculus is corrosive to civil society and invites escalation.
Watchful conservatives must demand consistency: if the left celebrates civil disobedience in one instance, they cannot feign shock when chaos follows in others. We should push for clear, enforceable boundaries—peaceful protest that respects property and safety, and accountability for officials who stoke unrest while dodging consequences.
At a time when America already feels frayed, leaders should be calming, not catalyzing. Minnesotans and patriots across the country deserve governors who protect law and order, speak honestly about complex problems, and refuse to encourage “trouble” from the safety of their gated mansions.
