How often history turns on the courage and conviction of a desperate few.

Consider Ukraine. Consider Minnesota.

Two peoples. Different arenas. Yet in the crucible, each faced the same demand: defend your own and save democracy — or lose both.

And the people answered yes.

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Ukraine has shown the world what it takes to fight an authoritarian force from without: courage, ingenuity, self-sacrifice, stamina. A love of country so great that a whole people has willingly suffered years of war rather than bow to tyranny.

Minnesota has shown the world what it takes to resist authoritarian force from within: moral clarity, peaceful and creative mass action, legal resistance, public witness, democratic solidarity. A love of neighbor so deep that fear, winter and even bloodshed could not empty the streets or silence the whistles.

The lesson is the same in both places: Democracy is fragile. It cannot save itself. It survives grave threat only when ordinary people decide that comfort and normalcy must give way to the defense of freedom.

Minnesota: This past winter, we awakened America.

We showed millions that hate can be defeated by love, tyranny by unity, and anti-democratic machinations by the disciplined courage of a free people. We did it, in the words of Bruce Springsteen, with “our blood and bones and these whistles and phones” — and with them, we stirred the conscience of a nation.

But Minnesota: We must awaken America again.

For the midterms loom.

Our winter fight was one skirmish in a much broader battle. Across this nation, the assault on our constitutional republican democracy continues unabated. Free and fair elections are under attack. The rule of law is under attack. The separation of powers is under attack. The free press, freedom of speech and the right to protest without intimidation are under attack.

So the question rings out: Who will stoke the fire of resistance? Who will stand again for democracy? Who will bring America back to the streets, and from the streets to the ballot box in November?

Minnesota, let it be us.

Doubt not that our president, his administration, and his Republican Party are working in lockstep to bend our free republic toward tyranny. They advance by pressure, threat, intimidation, distortion and the steady bending of rules. Watch them gerrymander where they can. Restrict voting where they can. Flood the zone with lies. Attack election workers. Pre-poison trust in outcomes.

All to make us feel powerless. Isolated. Afraid.

We cannot let that happen. We must rise again, Minnesota; we must lead America again — all the way to the ballot box.

Let this be our next Minnesota miracle.

Because we cannot lose this election. We must win. Not narrowly. Not barely. We must win so decisively that no trick can overcome it, so broadly that no lie can explain it away, so clearly that America’s birthright is reclaimed — and the long journey of healing can begin.

Our part is to flip Minnesota’s two most reachable red congressional districts — the First and Eighth. We will do it by forging a grand coalition:

Minnesota Blue joined with Minnesota Middle.

Let’s be clear: In Minnesota and across the nation, it will not be enough simply to turn out the blue base. A victory large enough to overcome every trick, lie, and scheme will require the middle.

And the middle can be won.

Not by asking people to abandon every conviction they hold. Not by asking conservatives to become liberals, or independents to become Democrats. But by helping our neighbors see the stakes clearly: this is not an ordinary election, to be decided by ordinary policy preferences or old party habits.

This is a democracy election.

And in a democracy election, the question is not: Which party do I usually prefer?

The question is: Which vote will best preserve our constitutional republican democracy?

Minnesota, it’s on us to build on the moral authority we won this winter. To show the nation the way: Blue and middle, hand in hand.

Democrats. Independents. Disillusioned Republicans. People of faith. People of conscience. Veterans. Students. Teachers. Nurses. Farmers. Union workers. Small-business owners. Parents, grandparents and first-time voters.

All gathered around one sacred civic duty: to defend the republic.

With whistle parades and coffee meetups, voter registration drives and neighbor-to-neighbor conversations, let us organize. Not only in Minneapolis and St. Paul. In Rochester, Duluth, Mankato, Winona, the Iron Range, and in Olmsted, Blue Earth, Steele, Freeborn, Carlton, Itasca, St. Louis and Beltrami counties.

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Let us go to college towns and mining towns, lake country and Trump country — wherever blue voters must be reawakened, and wherever voters who have voted red may yet prove to be members of the vast quiet middle, ready to hear the call of democracy.

This is our hour, Minnesota.

Let not our whistles go silent. Let not our streets stay empty. Let not the blue base grow weary. Let not the middle go unreached.

Organize. Mobilize. Work. And win.

Win by a margin no scheme can defeat.

Toward that end, may we Minnesotans highly resolve anew:

“That government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Tom Mohr is founder and CEO of CEO Quest, a CEO coaching company; author of “Letters to Rising Leaders”; and creator of the “We The Middle Vote” substack (WeTheMiddleVote.substack.com).

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