Former Minnesota Sen. Justin Eichorn, one of five senators who introduced the Trump Derangement Syndrome bill, was arrested by Bloomington police and booked in jail for allegedly soliciting a 17-year-old for sex. Photo courtesy Bloomington Police Department (Bloomington Police Department)

For years, peacemakers have been trying to remind Minnesotans that we have more in common than not and that we can disagree peacefully.

In scales grand, like the thousands of Minnesotans brought together by the Braver Angels to discuss politics without judgment, and small, like a Fergus Falls woman who opens her door to anyone for soup and conversation, people have tried and tried to overcome the terrible anger and loathing that divides our state and nation.

Despite the best efforts of these people, the hatred continues, reaching a low point last week when five Minnesota state senators brought a bill before their colleagues to designate “Trump derangement syndrome” as an official mental illness.

It hurt, right? It was shocking. It was meant to hurt and to shock.

It also made me want to weep, for all the reasons people have pointed out and more. It made light of actual mental illness. Four of the five are from greater Minnesota, and it underscored the animosity that runs the length of the state. Worse, it recalled the political oppression of the Stalin-era Soviet Union, when those in power actually did lock political opponents away in psychiatric institutions.

When one of the five, former Sen. Justin Eichorn of Grand Rapids, who at the time was also the chairman of the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board, was arrested after allegedly getting caught up in a prostitution police sting for soliciting who he thought was an underage girl for sex, it seemed like he’d gotten his just deserts.

I was getting ready to skewer these five senators in this column when it occurred to me that our problems run much deeper. We are rapidly trading Minnesota Nice for Minnesota Hostile. We trash each other online. Accuse each other of all kinds of nefarious motives and intellectual deficits. Social media warriors show they have no desire to persuade, enlighten or learn. They are out to crush, mock, eviscerate. It’s like we can’t offer a decent argument without dripping a little poison at the end, like, “Can’t you read?” or “Try to use your critical thinking skills.”

Do we actually think these tactics are going to win anyone over?

Don’t get me wrong. The bill is disturbing. We should reject it, and the authors should withdraw it and apologize to all Minnesotans.

If they don’t, then what? Should we add it to the arsenal of blame we can throw at the other side?

William Doherty, co-founder of Braver Angels and a retired University of Minnesota professor, had a gracious assessment of those who introduced the Trump derangement syndrome legislation.

It could be, he told me, that the GOP legislators were reacting to years of hearing their opponents trying to diagnose Trump with a mental illness and his supporters as cult followers without minds of their own.

They hear criticism of Trump as direct attacks on themselves, he said. (And they’re not wrong. Trump opponents generally disparage anybody who votes for him.)

“The compassionate view is that they feel like Trump supporters get put down all the time,” he said. “So, time to strike back.”

It’s hard for anyone to resist that urge to strike back. We’re humans. We’re now more tribal than ever, less willing to extend charity and the benefit of the doubt to the other side. It’s hard to resist the desire to act not on impulse but in the best interests of Minnesota. The five senators couldn’t resist. Then Eichorn’s arrest triggered a counterwave of mockery and judgment against Republicans in general from Democrats online.

And back and forth it goes. You’re fat. Well, you’re ugly. You kill babies. Well, you kill little kids by taking away their AIDS medication. Biden let millions of immigrants cross the border. Well, Trump is ordering immigrants held by government contractors without due process. Your president is a narcissist. Well, you get so hysterical, you must have Trump derangement syndrome.

The best way for the public to respond to these senators? Doherty recommends ignoring it, as their bill doesn’t have a chance of going anywhere.

“They have no power,” he said. “It was a political stunt.”

Even though five senators cosponsored the bill, it’s important to remember that 85% of Republican senators did not. It’s also important to remember that there was widespread support among Republicans to remove Eichorn from the Senate; true, not because of this bill, but because of the criminal charges against him. They deserve credit for being willing to boot him out; he resigned Thursday.

It’s not appeasement to ignore the legislation. It’s de-escalation. It can work for police encounters. It can work for the rest of us, too.