1/ Godwin's Law having been suspended:
Trump's move to send elite CBP units to occupy sanctuary cities is the fashiest thing he has done yet. It has more terrifying implications than any of his public statements or administrative actions, and direct parallels to the Third Reich.
Trump's move to send elite CBP units to occupy sanctuary cities is the fashiest thing he has done yet. It has more terrifying implications than any of his public statements or administrative actions, and direct parallels to the Third Reich.
2/ Caveat: nothing below is to warn of an imminent threat, or even of anything Trump might do in a second term. I'm thinking of what we're opening the door to *after* that. (But not to say we shouldn't be concerned about what Trump could be capable of either.)
3/ Long before it was folded into Homeland Security, CBP came from a long lineage of explicit and unaccountable white supremacy. The Klan used to act as a volunteer border force before 1924, many of its members joined up once it was created.
theintercept.com/2019/01/12/bor…
theintercept.com/2019/01/12/bor…
4/ You should follow former CBP agent @JennBudd for her take on all of this, but she has consistently warned of an agency out of control and unaccountable to the American people which sees itself as working only for the President.
5/ Which brings me to Hermann Goring. As citizens of the Weimar Republic were well aware, he and Hitler's Nazis were working toward a totalitarian state which would destroy all opposition. They were never shy about publicly declaring this; Germans had years to see it all coming.
6/ Once they took power in Jan 1933, one of Goring's duties in Nazi leadership was as Minister of the Interior. This job included almost all of the powers given to Homeland Security by Congress in 2003 in direct response to 9/11.
The Gestapo were formed within weeks.
The Gestapo were formed within weeks.
7/ Goring originally had control of the SA and SS, but there was no effective federal police force. The Gestapo gained immediate national power by consolidating state and federal law enforcement into one unified national force for evil. It was never much more than 30K strong.
8/ During this time, Hitler's rhetoric was directed not (primarily at least) against Jews, but against Communists, anarchists, Socialists, and even Democratic Socialists--the only party capable of even attempting to stand up to the Nazis at that point.
9/ The emergency decree after the Reichstag Fire allowed anyone in these groups to be designated an enemy of the state and targets for the Gestapo. Courts had blocked these tactics before, but the decree left them powerless. 10K+ were arrested immediately in Prussia alone.
10/ But of course, these were necessary emergency arrests of evil undesirables who threatened the state.
You know, the usual suspects:
Terrorists
Anarchists
Communists
Agitators
Criminals
Social Democrats
Jews
Wait, what
You know, the usual suspects:
Terrorists
Anarchists
Communists
Agitators
Criminals
Social Democrats
Jews
Wait, what
11/ No doubt people who welcomed the Gestapo into public life were happy to see them clean up the undesirables they were being told were destroying Germany, much as #MAGA is now enthusiastically repeating DHS's non-explanation for an unprecedented CBP incursion into cities
12/ Never forget that Hitler's most effective enablers were not his fellow Nazis but the traditional Weimar conservatives who understood exactly what he was believed that they could manage--and even, cravenly, benefit from--the Nazi movement. Others feared the base.
Moving on.
Moving on.
13/ Let me be extremely clear for the historical record:
There is *no justification* for the unprecedented show of force CBP is deploying into American cities other than their opposition to Trump.
None.
#MAGA nation, where's your faith in ICE? Are they not up for the job?
There is *no justification* for the unprecedented show of force CBP is deploying into American cities other than their opposition to Trump.
None.
#MAGA nation, where's your faith in ICE? Are they not up for the job?
14/ The kinds of people Trump has used to justify this operation are unsavory, but nowhere near beyond the existing capacity of ICE. Boston police serve warrants on people far more dangerous than this each and every day--almost always without snipers. Don't believe the hype.
15/ These targets and this initial deployment are not the point. The point is for the American people to not only accept but *welcome* federal forces into daily life. This is not something we're used to seeing during peacetime.
16/ All of those Tea Party loons who called Obama a "dictator" and a "fascist" for proposing a corporate healthcare bill based on conservative Heritage Foundation principles sure didn't age well, I'll say that much
17/ ICYMI, a lot of Trump's State of the Union was about lauding ICE and terrifying us with tales of scary foreigners among us. A *lot* of it. (This isn't even all of it.)
His invasion of sanctuary cities with militarized CBP tactical units was announced 9 days later.
His invasion of sanctuary cities with militarized CBP tactical units was announced 9 days later.
18/ It's late October 2020, and there's a major terror attack on US soil. Even if the perpetrator is a citizen, CBP will already be in our cities ready for a major sweep. Anyone think we're having a normal election?
19/ It's 2025. Trump finishes his 2nd term; failing health brings him to hand off the reins to a chosen successor: a young, charismatic, well-spoken, white Christian family man. CBP is now well-established in sanctuary cities, which will require additional "election security"
20/ These are not extreme scenarios.
The extreme scenarios are much, much worse.
The extreme scenarios are much, much worse.
21/ In an extreme scenario, my Twitter feed alone (let alone my work of the past 14 years) would be enough to send me to "protective custody"--for my own good, since I am an enemy of the people who could be subject to populist violence. This is exactly what Goring did.
22/ I know how this sounds, I really do. But there are thousands of armed white nationalists (and sympathizers) itching to support CBP in mass deportation--and whatever follows.
They're still top of the FBI's domestic threat list, and Trump only continues to embolden them
They're still top of the FBI's domestic threat list, and Trump only continues to embolden them
23/ Robert Paxton makes it very clear in "Anatomy of Fascism" that every successful fascist movement has relied on some combination of official agencies and volunteer militias to take and maintain power. Putting CBP in our cities gets us that much closer.
24/ Not the first to make this observation, but:
No one suddenly wakes up one morning & realizes "holy shit well I guess I live in Nazi Germany / Fascist Italy / Trumpist America now."
The fact that I can write this without fear does not disprove my point. They could have too.
No one suddenly wakes up one morning & realizes "holy shit well I guess I live in Nazi Germany / Fascist Italy / Trumpist America now."
The fact that I can write this without fear does not disprove my point. They could have too.
25/ We gave up a lot after 9/11. DHS was created in a rush; civil liberties haven't been a priority since.
We gave up a lot under Obama. More than we can really understand rn.
How much more can an actual "I alone can fix it" authoritarian take from us?
We gave up a lot under Obama. More than we can really understand rn.
How much more can an actual "I alone can fix it" authoritarian take from us?
26/ FOOTNOTE: I am *not* a historian or in any way an expert on the Third Reich, I've just read a lot of books. Actual historians please feel free to set me straight on anything I've misstated or gotten wrong altogether--I don't want to risk getting the facts wrong here.
27/ Doing more thinking about this, and IMO Nazi Germany is not a feasible model for the aspiring American autocrat. Putin's Russia--violently repressive, openly white supremacist, lawless, corrupt--is the more likely direction & a harsh federal presence gets us there much faster
28/ I generally think American liberals get way too hysterical about Russia, but there more than enough people (including Trump) in this country who admire the oligarchs & their total control over government and society that this is a real & foreseeable thing
29/ Trump & the small junta of people who attempting to control his whims are well aware of this history, & you should be too. Every fascist movement is a little different, & there's no one path to authoritarianism--but there's always something like this CBP move along the way
