Republicans need to reaffirm their commitment to republicanism over the use of force.
Consider in the last few weeks:
1. Trump, SecDef Esper, Senator Cotton, (absurdly) influential Fox News hosts,and various Republican office-holders have endorsed a military intervention in /1
Consider in the last few weeks:
1. Trump, SecDef Esper, Senator Cotton, (absurdly) influential Fox News hosts,and various Republican office-holders have endorsed a military intervention in /1
American cities. Even if that can be legally squared with legislation like the Insurrection and Posse Comitatus Acts, it is OBVIOUSLY grossly inappropriate to use the military domestically against fellow citizens in a liberal democracy. The US is not China or Egypt,nor a Trump /2
family banana republic (yet). That this must be discussed at all shows how much Trump has corroded the commitment to deliberative democracy among his voters.
2. Police, a right-leaning constituency, have responded so harshly so ubiquitously across the country that it is fair /3
2. Police, a right-leaning constituency, have responded so harshly so ubiquitously across the country that it is fair /3
to call this a crackdown, violating core rights to assembly and speech. Even mainstream media are speaking of police rage/escalation/incitement/intimidation across the country: slate.com/news-and-polit…. As @jonathanchait pointed out (nymag.com/intelligencer/…), there was a reason /4
for the Obama-era police reforms, the push to demilitarize, and rolling back the post-9/11 ‘warrior-cop’ ethos. Naturally, Trump ended those efforts.
3. We have also learned just how much PDs are unmoored from mayoral control by powerful police union leaderships. I am from /5
3. We have also learned just how much PDs are unmoored from mayoral control by powerful police union leaderships. I am from /5
Ohio, and here are Cincinnati police switching the US flag out for an informal ‘thin blue line’ cop flag () and the Cleveland police unilaterally declaring that journalists can’t go downtown (). And we’ve witnessed widespread /6
roughing up of journalists which looks an awful lot like an effort to cover-up the harsh tactics. When the police undercut the elected leadership, act unilaterally, and ignore basic constitutional protections like a free press, that is praetorianism, not democracy.
4. Last /7
4. Last /7
month, far-right militias marched around state capitols in camouflage and body armor, carrying long guns, screaming at state police and legislators. The point was pretty obviously intimidation, not a defense of the Second Amendment or ‘freedom’ to shop at Walmart. Here is a /8
Michigan state legislator talking about being understandably unnerved by armed gunmen in a state building with nooses, Confederate flags, and weapons: lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/202…. These same people are now itching to go shoot it out with the protestors: rightwingwatch.org/post/brenden-d…. /9
In each instance you have a slice of the Trump coalition flirting with the excessive, unjustified use of force, rejecting democratic methods, constraints, and accountability. I keep reading about the US might fall into a Spanish, right-left civil war (noahpinionblog.blogspot.com/2016/11/you-an…),/10
so it’s worth pointing out that the US center and left don’t want that. It is House Democrats who have sought since their 2018 victory to re-start the traditional legislative process, passing all sorts of bills in their chamber. It is Trump and McConnell who seem to have no /11
legislative interests beyond tax cuts and judges, and it is the far-right which has cooked up scary fantasies about a race/civil war in the US (thebulwark.com/its-time-to-st…) which they’re convinced they’ll win, because they’re gunned up. This is the behavior of the National Front, /12
not an American political party fully committed to democracy and peaceful deliberation, and it’s infecting the US right all over the place: . /13
On the police as a Trumpist constituency, it’s even more pronounced than I thought: . I guess when Trump told them they could rough up suspects, they agreed. Depressing. /14
