THREAD 1/ The US military and DoD's comprehensive rejection of Trump's calls for troops on the streets speak to a big dysfunction that the next President has to address: the actual coup danger comes from within police depts/ Sheriffs... newstatesman.com/world/north-am…
2/ Most people's model of a coup is the army deposing the President and taking power; or the President imposing a state of emergency... but the US military, like most militaries, is schooled to respect the constitution and highly disciplined... not so some US police forces...
3/ I interviewed Joe Arpaio in 2011, before his conviction: the regime around him was amateur, deliberately cruel, and openly flouting the rules... and the Constitutional Sheriffs movement actually claims sheriffs should outrank the Supreme Court (!) bbc.com/news/world-us-…
4/ Now, while state/city lawmakers are trying to exercise some control and discipline over police forces, you've got police unions leading the resistance... e.g. Bob Kroll in Minneapolis theintercept.com/2020/06/02/min…
5/ My experience of Greece shows where this will go... their riot squad was heavily infiltrated by fascists; the right-wing government let them off the leash; and the fascists sought to inter-operate with them.... bbc.co.uk/news/world-199…
6/ So far Trump's anti-constitutional actions are a) to force states to call out National Guard b) to back undisciplined, violent and racist cops against mayors c) subtextual calls on "Second Amendment people" - ie white militias - to mobilise... newstatesman.com/world/north-am…
7/ So the logical next step? The various unidentified state-run paramilitary groups start to inter-operate with the militias, while the White House organises a power grab... police unions take control of discipline and training... very similar to late Weimar Republic...
8/ The Democratic Party doesn't just have to win in November: it needs to win in a way that allows it to stop the "Boogaloo" people (using a pretty dysfunctional state machine), and to mobilise the progressive centre and left to defend democracy. newstatesman.com/world/north-am…
