Engines without governors fly apart
A maxim by Frank Wilhoit (the composer, not the late political scientist) remains as true today as when he proposed it in 2018:
Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit:
There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.
There is nothing more or else to it, and there never has been, in any place or time.
Thus, conservatives are by-God fundamentalist about the Second Amendment so long as it protects them and not liberals. The CBP killing of Alex Pretti is generating ulcers on the right (NBC News):
A war of words over deeply held beliefs erupted on the political right in the hours after a federal agent shot and killed Alex Pretti on a Minneapolis street Saturday, pitting top officials in President Donald Trump’s administration against Second Amendment defenders in his electoral base.
At the core of the debate is that Pretti — who was permitted to carry a gun in public in Minnesota — had a concealed firearm on his person that eyewitness videos show federal agents apparently discovering and removing during the altercation that led to his death. Videos do not appear to show Pretti holding the weapon during that confrontation.
Bound but not protected
Trump administration officials in their accustomed fact-free manner blamed Pretti for his own killing because he was legally carrying a concealed weapon for which he had a permit. He never drew the SIG 9mm from its holster. As agents pinned Pretti to the pavement, one agent discovered and removed Pretti’s weapon a moment before fellow agents opened fire on him where he lay.
The National Rifle Association and the Trump administration have for years championed gun rights now have the issue coming between them.
An instructive exchange played out on X. Bill Essayli, a federal prosecutor in California appointed by Attorney General Pam Bondi, infuriated gun-rights activists with a series of posts expressing similar sentiments to Noem’s — “If you approach law enforcement with a gun, there is a high likelihood they will be legally justified in shooting you” — and accusing critics of being members of antifa.
None of that sat well with defenders of the Second Amendment, who are accustomed to having their right to bear arms challenged by Democrats, not Republicans.
“Oh I’m Antifa now?” Aidan Johnston, the director of federal affairs for the Gun Owners of America, wrote on X in response to Essayli. “I guess @TheJusticeDept is back to targeting gun owners as domestic terrorists. You can want illegals & criminals off the streets and not want to see CCW [concealed carry weapons] permit holders get executed for ‘approaching’ law enforcement.”
The National Rifle Association attacked Essayli for “demonizing law-abiding citizens.”
Naturally, the NRA refrained from directly criticizing the Trump administration.
Daily Breast reports, “Donald Trump has refused to back Kristi Noem’s claim that the shooting of nurse Alex Pretti was justified, as DHS officials reportedly turn on the Homeland Security secretary.”
Pop some popcorn.
Raw America podcaster British Chris sees a White House spiraling out of control. Events in Minneapolis have Trump 2.0 in damage-control mode. Sunday talking heads programs featured a string of Trump 2.0 officials none of which could tell a consistent story on Pretti’s killing. They faced pushback from hosts armed not with sidearms but with with video clips refuting the goverment’s narrative on the slaying.
“It’s the communication strategy of an administration that’s lost the plot,” Chris explains. And from an administration more interested in clicks than competence:
Behind the scenes, the picture is even worse. According to CNN’s reporting, Trump has been expressing frustration that his immigration messaging is “getting lost”—as if the problem is branding rather than the fact that federal agents killed a nurse on camera. Sources describe him as “exasperated,” which is a polite way of saying the president is watching his signature issue spiral out of control and doesn’t know how to stop it.
[…]
Top White House officials have been “plotting how to move the narrative away from the unrest in Minneapolis,” according to sources familiar with internal discussions. Think about that phrasing. Not “addressing the concerns,” not “ensuring accountability,” but moving the narrative. They’re trying to change the channel while the house is burning down.
British Chris adds this takedown:
The White House built its coalition on Second Amendment absolutism and law-and-order rhetoric. Now those principles are in direct conflict, and there’s no talking point that resolves the contradiction. Either you defend gun rights for all lawful carriers, or you defend federal agents killing someone who never drew their weapon. You can’t do both, and watching administration officials try is revealing the intellectual bankruptcy at the core of their governance.
This is what happens when an administration governs by narrative rather than principle, by spectacle rather than competence. Eventually, reality intrudes in ways you can’t spin. A 37-year-old nurse lies dead on a Minneapolis street, killed by federal agents while exercising constitutional rights this president claims to protect. Multiple videos contradict the implicit justification for lethal force. Your own appointees can’t get their stories straight. Your allies are demanding independent investigations.
“It’s a perilous moment,” tweets Garry Kasparov in a long thread. The exiled Russian dissident “lived through a similar, nationwide version of this in Trump’s model, Putin’s Russia, it’s not easy to fight against. And Trump and many of his gang have passed the point at which they feel they can afford to lose power, even in Congress.”
The normal person‘s aversion to conflict is not something autocrats have, and they exploit that. Trump is building ICE in his image & it is primarily a political weapon. There will be violence, likely fatalities, with local law enforcement to try to force everyone to pick a side.
What’s happening in Minneapolis will play out in more well-chosen districts and swing states. More violence, more shootings, banning rallies, criminalizing opposition. Even if the overall public sentiment toward ICE is negative, the sense of chaos often benefits the strongman.
Intimidation of regular citizens is another core component of suppression campaigns. The autocrat needs relatively apolitical moderates to stay quiet. To say it’s only radicals involved, not their business, to believe they won’t be affected. This is always false. Speak up!
What’s happening in Minneapolis will play out in more well-chosen districts and swing states. More violence, more shootings, banning rallies, criminalizing opposition. Even if the overall public sentiment toward ICE is negative, the sense of chaos often benefits the strongman.
What the Party of Trump can neither abide nor contemplate is an America not dominated by dominators.