Josh Marshall thinks Minneapolis may be a turning point. Acknowledging the danger of ever thinking such a thing he writes:
But it’s what we saw afterwards and especially today that took things to a new level – top Trump officials including the Vice President and Secretary of Homeland Security saying that what we see in these videos is in fact exactly what we want to see happen: a federal law enforcement officer, in danger of being killed, reacting with deadly force to someone “weaponizing” their vehicle. I don’t think that this kind of predatory up-is-downism is sustainable for a majority of the American people. We know that Donald Trump sees America’s blue cities as a kind of conquered territory. We’re now seeing what that actually means in practice, when the potential violence which has always been coiled up in federal law enforcement is vented on American citizens because of the predatory license granted by Trump’s example and his acolytes. The message is pretty simple. Your cities are a war zone, and any false move, any transient moment of non-compliance or any fidgety moment of misunderstanding can mean your death. Top Trump officials are saying emphatically that this is exactly how it should be and I don’t think that will stand.
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The U.S. has a long tradition of intolerance of unleashing military and paramilitary forces on American civilians. You find it right there in the central role of the Boston Massacre in driving the final crisis of the American Revolution. You see it in the 3rd Amendment and numerous laws which are supposed to keep the U.S. military from being used in domestic law enforcement except under the most extreme circumstances, and now don’t seem to apply anymore.
ICE and CPB aren’t the military of course. But this is too literal a way of looking at the matter. They are being sent into American cities as forces of occupation and they are acting like that. They are very consciously decked out in the costumery of urban warfare and military occupation. We don’t have to stand for this. It’s outside of our traditions. It’s malevolent and predatory. It’s time to say enough. And this may be the turning point.
He says that ICE and CBP should be abolished and he’s right. (Even Bill Kristol says it!) I’d go farther and throw out the whole DHS edifice. It was a bad idea to begin with. The country can deal with immigration without this phony macho paramilitary force running around cos-playing like they’re in a video game.
Maybe this will be the moment the worm begins to turn. There are protests and some people are obviously upset. But I just don’t know if that’s going to be enough. Trump is juggling a lot of shiny objects right now — we have taken over a country and descended on a major American city all in one week and people are being killed in both places. Can we sustain our focus long enough to actually make a difference before he commits the next outrageous act and we all move on? I just don’t know.
Mostly what I’m finding among people in my real life is a general reluctance to engage with any of this. They just do not want to talk about it and resent me for bringing it up. I’m at a point where I’m just communicating here rather than even attempting to discuss current events socially. I mentioned the other night the famous Reverend Niemöller quote (“first they came for…”) and was told that I was being hysterical. I hope they’re right I really do.