The spectacle of camouflage clad, fully armed riot police attacking protesters armed with pool noodles and skateboards, shooting at journalists, sweeping up peaceful protesters in unmarked vans and lobbing tear gas at the elected mayor of Portland is an essential component of Donald Trump’s re-election strategy. It seems absurd and ridiculous but it is not. It is deadly serious. This may be the first step in assembling a national paramilitary force, unchecked by local authorities or the courts, that would disrupt the election, make a fair vote impossible and maintain power for Donald Trump when the electorate rejects him.
Certainly there has been some looting and disorder during the protests in Portland and other major American cities. This is an inevitable feature of large civil protests from the American colonial protests through the anti-war and civil rights demonstrations of the sixties and to the current movement for an end to lethal policing of Black people. But Portland and all the other American cities that Trump has called out are functioning and safe for most citizens and commerce. People must have the freedom to assemble and publicly protest. There has been some property damage but there is no widespread insurrection or public safety crisis. These problems are local issues that should be handled at the local and state level. If these authorities want assistance from the federal government they can ask for it. For now, they don’t want this federal intrusion.
Let’s be clear, Portland 2020 is not Kristallnacht 1938 but it has far too much in common with the Reichstag fire of 1933. The fire that gutted the German Parliament building was most likely ordered by the Nazi’s but publicly blamed on communist agitators. The incident was used as an excuse by the Nazis to seize emergency powers - eliminating the rights of habeas corpus, free speech, freedom of assembly and protest, and banning political participation by the Nazis’ leading opponents.
Here are the elements of the Portland story that most alarm us:
Trump, the Attorney General and the Acting Director of Homeland Security have assembled an ad hoc militia largely recruited from the least disciplined and most brutal elements of the vast Federal enforcement services - Customs and Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They are outfitted for urban warfare and are operating without identification or any apparent public supervision. They are unconstitutionally seizing and holding peaceful protestors without giving them legal recourse or filing charges.
These forces are acting aggressively and violently in a manner that is guaranteed to increase the reaction of the protesters. There is no strategy to de-escalate. The clear result and obvious intention is to provoke more violence. They have been asked to back down by local authorities but have seized the streets far from any Federal facility and are attacking protesters, journalists and elected officials.
Fox News, the National Rifle Association and militant police unions are demanding more violent action from the Feds and creating an atmosphere on the fringes of right wing politics that encourages white supremacists and alt-right militias to organize their own violent actions. This is a recipe for street warfare unprecedented in a modern democracy.
Trump recently said he will send as many as 75,000 federal officers to American cities in coming weeks. Not a single governor or mayor has requested this paramilitary presence nor is there any justification for it. This is a prescription for chaos and virtually ensures that there will be widespread violence in key American cities in the months leading up to the election.
At the moment this seems like a bizarre campaign ploy but it is one that can be poked and prodded to run for the remainder of the election. If, on election day, Trump believes he will lose, will he order the occupation of all the major American cities led by a paramilitary force armed to the teeth and reporting to no-one but Donald Trump and his allies? This sounds like an over-the-top dystopian novel but it has already begun and no one has taken action to derail it. There’s a saying from the 1960s that “just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they’re not following you!”
This is Donald Trump’s big idea and he is not backing out of it. He has spoken openly of his desire for punitive violence over and over. If we want to secure the vote and the rule of law we will need to make sure that every office holder, every police officer and soldier, every corporate and community leader understands that provoking violence in an effort to create an artificial crisis or to overturn the national vote is the end of democracy and normalcy. It will be devastating economically and politically in ways that may never heal.
We need to demand over and over again that the right to free speech and peaceful protest is respected by all authorities. Republicans must acknowledge and respect a free, fully-counted vote in November no matter how long it takes to complete. Republicans must demand that Donald Trump ensure a peaceful vote and abide by the results of the election.
Call to Action
Call both your Senators and your Representative to demand that Federal troops be immediately withdrawn from Portland and other cities. Remind them that federal officers should operate as a general police force only at the invitation and direction of local authorities and only in extreme circumstances.
Demand that the special group of officers operating as a clandestine paramilitary force created by Homeland Security be thoroughly disbanded and Acting Secretary Chad Wolf be replaced.
Demand that your Republican officeholders openly pledge that they will abide by the results of the 2020 election! Insist that they denounce the President for his refusal to state clearly that he will do so.
Demand that Congress appropriate money to states, localities and the Postal Service adequate to hold a safe election in this time of the pandemic.