Trump is creating the blueprint for a police state
The Recombobulation Area is a 19-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning opinion column and online publication founded by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. The Recombobulation Area is now part of Civic Media.
On Sept. 25, Donald Trump issued a memorandum entitled “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence.”
Much of the press coverage focused on the obvious hypocrisy: Trump did not mention rightwing violence, such as the murders three months ago in Minnesota of Democratic leader Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and the wounding of state senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette. Nor did Trump mention the attack on Paul Pelosi, or the political violence that Trump himself incited on Jan. 6, for that matter.
But the press coverage failed to give adequate attention to the revved-up police state that this memorandum is likely to kick off.
In his memorandum, Trump made a sweeping and totally unsubstantiated charge that violence from the left — which he wrote included Charlie Kirk’s assassination and the assassination attempts against Trump — “is not a series of isolated incidents and does not emerge organically.” Instead, he wrote, “it is a culmination of sophisticated, organized campaigns of targeted intimidation, radicalization, threats, and violence designed to silence opposing speech, limit political activity, change or direct policy outcomes, and prevent the functioning of a democratic society.”
Note how “radicalization,” which is protected political speech, is thrown in with “threats” and “violence,” which are illegal already. And note how trying to “change or direct policy outcomes,” which again is protected political speech, is thrown in with trying to “prevent the functioning of a democratic society.”
Find Matt Rothschild’s “Wisconsin Forward” podcast here on the Civic Media network, and listen to the latest episode here:
From the false premise of a conspiracy and the vastly overbroad description of actions he deems objectionable, Trump went on to demand “a new law enforcement strategy that investigates all participants in these criminal and terroristic conspiracies — including the organized structures, networks, entities, organizations, funding sources, and predicate actions behind them.”
Simply to announce yourself or your organization as “anti-fascist” may get you in trouble. “There are common recurrent motivations and indicia uniting this pattern of violent and terroristic activities under the umbrella of self-described “anti-fascism,” Trump wrote. “These movements portray foundational American principles (e.g., support for law enforcement and border control) as “fascist” to justify and encourage acts of violent revolution.”
Note how Trump defines “foundational American principles.” He’s not talking about freedom of speech or assembly or protest. Here’s what he’s talking about: “support for law enforcement and border patrol.”
He decries what he calls the “anti-fascist lie,” and then, like a classic fascist, he criticizes people that express “anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity; support for the overthrow of the United States Government; extremism on migration, race, and gender; and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality.”
Then, using the full power of the apparatus of the federal government, he ordered “the National Joint Terrorism Task Force and its local offices” to “coordinate and supervise a comprehensive national strategy to investigate, prosecute, and disrupt entities and individuals engaged in acts of political violence and intimidation designed to suppress lawful political activity or obstruct the rule of law.”
He also ordered the Joint Terrorism Task Force and local law enforcement to go after “institutional and individual funders, and officers and employees of organizations, that are responsible for, sponsor, or otherwise aid and abet the principal actors engaging in the criminal conduct.”
Here, too, the language is exceedingly broad: “responsible for, sponsor, or otherwise aid and abet” is a net large enough to catch just about everyone. And any employee of an organization that the Joint Terrorism Task Force targets with this net can, by the language above, be prosecuted!
It should have come as no surprise then, when on Sept. 27, Trump ordered troops to Portland and authorized the use of “full force, if necessary.”
And it should have come as no surprise then, when on Sept. 30, Trump told the assembled generals that there is a domestic “war” going on, and that “we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military.”
These are not only the blueprints for a police state. They are the marching orders for a police state.
Matt Rothschild hosts the “Wisconsin Forward” podcast for the Civic Media radio network. He’s the author of “12 Ways to Save Democracy in Wisconsin,” published by the University of Wisconsin Press.
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