A play by the President and GOP to turn the U.S.A. into a Dictatorship?
I have to say, the news cycles spin so fast now that there’s hardly time to take a breath between stories. Anyway, here are some thoughts on events of a few days ago.
Facebook memes are calling this year, 2020, as some sort of demented Jumanji game. You’ve seen the memes, right? Coronavirus level four, Murder hornets’ level five, and now, the eruption of people, both black and white, in protest over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, as Jumanji level six. To be honest things are so bad that the news about earthquake activity in Yellowstone National Park is hardly making a ripple in the news cycle. Would that be level seven?
I’ve mentioned in previous articles that the President has made a number of moves during his time in office that smack of a desire to crown himself king, if not dictator, of the U.S. It’s all about him, and always has been. His gob-smacking move on Monday evening, eastern time in the States, was a piece of work. He called a press briefing. All of Washington D.C. press was there in the Rose Garden. Across the street from the White House, in Lafayette Square, there was a peaceful demonstration in progress. According to all the news outlets I care to trust, about 6:30pm, well after the briefing was to start, a lot of screaming and shots fired were heard by the reporters.
It turns out, the President had those peaceful protesters chased away by teargas wielding police so the President could walk across to a nearby historic church, St. John’s Episcopal, closed because of a fire, with bible in hand, for a photo op. The Episcopalian Bishop of the church, Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, the next day, told reporters that she was outraged over the complete abuse of religious symbols for political posturing. https://news.yahoo.com/episcopal-bishop-dc-outraged-trump-020616884.html
(To see a full outline of what happened Monday evening see https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inside-the-push-to-tear-gas-protesters-ahead-of-a-trump-photo-op/2020/06/01/4b0f7b50-a46c-11ea-bb20-ebf0921f3bbd_story.html?fbclid=IwAR3n7g3hJx1iTiL-uBptx8jC5vICbVV0Pc7BAo_wkYMm_mKMODE7g51ob8k&utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook)
When the President finally joined the reporters in the Rose Garden, nearly an hour late, he reiterated the call for military action that he spoke about earlier in the day, while on a call to the nation’s governors. https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/06/01/army-vet-lawmaker-invoke-insurrection-act-deploy-active-duty-troops-riots.html The President blames the loosely organized movement, Antifa, a far-left militant group, for the violence that has occurred over the past week. He’s gone so far as to declare the group internal terrorists. I’m not a lawyer, but several others have mentioned that his “declaration” holds no water. It is, however, a nice sound bite for his base as he calls for law and order. Using phrases such as “show no quarter”, “dominate protesters”, “arrest lots (of protesters)”, and other equally unhinged rhetoric, he demanded that the governors get their states in order or he (President Trump) will send in the military.
By Tuesday, a number of GOP representatives, including Senator Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, publicly called on the President to invoke the Insurrection Act. I’m not an historian or a lawyer, but I can tell you invoking this nineteenth century act would have to have a much higher level of problematic bad behavior on the part of demonstrators and still require the request of a state’s Governor, before it could actually be invoked. I find it revealing, though, that this is where the GOP and the President’s mind goes in a crisis.
They totally by-pass talks with Americans about the decidedly uneven playing field people of color have had to live with over the last four hundred years. They expend no effort to come to an understanding about the laws and attitudes that need to change. There’s no sympathy for the hundreds of dead black men, the broken homes, the abuse. No. That’s not where they go. They go straight to martial law. They go straight to brute force, as though that police officer’s knee on George Floyd’s neck wasn’t force enough. No compassion. Totally in keeping with the GOP’s sympathies for white supremacy in this country.
As a retired military person, my stomach rolls at the thought of our young men and women being called up to be a massive show of force. To do “whatever it takes to restore order.” I’ve been wary of this President for his entire administration as he continuously creates corruption and pushes ever onward toward turning this country into a dictatorship.
I implore the Grand Old Party to get its shit together and put a muzzle on this raging lunatic of a President before it’s too late.
