The last two or three days we’ve been watching the protests in Los Angeles regarding the immigration raids by ICE. A situation that may have started out as a simple protest but is now threatening to spin completely out of control. Protests are planned in other cities as well and the government response puts us on a dangerous precipice.
First of all, while I completely support the right to protest (I grew up in the 60’s after all), when I see people firebombing cars, throwing rocks or bricks at the police and looting local businesses, it has ceased to be a protest. Those involved need to understand something. This is not Gaza. You can’t have violent protests, destroying property and endangering other people and expect anyone to be sympathetic to your cause. The establishment will react to such behavior and people will get hurt or even die.
The Democratic leadership in California, in this case Karen Bass and Gavin Newsome have once again demonstrated why the Republican Party gets away with so much lawlessness. The response by the authorities in California was completely inadequate and provided an excuse for the King wannabe to step in. I saw what looked like groups of 30-50 police officers trying to deal with hundreds of protestors. As soon as the protestors move from peaceful protests like sitting down blocking a street, a building or even an interstate highway, you have to make it clear that violent behavior will not be tolerated. Los Angeles has a huge police force between all the different entities and available resources. Why didn’t the city and/or the state send in an overwhelming police presence to squelch the violence early on? Once again a failure of not only leadership, but as continues to be evident, a failure to be decisive for fear of offending some wing of the Democratic base. California has clearly established itself as a bulwark against the repressive Republican mentality dragging us back into the 1950’s, why then can’t they ever be a model of getting anything done? From the ongoing train wreck (literally) that is the state’s mass transit project to simply maintaining law and order it continues to show nothing but a morass of Democratic bureaucracy, fear of offending anyone and difficulty in making a principled stand that undermines whether or not they are trying to do the right thing.
Meanwhile, the ridiculously fascist approach of Donald Trump to send in first the National Guard, followed immediately by the Marines without any request from local or state officials for help shows the result of our pathetic Supreme Court’s subservience to Executive Power. Sending in the national Guard might make sense if the situation was like the watts riots of long ago, but of course it isn’t. Despite the wild over exaggeration of the President, it’s mostly small, isolated incidents in a huge city. The danger of having regular troops like the Marines there facing protestors can’t be played down. Why was there no pushback from the Pentagon leadership outside of Pete “Made for TV” Hegseth, who we know is nothing but a relentless suck-up? Where are the generals? They will be the ones to take the fall if something happens, and the potential for the public to lose faith in the armed forces is clearly there. is this what the military will do if or when Trump orders them to interfere in an election, or keep him in office? What happened to their oath to the Constitution, to the country? They don’t take an oath to a person. This was a total over-reaction, done primarily to distract the public from other less favorable issues slowly boiling to the surface.
The failure to enact any of the “hundreds” trade deals (highlighted by almost begging the Chinese to meet), the slowly rising costs for food, shelter and everything but gasoline, turning a blind eye to the ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing going on in Gaza that in theory is one cause of all the protests going on, not just in L.A. but college campuses as well and the sheer idiocy of the Trump Cabinet are all things Donald Trump doesn’t want anyone to see. The biggest thing we’re trying to divert attention from? The big, horrible bill that will put millions of Americans without health care, deny the poor and the sick minimal assistance while falsely claiming “fraud and waste” and accelerate the time frame for reducing social security benefits, all so we can give billionaires a tax break to buy another yacht. Most of the pro-growth provisions have been stripped out of the bill, what we are left with is a blatant attack on the social safety net by a party oblivious to the needs of most Americans, while parroting the multi time disproven theory that tax cuts will fuel “growth like we’ve never seen”. You know what is correct about that? We’ve never seen it. Reagan, Bush, Trump none of the tax cuts enacted by Republicans over the last 45 years have ever “jet fueled” a rapid GDP increase. We continue to average 3 something percent growth with or without tax cuts, the only thing that has taken off is the rate at which billionaires get richer. they got richer during the pandemic and that has only accelerated in the last several years. For god’s sake America, don’t look at the tax bill, look at the great and powerful Broz (Mr. spray tan) call out troops to save California from being overrun by terrorists. Oh wait, that really wasn’t happening was it? We had what looked like 500 to 2000 ill advised protestors making a big show in the face of governmental ineptitude which of course had to be met by a police state type response.
To top it off, we have Donald Trump threatening anyone who tries to rain on his big, expensive, tin pot dictator military parade. So much for the “right of free assembly to air grievances”. Way to go Supremes. Continue to destroy our First Amendment rights in favor of unbridled Presidential power. All while you continue to pretend that gun violence isn’t real and has nothing to do with guns. The Roberts Court will go do in history as the one that not only sacrificed individual rights given in the Constitution, but whose politicization of the law via shadow docket rulings, twisting and turning to support an Imperial Presidency and a response along the line of “crickets” while due process, free speech and judicial precedent were sacrificed will haunt our country for many generations to come. The sheer lawlessness, corruption and hypocrisy of this administration has reached heights never before seen in American history. I hope all of you are happy with what you voted for. Keep that in mind for the day when a Democratic President turns loose all these same “powers” to enforce a wildly liberal regime regardless of what Americans really want. That day is coming.
The real question is, if you’re so strong and powerful Donald, why are you scared of protestors? If you truly have this overwhelming mandate that you and the Republican Party continue to tout, then why be afraid of some minor number of protestors? Sounds very insecure to me. Threatened by any dissent. SO SAD!