Accelerant

Trump wants conflict as a pretense to assert authoritarian control

This cartoon was originally published on Pepperspectives. Click here to subscribe to Pepperspectives, where you’ll learn about the continuing threats to our democracy and the actions you can take to help safeguard it.

Last night I talked with a woman from the Los Angeles area, who was in Cincinnati on business. When we found out where she was from, a friend made mention of the events taking place in LA. The woman said that the protests had been in a relatively small part of the city. That echoes what California Gov. Gavin Newsom stated in his address to the nation. The police chief and mayor of Los Angeles also stated that local law enforcement were capable of handling the protests. But according to Donald Trump, there was a full-on insurrection that needed to be quelled by sending in National Guard troops and, later, US Marines.

The decision to send in troops, bypassing the governor, is a deliberate attempt by Donald Trump to manufacture a crisis in a bid to assert more authoritarian control. His goon squad is targeting virtually anyone with brown skin, including citizens, legal immigrants, and undocumented immigrants who have followed the law by reporting into regularly scheduled immigration check ins. Trump and his regime have targeted immigrants — brown immigrants, as he has no problem with white immigrants — as convenient scapegoats. Even though most undocumented immigrants do not commit violent crimes, he has called them gang members and “animals.” Even though most undocumented immigrants pay taxes while being unable to access those social services, Trump and his regime insist they are leeches on our society. Even though we are in theory a land of plenty, Trump rails against immigrants as a drain on our resources, while in fact it’s those who are wealthy like Trump who have a chokehold on America.

Trump wants to incite violence. He calls undocumented immigrants invaders, because it gives him a pretense to crack down on constitutional rights such as due process. He calls out the military to Los Angeles hoping that it will increase the tension and spark conflict. That way he can provide justification for cementing his authoritarian regime. All you have to do is look to history to history to see what he is doing.

We are at a crisis point. Our democracy is truly at stake. This is not hyperbole. Trump once before staged a violent insurrection to retain power. Now that he’s back in the White House, it’s up to all of us to stand up to him and his regime.

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