Dominate or Dialog

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump

D.C. had no problems last night. Many arrests. Great job done by all. Overwhelming force. Domination. Likewise, Minneapolis was great (thank you President Trump!).

6:19 AM - Jun 2, 2020

An Act authorizing the employment of the land and naval forces of the United States, in cases of insurrections

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That in all cases of insurrection, or obstruction to the laws, either of the United States, or of any individual state or territory, where it is lawful for the President of the United States to call forth the militia for the purpose of suppressing such insurrection, or of causing the laws to be duly executed, it shall be lawful for him to employ, for the same purposes, such part of the land or naval force of the United States, as shall be judged necessary, having first observed all the pre-requisites of the law in that respect. Insurrection Act of 1807

President Thomas Jefferson feared that Aaron Burr was plotting to overthrow the nascent U.S. government. He took his concern to Congress, and the Insurrection Act was the result. It has been amended slightly over time but used sparingly. “The Insurrection Act has been invoked infrequently throughout American history. Governors have requested and received support most recently following looting in the aftermath of Hurricane Hugo in 1989 and during the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy also invoked the Act in opposition to the affected states' political leaders to enforce court-ordered desegregation.

“In 2006, the George W. Bush administration considered intervening in the state of Louisiana's response to Hurricane Katrina despite the refusal from Louisiana's governor, but this was inconsistent with past precedent, politically difficult, and potentially unconstitutional. An amendment was made to the Insurrection Act by the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007 to explicitly allow any emergency hindering the enforcement of laws, regardless of state consent, to be a cause for use of the military. Bush signed this amendment into law, but some months after it was enacted, all 50 state governors issued a joint statement against it, and the changes were repealed in January 2008.

“On June 1, 2020, President Donald Trump threatened to invoke the Act in response to the nationwide protests following the death of George Floyd in police custody.” He would send US military forces into states where the local Guard was not called up and where Trump, and Trump alone, believed violence required federal intervention. The statute is obviously open to abuse, and it was never intended to allow the US military to function as police. The problem with Donald Trump’s threat to apply the statute, opposed by most governors, is that he would be politicizing our armed forces to enforce his stated belief that the street violence seen in response to the murder of George Floyd is entirely the product of a left-wing anarchist movement (labeled “antifa”). Trump conveniently fails to mention the rather substantial participation by right-wing militia in fomenting and even enabling scofflaws, looters and arsonists. Both left and right have hijacked social media, each pretending to be the other, to exacerbate and abet an already volatile situation. Both sets of extremists are aggravating a terrible situation to incite civil war.

From a military perspective, representing an all-volunteer military of mostly career soldiers, sailors and air-people, using federal forces against minorities under the guise that they are leftist rebels decimates the military’s ability to continue to recruit from those minority communities. It pits “them” against “us.” Our military, now revered and having recovered from the loss of prestige during the Vietnam War era, is supposed to be completely neutral and focused on true organized military enemies of the state, primarily foreign. The National Guard, under the aegis of state control, has a dual function: serving their states in time of turmoil and as a back-up to supplement the federal military in times of war. For 26 states, governors have called up their guard. For the others, they believe that so far, their local police are sufficient.

As arrest statistics show, the looters – often escorted by waiting cars ready to carry off the purloined good (locals obviously don’t need cars!) – and the arsonists are almost never indigenous to the communities they are decimating. They are outsiders. Miraculously, there are reports of pallets of bricks showing up, conveniently located, as night falls, in those city centers where violence is expected. I am not about to exonerate leftist anarchists, but the evidence of dramatically significant right-wing agitators is overwhelming. To the point where local governors are describing the details in press presentations. That is an inconvenient truth for Trump.

“On his massive conference call on Monday [6/1] with governors and chief law enforcement officers, Trump played his tough-guy law and order card for his always-loyal base: “[Trump] demanded a crackdown on protests that have rocked cities across the country over the past three days, berating U.S. governors for their ‘weak’ approach to violence and spurning calls for him to strike a more conciliatory tone.

“‘You have to dominate,’ Trump said Monday in a video conference with governors and law enforcement. ‘If you don’t dominate, you’re wasting your time. They’re going to run over you, you’re going to look like a bunch of jerks.’… Trump has seized on protests against police brutality toward people of color to portray himself as an icon of law and order eschewing the soothing role past presidents have adopted in similar moments as he seeks to turn the election-year conversation from his widely criticized handling of the coronavirus outbreak.” Bloomberg, June 1st.

Late on June 1st, Trump ordered that White House police use tear-gas and rubber bullets to disperse a crowd of lawful and peaceful protesters, within curfew hours, simply because he wanted to clear a path to walk to St John’s, the episcopal church across from the White House. There Trump posed holding a bible, in front of the church, for a photo op. Trump himself rarely attends religious services, generally preferring to play golf instead.

The Right Rev Mariann Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, was outraged at this manipulative attempt by the President to appear motivated by religion: “‘I am the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington and was not given even a courtesy call, that they would be clearing [the area] with tear gas so they could use one of our churches as a prop… Let me be clear, the president just used a Bible, the most sacred text of the Judeo-Christian tradition, and one of the churches of my diocese, without permission, as a backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus,’ she on camera.

“‘We align ourselves with those seeking justice for the death of George Floyd and countless others. And I just can’t believe what my eyes have seen,’ she added… ‘I don’t want President Trump speaking for St John’s. We so dissociate ourselves from the messages of this president… We hold the teachings of our sacred texts to be so, so grounding to our lives and everything we do, and it is about love of neighbor and sacrificial love and justice.” Guardian UK, June 2nd.

“District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser blasted Trump for what police did to demonstrators outside the White House, which occurred before the 7 p.m. ET curfew she had instituted for the city… ‘I imposed a curfew at 7 pm. A full 25 minutes before the curfew & w/o provocation, federal police used munitions on peaceful protestors in front of the White House, an act that will make the job of @DCPoliceDept officers more difficult. Shameful! DC residents — Go home. Be safe,’ Bowser tweeted.” NBC News, June 2nd.

Donald Trump repeatedly tells us he is a friend to the African American community, that he is not a racist. Not the way most see the President, particularly given his seemingly unbroken support for groups that are unabashedly racist. “A Yahoo News/YouGov poll found 52 per cent of U.S. adults believe the president is a racist, while another 37 per cent of those polled said he was not. Eleven per cent answered that they didn't know.” Daily Mail, June 1st.

Meanwhile, in an online and televised speech on June 2nd, Trump’s Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, excoriated the President as being a root cause of problem and not a solution to the unrest across the land. “[Biden] accused the president of being more worried about himself than the nation at a time when it ‘is crying out for leadership… This president today is part of the problem and accelerates it,’ Biden said, adding that Trump is ‘consumed with his blinding ego… I won’t fan the flames of hate…I’ll seek to heal the racial wounds that have long plagued our country, not use them for political gain.’” Boston Herald, June 2nd. Biden cast himself as a conciliator, focused on dialog and bringing the nation together. Trump is the dominator.

Meanwhile, the coronavirus is having the best time. “Government leaders and health officials have expressed their concern that coronavirus could rapidly spread during protests over the death of George Floyd... Sunday [5/31] alone saw an increase of almost 20,000 cases nationwide, according to the CNN count compiled with data from John's Hopkins.

“In Washington DC, the health department on Monday [6/1] reported a new peak in cases meaning a delay to moving from phase one of the District's reopening program to a less restrictive phase… In California, cases jumped 11% in days, from 98,980 reported Wednesday to 110,583 cases Sunday, according to the health department's data… In the past week, 18 states had an increase of cases of at least 10%; cases decreased in 21 states, and 11 were holding steady, according to a CNN analysis of the seven-day average of new cases between Memorial Day and Sunday.” CNN Health, June 1st. We’ll see the results of the increases person-to-person contact in about three or four weeks.

I’m Peter Dekom, and it took a lot to build this country, but there are so many Americans, many led by the President himself, seemingly dedicated to tearing it down; when it is that election again?