Today’s reaction to the federal militarization of law enforcement against protests in Los Angeles is portrayed as a classic first step in a fascist playbook.
What bothers me the most about the "this is unprecedented" reaction is that it's deeply disrespectful to the Americans who suffered at the hands of the state in the past.
What about Fannie Lou Hamer, who was dragged off a bus and beaten in jail when she was on her way back from a voter registration event in Jim Crow Mississippi in 1963?
What about Jonathan Daniels, the activist murdered by a sheriff in Alabama as he shielded other activists in 1965?
What about, as you note, the students shot by the National Guard at Kent State in 1970?
When we act like violence by the state against the people is a "new thing" in the era of Trump, we disrespect our protesting ancestors before us, and we show some baffling amnesia as Americans.
There’s something deeply unsettling about how familiar this all feels. We like to think every crisis is unprecedented, but the script hasn’t changed much since Kent State or the Bonus Army. Authorities invoke “order,” protestors get labeled as threats, and the response escalates until someone gets hurt,or killed.
What stuck with me most is the idea that forgetting is what lets this repeat. We frame each crackdown as an exception, not a pattern. But the U.S. has always had this tug-of-war between dissent and control. It’s just that we sanitize the past and panic over the present.
I’m not sure if that makes today more or less alarming. Maybe both. But it does mean the danger isn’t that we’re “becoming” something anti-democratic. It’s that we’ve never fully stopped being it.
Thank you for this historical perspective, but also your suspension of formulating an unrealistic conclusion as to what currents events will bring in their wake. Funny enough, this week's events did spur a random memory for me of the Kent State incident, though I was only a child and was not aware of the details then.
You are turning a blind eye to a major difference with this administration. Past administrations were not led by a convicted felon. Past administrations did not blatantly and repeatedly break the law, blatantly and repeatedly ignore the Constitution, thoughtlessly and illegally sack hundreds of government workers in agencies that were created by Congress and are not under the Executive branch's control, pardon thousands of convicted criminals and cancel Congress-established funding for countless Congress-established programs. Other administrations did not call in the Marines for crowd control--something that is also unconstitutional. Our military is not supposed to be used against civilians. Past presidents did not want to be King of the World. The strategy this administration is using worked with Ordoban and if we don't stop this president, it could work here. I am VERY familiar with the past issues you talk about--which is why I think this behavior IS unprecedented in the United States.
What bothers me the most about the "this is unprecedented" reaction is that it's deeply disrespectful to the Americans who suffered at the hands of the state in the past.
What about Fannie Lou Hamer, who was dragged off a bus and beaten in jail when she was on her way back from a voter registration event in Jim Crow Mississippi in 1963?
What about Jonathan Daniels, the activist murdered by a sheriff in Alabama as he shielded other activists in 1965?
What about, as you note, the students shot by the National Guard at Kent State in 1970?
When we act like violence by the state against the people is a "new thing" in the era of Trump, we disrespect our protesting ancestors before us, and we show some baffling amnesia as Americans.
Stellar commentary Clarity over certainty. I'll take it. Thank you!
There’s something deeply unsettling about how familiar this all feels. We like to think every crisis is unprecedented, but the script hasn’t changed much since Kent State or the Bonus Army. Authorities invoke “order,” protestors get labeled as threats, and the response escalates until someone gets hurt,or killed.
What stuck with me most is the idea that forgetting is what lets this repeat. We frame each crackdown as an exception, not a pattern. But the U.S. has always had this tug-of-war between dissent and control. It’s just that we sanitize the past and panic over the present.
I’m not sure if that makes today more or less alarming. Maybe both. But it does mean the danger isn’t that we’re “becoming” something anti-democratic. It’s that we’ve never fully stopped being it.
Thank you for this historical perspective, but also your suspension of formulating an unrealistic conclusion as to what currents events will bring in their wake. Funny enough, this week's events did spur a random memory for me of the Kent State incident, though I was only a child and was not aware of the details then.
Interesting - something to think about.
You are turning a blind eye to a major difference with this administration. Past administrations were not led by a convicted felon. Past administrations did not blatantly and repeatedly break the law, blatantly and repeatedly ignore the Constitution, thoughtlessly and illegally sack hundreds of government workers in agencies that were created by Congress and are not under the Executive branch's control, pardon thousands of convicted criminals and cancel Congress-established funding for countless Congress-established programs. Other administrations did not call in the Marines for crowd control--something that is also unconstitutional. Our military is not supposed to be used against civilians. Past presidents did not want to be King of the World. The strategy this administration is using worked with Ordoban and if we don't stop this president, it could work here. I am VERY familiar with the past issues you talk about--which is why I think this behavior IS unprecedented in the United States.
Thank you.