Subverting the midterms
Beginning more than a month ago, Donald Trump sent the US Marines and National Guard into Los Angeles. He claimed that they were necessary to protect immigration agents working for ICE, rounding up and jailing people who may or may not have been in the country illegally.
Last week, he followed with deployment of the military and National Guards from several states in Washington, DC. This time, the claim was that crime in the District was rampant. In fact, the US Justice Department announced in January that local violent crime was at a thirty-year low and that government attorneys had a 75% conviction rate for firearms crimes.
In recent days, the President has threatened to send the military to Chicago and Baltimore to do police work. Those are, of course, blue cities with leaders who oppose the President's policies.
During his first administration, Trump officials refused to let the armed forces be used in this way. The Posse Comitatus Act forbids the military to perform civilian police duties. Responsible leaders like Mark Milley and stalwarts in the Justice Department like James Comey enforced Constitutional limits. Leaders with integrity were, of course, purged immediately on Trump's return to office. Pete Hegseth is loyal to the President personally, not to the Constitution.
As usual, the Trump Administration is taking these steps in disregard of the law, challenging state and local governments to contest the actions in court. Those cases take time to be heard and appealed. In the meantime, people get used to seeing green uniforms on American streets.
There was, once upon a time, a concept called the Overton window – the list of topics and policies that were acceptable in political discourse at the present time. As time passes, the Overton window tends to move; it's acceptable to talk about, for example, gay marriage and abortion today, though neither topic was open to public discussion when I was a kid in the 1960s and 1970s.
Trump hasn't moved the Overton window so much as he has knocked down the Overton wall. We now have the Overton panorama. Nothing, it seems, is off limits. Things that would have seemed impossible in the middle of 2024 are treated as unsurprising, now. Carbine-carrying Marines rolling down the 101? National Guard troops drawing up perimeters without consultating governors? Masked agents without identification seizing people off the streets? Deportation without due process? Swamp gulags?
It's shocking that these things are not more shocking to more Americans.
Obviously Trump doesn't care about crime rates. He cares about building a private army and getting people accustomed to his extra-legal use of it. Deploying the troops in blue states is meant to intimidate, not to protect, the citizens there. It is meant to habituate us to soldiers in the face of the people.
Besides building a palace guard, Trump's is assembling a civilian goon squad to support him. Immediately after his inauguration, he pardoned all of the rioters and criminals who stormed the Capitol building on January 6, 2020. Police died due to that confrontation. Criminal trials were swift and verdicts were clear. The pardons reassure those people that they can ignore the Constitution and break the law in support of Trump. They have his personal protection.
With his approval ratings underwater across the board and with his policies deeply unpopular with a large majority of the US citizenry, the only way for him to survive the midterms with a compliant Congress is to manipulate the vote.
The President has, lately, begun to sow doubts as to the upcoming midterm elections, in November of 2026. This is his usual practice: In every election, he has announced beforehand that only his election could possibly be legitimate, and that any other outcome must be due to crimes.
He has, likewise, asked Republican legislatures to redraw district lines in their states to create more safe seats for party members. Texas has complied; California is retaliating; I am pleased.
I am convinced that the militarization of policing in America, the creation of a nationwide militia, the skulduggery and misinformation about voting are aimed expressly at destroying confidence in the outcome of the midterms.
It is essential that states immediately clarify plans for next year's vote. There are well-known ways to ensure safe and fair elections: Voter-verified marked paper ballots, strong chain of custody, automated tabulation, risk-limiting audits.
Besides those procedural and mechanical protections, governors and mayors nationwide need to ensure that citizens can vote by mail or get to their polling places safely and without intimidation.
And it's essential that all of us who are legally allowed to do so cast our votes. I've no concerns that more humane policies, and more responsible representatives, will win in November 2026 if the nation votes, and if the nation's votes are counted.
We must make those plans now.