Quick update: “A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked the federal government’s mobilization of the California National Guard to protect immigration agents from protesters in Los Angeles. He ruled that the Trump administration had illegally taken control of the state’s troops and ordered them to return to taking orders from Gov. Gavin Newsom.” However, the Trump Administration has appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court in San Francisco, delayed the implementation of the ruling.
Also, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA) was forcibly removed from a press conference held by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Once outside the room, he was thrown to the floor and handcuffed. Performative theatrics all around, but manhandling a U.S. Senator is cause for concern.
I just wanted to quickly follow-up on my previous post about the protests against Trump’s immigration raids and attempted deportations - mostly of hard-working, law-abiding undocumented immigrants. The situation has quieted somewhat, although there were still protesters in LA who were dispersed by the police on Wednesday evening. The city remained under a curfew for a second night.
The confrontation in California is definitely a flash point in the broader issue of how far Trump can expand the reaches of presidential power to serve his political agenda. California has filed a lawsuit to rescind Trump’s order commandeering California’s National Guard to fight back against protesters. The Fair Deal Democrats support Governor Newsom’s effort to undo Trump’s massive overreach. California is not being invaded.
It is true that some of the protesters threw rocks and other items at ICE agents and that the set fire to several cars. The Fair Deal Democrats condemn all acts of violence related to these protests.
Actor Peter Coyote wrote a note on Substack eloquently outlining how the protests could more effective.
“A protest is an invitation to a better world. It’s a ceremony. No one accepts a ceremonial invitation when they’re being screamed at. More important you have to know who the real audience of the protest is. The audience is NEVER the police, the politicians, the Board of supervisors, Congress, etc. The audience is always the American people, who are trying to decide who they can trust; who will not embarrass them. If you win them, you win power at the box office and power to make positive change. Everything else is a waste.
“There are a few ways to get there:
At the first sign of violence, [get down]. Someone may blow a whistle, meaning the real protesters sit down. Let the police take out their aggression on the anarchists and the provocateurs trying to discredit the movement…
Dress like you’re going to church. It’s hard to be painted as a hoodlum when you’re dressed in clean, presentable clothes…
Make your protest silent. Demonstrate your discipline to the American people. Let signs do the talking…
“I have great fear that Trump’s staging with the National Guard and maybe the Marines is designed to clash with anarchists who are playing into his hands and offering him the opportunity to declare an insurrection. It’s such a waste and it’s only because we haven’t thought things through strategically.
“The American people are watching and once again if we behave in ways that can be misinterpreted, we’ll see this explained to the public in Republican campaign videos benefiting the very people who started this. Wake up. Vent at home. In public practice discipline and self‑control. It takes much more courage.”
Over on Persuasion Issac Saul wrote the essay (11 Theses on the Unrest in Los Angeles) on the immigration imbroglio that I wish I had written.
Would I be a hare-brained liberal if I pointed out that so many of these purportedly lazy, criminal, leeching-on-society illegals are getting arrested at work or at their immigration hearings? If dangerous criminals are invading our country, I wouldn’t expect ICE to be arresting them at locations such as these. It’s a hard thing not to notice.
Would I be a cold-hearted fascist if I thought the police in Los Angeles were right to clear the streets from mobs blocking major highways or lighting cars on fire? I mean, there is protesting, and then there is shutting entire city highways down, burning vehicles, vandalism, and so on…
A final message to the protesters: You could just… not do this? Not light cars on fire. Not throw rocks at police. Not try to represent the immigrant community you purport to care about by destroying the city you live in. If you are actually interested in convincing people the administration is overstepping its authority and acting inhumanely with the deportations, the best way to do that would be to build sympathy for your cause. We know the people who will be most harmed—the shopkeepers whose windows get smashed, the restaurants who can’t open because roads are closed, the small mom-and-pop shops who lose business because their neighborhoods no longer seem safe. Keep them in your minds before things really spin out of control in a way that makes it impossible to turn back.
PurpleAmerica - quickly becoming one of my favorite substacks - throws water on the notion that this is Trump’s “Reichstag moment.”
America today is not remotely close to Nazi Germany. The two are not the same league, they’re not even the same ballpark or sport. Trump is not Hitler. Republicans are not Nazis….The Nazis plunged Europe into the bloodiest war ever and killed another 8 million Jews for kicks just because their own moral core was empty, evil and soulless; Trump can’t even win a Twitter spat with Elon Musk.1
Which is to say Trump is an utter clown. With no sense of what the hell he is doing other than swinging wildly from decision to decision. Trump’s cronies are incompetent buffoons who only further demonstrate it whenever they open their mouths or let everyone know when they include journalists to their group chats…
Which brings me to a lot of the rhetoric recently referring to Trump’s calling of the National Guard in California over immigration enforcement his “Reichstag Moment.” J.F.C.. NO, it’s not. Not even close.
Over at The Liberal Patriot, John Halpin notes that both political parties are losing the moderate and undecided voters with their actions in Los Angeles.
Although President Trump continues to maintain a slight approval advantage on the issue of immigration overall, and on his basic goals with deportations, his current tack of authorizing high-profile ICE raids primarily in major urban areas—along with several error-filled arrests and detentions—is raising concerns among voters. At the same time, leftist protesters and progressive Democrats (those who are not engaged in traditional non-violent actions) are clearly driving voters away as images of destructive riots, attacks on law enforcement, burning cars, looting, and foreign flags on the streets of L.A. dominate the news…
But, as with many other issues in American politics, the positions of less partisan groups like independents and Hispanics ultimately determine the overall tenor of the debate. On this matter, independent and swing groups dislike both Trump’s approach to deportations and leftist protest methods against these actions.
The impasse on immigration and deportations will only be resolved in terms of public opinion if or when one side is perceived to cross the line in a much more substantial manner. This means either (1) the Trump administration goes way too far in who is targeted for deportation (beyond the promised criminals and drug dealers) and in how these deportations are staged, or (2) Democrats and protesters go way too far beyond non-violent civil actions to support (or tacitly support) more rioting, violence, attacks on cops, looting, and property destruction.
Ideally for the country, both the Trump administration and anti-ICE protesters will come down from their most extreme positions to carry out immigration policy and enforcement (and reactions against it) in a rational, lawful, and non-violent manner.
This is a moment that will forge America in the 21st Century. Moderate progressives need to seize this moment to forge a Democratic Party that is equal to the task of advocating for American Greatness.
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