**JULY 22, 2020**

Kuttner on TAP

Full-On Fascism

****

Trump has run out of other strategies, so he is pursuing a long-standing
fantasy of having a personal secret police force that is beyond legal
control.

Last week, unidentified storm troopers dispatched from Border Patrol
units descended on Portland over the objections of state and local
officials. They made random arrests without any regard for due process,
and jailed and brutalized citizens. If Trump gets his way, Chicago, New
York, and other liberal bastions that he doesn't like

will be next.

The gambit, worthy of Putin's anonymous armed green men and Hitler's
SA, is sinister and brilliant. It brings America close to civil war,
pitting illicit federal power against lawful state and local authority.

It divides progressive mayors from fascistic police forces that reject
civil authority. In Chicago, where Mayor Lori Lightfoot asked Trump to
keep his shock troops out
,
the head of the police union has urged them to come
.

In the weeks following the murder of George Floyd, demonstrations have
been mostly peaceful. An ill-considered neighborhood occupation by
radicals in Portland gave Trump his opening.

Trump's grand design is to use his secret police to provoke physical
clashes, which then become the pretext for sending in more storm
troopers. America is seen as falling into civil disorder, and Trump
(having provoked the disorder) poses as the law-and-order president.

What might stop this? Two things. One would be large numbers of
Republicans objecting to this illicit use of paramilitary power. So far,
libertarian Rand Paul has been very lonely
.

Republicans in principle are against arbitrary executive power, but
opportunism trumps principle. They shame themselves, like the German
conservatives who enabled Hitler.

The other firebreak is the courts. After the unlawful invasion of
Portland, Oregon's attorney general, Ellen Rosenblum, asked the U.S.
district court to enjoin Trump's illegal action. The ACLU has filed
its own suit
.

If these actions persist, we can expect expedited review by the Supreme
Court. Once again, as will occur when Trump tries to steal the November
election, the fate of America's democracy could well come down to one
man.

He's preferable to Trump, but I sure wish John Roberts were a more
reliable defender of constitutional government.

~ ROBERT KUTTNER

Follow Robert Kuttner on Twitter

Robert Kuttner's latest book is
The Stakes: 2020 and the Survival of American Democracy
.

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