Republican Governors Eagerly Join Trump’s Military Campaign Against Blue Cities
As Republican governors reportedly fall in line to offer up their National Guard units for deployment in 'blue' cities, The Intercept frames it as a campaign against urban disorder. But let's be clear: this isn't about riot control, it's about political control, echoing historical uses of state force against minority populations or labor movements. Remember the deployment of federal troops during
the Civil Rights era, or the Guard at Kent State in 1970? This isn't just a tough-on-crime stance; it's a militarization of political opposition, where American citizens are the perceived 'enemy' within their own cities. We might wonder how quickly these same governors would offer to deploy their Guard units if the 'disorder' were, say, an armed protest against vaccine mandates. The selective
application of extraordinary force against politically disfavored populations is a hallmark of authoritarianism, not effective governance. When did 'law and order' become shorthand for 'occupy areas that didn't vote for us'?