How the liberal city’s uprising turned back Trump’s authoritarian revival of ‘law and order’ politics
The grotesque optics generated a nationwide outcry, giving Gov. Kate Brown the upper hand to broker the withdrawal of what she blasted as an unaccountable “occupying force.” The front page of the French newspaperTrump, Grand Perdant de la Bataille de PortlandBut there was a method to the madness that unfolded outside this federal courthouse, a crackdown the president threatened to expand to Chicago and other American cities.
Nixon’s dark insight was to throw a cloak of righteousness over resentful whites, while casting law enforcement as the protectors of their American dream. In his 1968 convention speech, Nixon evoked “cities enveloped in smoke and flame” and “sirens in the night,” before calling on the country to heed “the quiet voice” of the “forgotten Americans.” In an infamous television ad produced by future Fox News founder Roger Ailes, Nixon presented “law and order” in the language of protest.
The crucible of 9/11 transformed the GOP’s “law and order” politics into “tough on terror” politics. In 2002, George W. Bush undertook a massive restructuring of government, bringing more than a dozen law-enforcement agencies under the umbrella of the new Department of Homeland Security. Civil libertarians warned the de facto interior ministry would be ripe for authoritarian abuse. Former California Sen.
Kruse says 2020 Trump has overstepped Nixon and is channeling pure Wallace, the brutal segregationist. “There are clear echoes of Wallace in ’68” he says, including Trump’s choice of targets — substitutingand BLM for hippies and civil rights demonstrators — and an identical “macho posturing about how he would crack down on them.”
Adopting tactics from pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong, protesters used umbrellas and homemade shields to guard themselves from projectiles, and shined laser pointers to disrupt the aim of agents. In federal court, Justice Department lawyers underscored injuries incurred by federal agents, including one hit by “a protester wielding a two-pound sledgehammer” and another “hit in the leg with a marble or ball bearing” from a slingshot.
Even Fox News condemned the president’s “overreach” in Portland. Trump lashed out. “The Lamestream Media, including @FoxNews, which has really checked out, is refusing to show what is REALLY going on in Portland,” he tweeted. “They want the American public to believe that these are just some wonderful protesters, not radical left ANARCHISTS!” Resorting to conspiracy theory, he raged, “The line of innocent ‘mothers’ were a scam.
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