Opinion | This Is Un-American

A lot has happened this week. “He addressed a ceasefire deal.” “Protesters outside of the ICE building.” “Government shutdown. No end in sight.” “Attorney General Letitia James has been indicted.” Here’s one thing you shouldn’t miss. At some point this year, you’ve probably seen President Trump send troops into Democratically led cities against the wishes of state and local officials. Then he set his sights on Portland, Oregon to quell a longstanding protest outside of an ICE facility even though in the days leading up to the order, fewer than 20 people were participating in the protest each night. “As of right now, there’s only about a dozen protesters.” What do these protests look like? “One hop this time.” “How ridiculous, the notion that we are violent.” Federal officers describe these protests as “low energy.” And how was Portland affected by these small protests? And so Portland sued President Trump. And last week, a federal judge appointed by Trump himself blocked the use of the Oregon National Guard. The judge said President Trump’s decision was untethered to facts and likely violated the Constitution. President Trump, however, found a workaround. He sent National Guardsmen from California into Oregon. The judge wasn’t having it. The next day, she called an emergency hearing where she blocked President Trump from using National Guardsmen from any state. Trump has been furious at the reaction to his orders. So why does any of this matter? By trying to get around this judge’s order, President Trump is chipping away at democracy on two crucial levels. First, the president is defying the judiciary, which is designed to be a check on executive power. And second, President Trump is using the military to go after American citizens he sees as his political opponents. And President Trump is going about this in a fundamentally un-American way. Remember, one of the reasons that the American Revolution was fought was because King George III decided to send troops into British colonies. The king was also doing this to quell dissent. So when they won, the founding fathers made sure to enshrine in the Constitution a high level of states’ rights, free speech, and the principle of civilian control over the military. At the end of the day, the president alone doesn’t get to decide when he uses the military against his own people. And if the courts say no, he must listen. That’s the American way.