Minnich: America’s ideals are trashed in a glimpse of our possible future l COMMENTARY

Who are the unidentified troops in the streets?

When the dictators want a wide path cleared away from the palace to the sacred site for a publicity photo, who are the soldiers in masks, weapons, uniforms without insignia who swing their batons and push civilians aside?

Where is it written in American law that a sitting president can send troops to a city or state without the invitation of local leadership, except for specific security of a federal facility?

Answer: Nowhere.

In fact, the idea of a president having, using powers to shove aside civilian authority was what the big meetings in Philadelphia were all about — crafting a declaration of independence from the tyranny of a dictator — a king, who considered his powers absolute and paramount.

What is happening in Washington and Portland, Oregon, with troops arriving uninvited, unwanted, and unannounced should be the headline of the day, the week, the year. This is not the National Guard in the traditional sense.

This is the American Gestapo — the advance guard of a police state formed not for the restoration of temporary disorder and dispersal of protesters, but to establish and ensure the idea that this president has the authority to take over the country with a police state.

I see it as a dress rehearsal for what you can expect when the election results show the people have had enough of the chaos of Donald Trump and the absolutists who support him.

We’re getting a glimpse of what will happen if the election results do not satisfy the sitting president. Declarations of voter fraud will be made. Calls for action, demanding recounts, charges filed against suspected perpetrators of a conspiracy to overthrow a sitting president.

Troops will be deployed. Like the storm troopers of Germany in the late ’30s, these troopers will have special authority, separate from the established military chain of command, and not be held accountable for transgressions against civilians — all in the name of law and order.

How much of a stretch of the imagination does it take to see that we are on the brink of arrests without warrants, disappearances and assassinations of dissidents and charges against political critics?

This is merely practice now. So who are these troops, who are shown gleefully beating people with their batons? Who runs them? How and where were they trained? A military boot camp, or one of those backwoods fortresses where angry men and women stash arms and engage in paramilitary exercises with live ammunition, and explosives?

One of the things that tipped support for the supporters of revolution against the rule of a British king was the excess of behavior of armed troops in the colonies. They could come into town, take over your house, barn, stores, and possessions, stay as long as they like, and not so much as say please, thank you, or send the bill to George.

Yet, here, in 2020, we watch the television coverage of the raw force of storm trooper tactics being used by a failed president to protect him on a walk across the public park to have a press release photo taken, and we just gawk. No questions, no outrage, no warnings.

Generals who earned America’s trust and gratitude are speaking out now. Raising questions, expressing alarm. Even the general who was dragged along for the photo shoot regrets he was there and has said so. What the president is doing goes against the code, and against the oath of honor of the military — the real one, not the shadow troops coming to a street near you.

This is one of the dark days, hiding in the rubble of a pandemic and economic uncertainty, but everyday people have to speak up. But first, they have to take notice, and give a hoot about the longer term, and not just how much longer until they can party with friends at a favorite pub.

Dean Minnich writes from Westminster. Following a career in journalism, he served two terms as a county commissioner. His column appears each Thursday. His email address is dminnichwestm@gmail.com.

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