Eric the Blue

When did Republicans last plausibly contend that they were the party of “limited government” and “local control”? I think my parents were alive and voting for them. Now, without a peep of protest from any Republican holding federal office, Trump is sending federal troops into cities that loudly insist they don’t want them. How about letting the locals decide what their problems are, and how to solve them? I believe that used to be the Republican way. It’s hard to imagine a more activist federal government than the one headed by Trump. I suppose it could enact high tariffs, and then give free money to American farmers when their markets disappeared, but that would be too ridiculous to believe.

I saw a funny, bitter cartoon that I can’t now find but will try to describe. The only figure in the cartoon is Jesus–the robe, the beard, it’s plainly the prince of peace. But he’s wearing a MAGA hat. He’s also carrying a gun, barrel pointed upward at the side of his head as he knocks on a door. The caption says, “Better not be any minorities in there!”

I wish the effect was gained by means of hyperbole. You know the internet meme comparing “how it started” to “how it’s going”? Well, it’s a little too long, but how about for “how it started” this, from an opinion of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh green-lighting the Trump administration’s zest for rounding up brown people:

The Government sometimes makes brief investigative stops to check the immigration status of those who gather in locations where people are hired for day jobs; who work or appear to work in jobs such as construction, landscaping, agriculture, or car washes that often do not require paperwork and are therefore attractive to illegal immigrants; and who do not speak much if any English. If the officers learn that the individual they stopped is a U.S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States, they promptly let the individual go . . . .

And, for the “how it’s going,” the lede to an October 6 article in the Chicago Sun Times:

Pertissue Fisher is still recovering from being detained by federal immigration agents who burst into her South Shore apartment building and pulled her and other residents from their beds early Wednesday morning.

An agent put a gun in her face, she said. Another placed her in handcuffs tight enough to leave bruises.

Fisher and other victims of the raid are U.S. citizens, but they were still held for hours.

Our Declaration of Independence has a section enumerating the crimes of George III against the American colonists. For anyone who thinks “how it started” really ought to reach back a little farther than the daydreams of Brett Kavanaugh, the bill of particulars includes the following three items in succession:

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.