A followup of sorts to my post Friday that included Joe Scarborough declaring that DC was so crime-ridden that it needed the National Guard.

The idea that this is about Trump trying to fight crime in DC is laughable. It was never, ever about that. It’s about an authoritarian takeover.

This is EXACTLY like what has happened multiple times in the past. It was never about free speech when they went after universities; it was about dismantling and controlling higher education. Ditto with “anti-Semitism on campus.” They never gave a shit about “the children” when they were shitting up school board meetings. They don’t care about “girls’ sports” it’s about eliminating trans people from society. And so on.

They do this shit to get a foot in the door, and over and over again, people like Scarborough open the door for them. They claim there’s a real reason for what they are doing, a reason that will make the world better, and it’s never about doing anything but tearing down any progress toward a tolerant, multi-cultural, multi-racial democracy focused on helping everyone and replacing it with a white Christian nationalist hellscape.

The Very Serious Centrists of the Great American Discourse are always key players in helping the far-right lurch towards their monstrous goals, and this moment is no exception. Professional Insufferable Human Thomas Chatterton-Williams, who is so egotistical that he has written THREE memoirs now at age 44, is a classic example. He’s the guy who wrote the infamous Harper’s Letter, which was allegedly about free speech, but most of the signers of the letter including Tommy Chatt are curiously quiet during Trump and the GOP’s assault on free speech. Of course, he thinks that sending troops into DC is a great idea because it’s out of control, and of course, the New York Times’ Jamelle Bouie, owns him over it on social media. Tommy Chatt must see Bouie in his dreams.

it is incredible to see the extent to which the Sensible Centrists are simply incapable of grasping the very simple and obvious fact that the president's concern with crime is a pretext, and that to deny claims of a sudden epidemic in crime is not to say that crime is nonexistent.

— jamelle (@jamellebouie.net) 2025-08-16T22:03:50.264Z

Bouie brings up a great point that needs to be amplified:

Yes, crime is down in DC, and yes there is still crime. Even when crime is on the decline, there will still be crime! If annual murders drop from 150 in a city in 2010 to 35 in 2025, that’s a decline and things have improved, and that also means that there will still be murders because it’s impossible to completely eliminate crime!

These are simple things that are somehow beyond people’s comprehension. Also, these people supporting Trump’s actions are not seeing the flashing red lights and giant red flags. Here’s one of them.

Pay attention to where the troops are coming from. Trump is sending National Guard troops to DC from RED states. West Virginia is nearby but Ohio and South Carolina are certainly not closer than Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. These are glaring warning signs.

This is all going to come to a head when the 30-day emergency takeover time ends. After that point, by law (whatever that means these days) Trump has to ask Congress to extend the control of DC law enforcement. I know that the “good” Republicans have spines that would make a jellyfish jealous, so I imagine they will cave, but even if they don’t, then Trump will likely ignore them. The DC mayor and the DC AG have promised Trump a fight if this happens. This feels like a real tipping point.

And oh, Trump has plans to do this in other blue cities, as you have probably heard. None of it…NONE OF IT…is about crime. It’s about treating blue cities and states basically as enemies, and telling Democratic voters that they are targets for repression.

The last word goes to Molly Tuttle, who has an excellent new album out, So Long Little Miss Sunshine.