From Hitler to Putin to Orbán and Trump, the first step is always the same: act illegally, dare anyone to stop you, and behave like losing in court is only a delay.
Germany’s concentration camps didn’t start as instruments of mass murder, and neither have ours; both started as facilities for people the government’s leader said were a problem. And that’s exactly what ICE is building now.
Unless Democratic leadership takes a cue from the good people of Minnesota and steps up and fights back hard, the next message will be even broader and bloodier, because authoritarians always interpret silence as permission.
By declaring that Trump’s Jan 6 mob was innocent and the American criminal justice system is corrupt, it sends a clear message: violence in service of Trump will be forgiven, even celebrated, going forward into the future.
By treating sovereign borders and international law as optional, the Trump regime embraces the worldview that fueled Hitler, fortified oligarchs, and now threatens the American Experiment.
Billionaire cash steers the agenda, military and police power set the boundaries, and religious messaging sells it as virtue, all while taxpayers fund the very system that excludes them.