I suspect many of us are wondering how long it will take, and under what circumstances, for Trump to use the full force of the state and its monopoly of violence to crackdown on dissent. It is terrifying to imagine what national emergency, real or fabricated, could be used to justify abrogating constitutionally guaranteed rights at the point of a gun.
But before that happens, should it happen, there are signs we are heading in that direction. As history so frequently shows, before fully organized state repression, come the goons. In Hitler’s case it was the Brown Shirts, a paramilitary organization under Hitler and the Nazi Party, which had responsibility for, among other things, providing protection at Nazi rallies and assemblies.
Consistent with Mark Twain’s quip that “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes,” is a disturbing story recently reported in the New York Times that a private security firm was hired to strong arm protestors at a Republican town hall meeting in Idaho.
We have been seeing Republican elected officials getting heckled and booed at public meetings across the country much as we saw Democratic officials getting slammed at public meetings over 15 years ago to protest Obamacare. In other words, this is politics and there is nothing unusual about it. Still, it appears that Republicans are gearing up to respond differently than Democratic.
In late February, Teresa Borrenpohl shouted from the audience during a meeting hosted by the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee. She was told to leave by Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris. When she refused, Norris gestured to plainclothes security personnel, who pulled Borrenpohl to the floor and dragged her out of the auditorium. The security personnel were from a private company out of California called Lear Asset Management and were contracted by event organizers.
Notably, as the New York Times reports, “six men who prosecutors said took part in forcibly removing [Borrenpohl] from [the] town-hall meeting hosted by local Republicans … are facing charges including battery and false imprisonment.” Teresa Borrenpohl is also suing in the matter.
Although Sheriff Bob Norris appears to have been involved, he was not charged.
While it is heartening that the local prosecutor’s office has laid charges against employees of the out-of-state private security firm, we must wonder why members of the local police force were not thought capable of providing adequate security by event organizers. One has to wonder if they felt local law enforcement would be unwilling to break the law but paid enforcers would have no such qualms.
While all of this may sound a little in the weeds, it suggests an important point. The difference between Trump’s first term and second term is that he realizes now he needs to change the leadership of key institutions as quickly as possible if he hopes to be successful in executing his agenda. And that he had done. Those at the local level who are following Trump’s lead may fear that local institutions will not roll over so easily. They may look instead to what money can buy, which in politics these days is quite a bit.
For now, at least in Idaho, it seems that the local law enforcement culture is pushing back hard against outside agitators. We should keep an eye out for these sorts of dynamics elsewhere.
Retired political staffer/civil servant. Dual U.S./Canadian citizen writing about politics and the arts on both sides of the border.