House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday that Democratic mayors who run the cities President Donald Trump is threatening with troops should stop resisting. “Yield, man,” said Johnson, R-La. “Let the troops come into your city and show how crime can be reduced. It’s a morale boost for the country, and it’s safe and right for everybody involved.”
Not since Vice President Dick Cheney told us that U.S. troops invading Iraq in 2003 would be “greeted as liberators” have we heard a Republican make the preposterous claim that a people — in this case Americans! — would welcome a U.S. military occupation. And, to be clear, an occupation is what Trump has been promising. As a characteristically tasteless social media post from Trump over the weekend put it, Chicago is “about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.”
Not since Dick Cheney told us troops would be “greeted as liberators” have we heard a Republican claim that people would welcome a U.S. military occupation.
If Speaker Johnson believes that Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson — or Chicagoans in general — should bend the knee to a president promising such aggression, then he’s telling us that he doesn’t believe that they are fully American, that he doesn’t believe they’re rightful heirs to the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution and the traditional American ideas of freedom. Land of the free for us, but not for y’all is not an argument a white Southern Republican should expect Black Democrats farther north to accept.
It’s not surprising that a Trump loyalist like Johnson is supporting the president’s military occupation plans, but even former Ohio Gov. John Kasich — a Republican Never Trumper — suggested last month that Democrats should be less opposed to Trump’s unprecedented power play.
Referring to parts of the Windy City, Kasich told MSNBC’s Alex Witt, “I just got a text from a from somebody that says, ‘Englewood, West Garfield Park, South Chicago, their kids are dying. Research has shown many don’t expect to grow up. Shame on city’s leaders for not taking all the help they can get.’”
Kasich then conceded, “Look, we don’t want to have to see the military barge in into these cities.” But, he said, if you’re a mayor, “why not go down to the White House and why not to admit we have a problem with crime ... and say to the president the United States, ‘Look, you have a lot of resources, and we’ve got a lot of needs’?”
The former governor makes several assumptions. One, that Democrats who lead cities with high crime rates haven’t admitted to such, nor made it a priority to address the problem. Two, that Democrats haven’t asked the federal government (including the White House) for help. And three: that Trump is genuinely interested in reducing crime and that his chief goal isn’t humiliating Democrats and expanding executive power.
Speaker Johnson’s statement suggests that only cities led by Democrats have crime problems.
Speaker Johnson’s statement suggests that only cities led by Democrats have crime problems. But a Republican leads his hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana, (Johnson still lives in the metro area) and the murder rate there is higher than it is in Washington — and higher than it is in Chicago. Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, has said he’d welcome Trump’s assistance against crime “from New Orleans to Shreveport.” But that welcome was extended only after criticism emergence that Republicans seemed more obsessed with taking down Democrats than crime. So we can be forgiven for doubting the governor’s sincerity.
Last week, in the midst of threatening America cities with military occupations, a Trump-affiliated political action committee sent out a fundraising email with the subject line: “Do not tread on our safety.” That email called out the California judge who correctly ruled Trump had illegally used the military in a domestic law enforcement capacity.
It’s the height of irony and absurdity for that PAC — Never Surrender Inc. — to allude to the “DONT TREAD ON ME” Gadsden flag that small-government devotees love to wave even as Trump is trampling on the wishes of Americans and their elected officials.
Many Americans, including conservatives, are fond of quoting Ben Franklin’s remark “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” The argument from those who generally use that phrase is that, in the United States, liberty is paramount.
And yet, the Republican speaker of the House is telling his fellow Americans to surrender to their own government, to accept less than their due as citizens and to treat the troops Trump might send in as their liberators. Johnson says he’s just asking for “common sense.”
No, he’s asking for capitulation.
