As tensions escalate between Donald Trump and California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) over National Guard and Marine troops sent to Los Angeles, it's getting louder in the Republicans' xenophobic echo chamber.
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As they can see the finish line of their quest to turn the United States into some sort of authoritarian, white Christian nationalist utopia, members of the Trump administration can barely contain their glee about what is happening in Los Angeles… or at least what they want MAGA supporters to believe is happening there.
To them, US troops being called into a liberal state so that masked government agents can better deport their quota of brown people is a dream come true.
But it’s not just the prospect of filthy immigrants and woke losers getting roughed up by cops and soldiers that is leaving them giddy.
Perhaps more importantly, they know that President Donald Trump might use the unrest in Los Angeles to declare some sort of martial law, take over those pesky blue states, and show those uppity libs who is boss.
Of course, to get their supporters to buy into all of that instead of thinking for themselves for once and realizing that these actions are deeply un-American and unconstitutional, they have to ratchet up the noise in the right-wing echo chamber all the time.
And that results in senior members of the administration saying some of the most insane and anti-democratic things you will ever hear.
Take White Nationalist House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who offered this level-headed assessment of what is going on.
“The political leaders of California and Los Angeles are siding with the insurrectionist mobs fighting to dissolve America over the heroes of ICE fighting to save America,” he tweeted.
What is he even talking about?
You’d think that a coup participant like him would be familiar with what an insurrection actually looks like. Then again, if you are confusing actual insurrectionists with “tourists” and calling them “hostages” once they are convicted of assaulting police officers, then this is an easy mistake to make.
Of course, nobody, including the “political leaders of California and Los Angeles,” is suggesting that the few non-peaceful protesters in Los Angeles should be given a pass. In fact, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and others have called for the arrest of people who use the demonstrations to commit acts of violence and vandalism, so it’s pretty outlandish to say that they are siding with those “fighting to dissolve America.”
And what does that even mean?
Also, are we talking about the same ICE here? There is nothing heroic about masked government agents snatching people off the streets without identifying themselves. And we are not talking about abducting hardened criminals here, but rather residents of the United States without criminal records.
Sure, the administration, like Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in this case, wants Americans to believe that every single person ICE is arresting is a blood-thirsty murderer, but that’s really not what’s happening when agents are raiding workplaces or grabbing college students in broad daylight.
Then again, Republicans have been conditioned to believe that they are all the same, and Noem also said that Los Angeles is “not a city of immigrants,” but rather “a city of criminals.”
That will be nice for the city’s one million residents who were not born in the US to hear.
Of course, they have bigger concerns right now, like the thousands of troops the Trump administration is putting in their streets to “maintain order.”
It must be a comforting thought that at least they are not alone. TV tough guys like border czar Tom Homan keep threatening even Democratic lawmakers and officials, like Newsom or Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), with arrest, which is another hallmark of how authoritarian regimes act.
Finally, there is Trump himself, who encouraged the troops he dispatched to react to provocations with disproportionate violence in a social media post.
