Who Will Stop the Hordes of Militant White Middle Class Americans who Storm State Houses in 2024 to Protest and Overturn Unwanted Election Outcomes?

Likely, no one.

Sep 03, 2023

The news out of Red states like Texas, Florida, Alabama, Idaho, and others has been beyond alarming. Almost all Republican-controlled states are enacting laws and taking steps that are blatantly authoritarian and unconstitutional.

To borrow from a brilliant observation made by Jamelle Bouie in his recent NYT’s column,1 it appears that our modern day domestic insurrectionists have revived and re-engaged the (Civil War-provoked) fight against the nature of our Union. Among other things, they are re-asserting claims of the limits of federalism when it comes to states’ prerogatives to follow their own courses on issues and rights as fundamental as bodily autonomy, freedom to travel, civil rights, and many other issues.

Red states are feverishly putting “facts on the ground.” These may be illegal or unconstitutional, but it will take years to litigate.

And that’s why they are doing it.

Because, in the meantime, state authorities can intimidate/control millions of people, imprison some of them, and defend these laws and actions as they gain more and more local and national control.

And all of this is being orchestrated under the auspices of our rogue right-wing-dominated SCOTUS, which continues to overturn fundamental rights, reinterpret the Constitution in the most reactionary ways, and to dismantle the federal government’s distributed powers to govern.

Just on the one issue of abortion, as Heather Cox Richardson pointed out yesterday in her Substack Newsletter, Letters from an American:

Republicans continue to focus on ending abortion, and their determination is leading them to assert power over citizens of Republican-dominated states in a way that is commonly associated with authoritarian governments.
Alabama attorney general Steve Marshall claimed in a court filing on Monday that Alabama, which has one of the strictest abortion bans in the country, can prosecute people who help women travel out of the state to obtain an abortion as part of a “criminal conspiracy.”
Today, Caroline Kitchener reported in the Washington Post that at least 51 jurisdictions in Texas have passed ordinances to make it illegal to transport anyone on roads within city or county limits to get an abortion. Their hope is to target interstates and the roads around airports to block off routes out of Texas and keep pregnant women trapped in the antiabortion state.2

Given the audacity and pace at which most, if not all, Red states are issuing such edicts and laws that are violating the Constitution and curtailing fundamental rights, there is reason to worry about how or whether our system of governance and law is ready, able, and willing to defend and protect Americans from these attacks.

We Desperately Need to Tend to Our Democratic Infrastructure

The Biden Administration has done a terrific job of passing legislation to rebuild our physical infrastructure, create jobs, and to channel funding and investment into new technologies and climate initiatives.

But what is being done about building up the resiliency and strength of our democratic institutions and processes? Where are the coordinated effort to address the many vulnerabilities in our Democratic infrastructure that were revealed by all of Trump’s efforts to stay in office — and those that continue to be revealed by MAGA leaders and forces?

I don’t know. Do you? Does anyone?

As many of us have celebrated the indictments and prosecutions around the January 6th insurrection, there seems to be a sense that, “Ha! They’ve learned their lesson. They’ll never try THAT again.” Well, maybe they’ve learned a lesson about a frontal assault on the Capitol of the United States. But what about similar assaults elsewhere — for instance, on state capitals?

The Big Lesson: Policing’s Soft Spot

The January 6th assault highlighted a major weakness in our ability to protect democratic institutions. Law enforcement is unwilling to use its full poweragainst massed, threatening or rioting white conservatives and militia members. That is even more true at the local level — especially if theassembled forces are engaging in self-proclaimed “political” protest on behalf of Trump and MAGA. This is true of every variety and level of law enforcement in this country.

To the extent that law enforcement has been tested at all, it has shown that, by and large, it is simply not willing to forcefully police white middle/working class protesters.

They are, of course, happy to watch video afterwards and then send 20 agents/officers to arrest one militant white person at a time — while at their home eating breakfast.

But that video won’t be of much consequence if the authoritarians have already taken control of state houses all around the country and are enforcing preferred election outcomes.

~~Republican~~ Authoritarian Party leaders, aren’t stupid. Having experienced the forbearance of police authorities on January 6th, they have learned that, WHEN (not IF) they orchestrate election night chaos in multiple states in 2024 — with hysterical shouts of election fraud and interference — and they have already teed-up masses of MAGA supporters — they know that local, city, and state police are not going to use significant force to try to stop them. And the National Guard? Who knows? And what Republican Governor is going to call them out?

In fact, in many states, police might be ordered to stay away, or just refuse orders to stop them — and in some cases, they even might join and support the white authoritarian mobs as they storm and occupy state houses.

So, where are the authorities, experts, democratic partisans, and so forth, who are thinking and planning around this?

It’s Deja Vue all Over Again: Our Union is Under Attack

Why is no one sounding the alarm about the serious, nationwide deficit of democracy-defending capacity and authority?

I believe it is in part because of the extreme reluctance on the part of Biden and Democratic Party leaders and electeds to pull aside the veil of political normalcy. Perhaps they fear acknowledging extreme and extremist polarization and the fact that authoritarian forces are growing throughout our Republic. They fear further polarization and the further extremism that could follow. I get it.

But, refusing to look at and acknowledge facts or threats like this does not make them go away. In fact, refusing to acknowledge them enables them to exist and grow behind a veil of normal politics and governance.

And all this does is to empower the source of the threat, while disempowering those who are threatened. It also leads to a citizenry with ill-defined fears, questions, and doubts, that can have an effect on their sense of security and their faith in current leadership.

[Parenthetically, I really do wish some good pollsters would dig deeper into the polls that find popular dissatisfaction with Biden’s performance. Sure some of this has to be the feeling that he’s not doing a good job with the economy, foreign policy, etc.

But how much of it might be something very different: the inchoate sense, an uneasiness, that there are worrisome and in places quite ideologically extreme forces and people at work in our country — and that Biden is not providing the leadership to acknowledge, identify, and help our country really deal with this . . .]

So, who will stop the hordes of MAGA militants that storm state houses and other targets in 2024? And perhaps more urgently, who will stop the growing confederacy of one-party Red states as they cruelly impose autocratic rule on millions of disenfranchised and disempowered Americans — and disfavored “others?” If not Biden and the federal government, then who? If not now, then when?

Of course, confronting and curbing such people and forces will take a significant majority of us voting, voting, and voting. But it will also take more than that. It will take engagement by hordes of concerned Americans in schools, libraries, legislatures, police forces, and throughout our civic life. Corporate and civic leaders must stand up to question and oppose these extreme measures and wayward leadership.

But we still need the leadership willing to name this threat, call-it out, bring resources to bear, marshal pro-democratic forces, and make clear the national referendum on our future as a country that we must face from now until it is settled one way or another.

Jon Thinks Out Loud

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