Mayor Ras Baraka, Judge Hannah Dugan, Rep. LaMonica McIver, Sen. Alex Padilla, and Comptroller Brad Lander have all been physically assaulted, detained, and/or arrested by federal agents in the last two months.
This organized fascist strategy of targeting public officials differs from the demonization of vulnerable populations themselves in that the use of state violence here is used to enforce sovereign political power, not simply inflict cruelty. However, the strategy IS connected to the demonization of vulnerable groups through the association of these officials with them.
In other words, The Trump administration is betting that it can systematically smash rival forms of constitutionally-enshrined political authority by achieving it through what has historically been one of his most popular issues – immigration. But it won’t stop there. That’s just the proving ground.
Add to this the arrest of David Huerte, the popular president of California SEIU, and the pattern starts to look not unlike the early days of the Mussolini, Hitler, Franco, and Salazar regimes, among others, when both state actors and fascist vigilantes arrested, beat, and in many cases killed state officials, party leaders, labor leaders and other regime opponents.
In this light the assassinations of Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, and the shooting of State Senator John Hoffman and has wife last Sunday take on a different hue.
The achievment of sovereign fascist authority through violence against institutional, jurisdictional, or partisan rivals, having now become commonplace, should force us to re-think how we understand the political landscape.
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