Letter to Editor: A Train Wreck At Midterms!?

My friend Mike sent an email last week laying out this oh-so-troubling idea:

“Trump, who did nothing to protect the Capitol during the Jan 6 attempted coup, is now deploying federalized troops into Democratic cities. IMO it’s a build-up to provoke violence in reaction, or to create an incident to escalate conflict.  Ultimate game plan: declaring martial law prior to midterms, timed to interfere, interrupt, or even cancel the ’26 election.  There’s no legitimate reason for any of this. It’s leveraging and positioning for power.”

To assure power, do you think Trump and his inner circle would provoke violence?  It’s been part of the strategy since the escalator ride.  And more is coming, predictable as a slo-mo train wreck.  Trump floods DC–and in time probably other large democratic cities—with heavy handed (and heavily armed, often masked) Federal agents to dominate policing in the most visible way. (See morning video here.)  Folks on the streets ultimately take the bait. Many are young, not thinking strategically. And some, young or old, are hotheads.  Occasional violence is met with aggressive escalation…and here we go. 

The radical idea of martial law is not even essential, as we’ve seen this movie before.  In toss-up and even blue districts, a backlash to the predictable violence prior to the midterms will swing many voters against “the protestors,” which means towards the GOP (i.e., Trump, since they are one in the same).  Only old folks like me remember the Nixon/Agnew law-and-order campaign.  It’s being teed up again, right now. 

And Mike is right, that there is no legitimate reason for this sudden strategy.  You’ve read the same articles I have about the crime rate in DC and virtually every other large American city—crime is down dramatically almost everywhere.  Yes, there are homeless encamped in the City, which is unsightly.  And people living there for years who, like Pastor Espinal, did not follow immigration procedures. And there are alleys with trash in them too. 

There have also been a few horrible, very high-profile crimes recently. However, everyone understands that, in terms of strategic policy, those crimes and all the rest are simply a convenient rationale for the Administration’s truly incendiary and cynical strategy. 

(Sidebar: Remember that 1997 movie Wag The Dog?  There, a war was needed to erase a scandal.  DJT is indeed deep in war zone dynamics, but federalizing the DC police department and what follows, also assures that Jeffrey Epstein will fade from memory PDQ. A bonus.) 

In any event, the idea of martial law is surely absurd, right?  Even Stephen Miller and Emil Bove wouldn’t go that far.  It’s unprecedented in America!

Except it’s not.  The most superficial on-line search reveals that martial law (declared “in response to emergencies such as war, civil unrest, or natural disasters”) has been invoked many times in US history, including by Presidents Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln.

None of those affected the implementation of a federal election, but as we’ve seen time and time again, the Trump Administration is not shy–about anything.  If a year from now Trump concludes that a declaration of martial law is necessary—say just in certain districts–I don’t think he’d blink an eye in devising an excuse.  Again and again, we awaken to learn that some impossible idea is fait accompli, permanently or pending a multi-year judicial review. 

Which is the final point:  if anything arises to interfere with the midterm election, whether some selective martial law declaration or other less draconian actions, we will be relying on the US Judiciary to sort it out, while the disruption of the election is a fact on the ground.  That’s exactly what Trump intended on January 6, 2020.

Meanwhile, troops from West Virginia, Ohio, and South Carolina arrived in our nation’s capital over the weekend.  God bless America.

Dan Watson
Easton