When I heard the national guard was being deployed to Portland, one phrase rang in my mind: “It can’t happen here.” Now this phrase has become synonymous with apathy toward the current political climate. I am definitely guilty of this; many of us have faith in the American way, the American system. However, the further we get into this presidency, the more and more I lose faith in this system.
It wasn’t more than 6 months ago that ICE deported an American citizen, and the administration has repeatedly denied the right of due process to non-Americans. The DOJ and the executive branch have repeatedly denied and refused court orders. These are clear violations of the system that has bound our system and our country for the past 250 or some years. Yet, I still believed it can’t happen, and there is this prevailing idea that bad things never happen. I still hear that “people are overreacting” as their friends and coworkers disappear like in the USSR, sent to some prison camp a world away.
When the National Guard went to DC, I paid little mind to it, just another thing occupying the 5 o’clock news— not the heart of democracy. When the excuse of “crime” and “civil unrest” came up, I paid little mind; after all, who cares? It’s not a state; it is under the direction of Congress. Then it came to Portland, and even then, the only visible disturbance was Customs and Border Patrol helicopters circling above, so it was quite easy for us to ignore. America, I thought, would never let anything happen here, and so for a while it didn’t in my mind.
Just a week ago, the Secretary of “War” announced new press guidelines, quite literally prohibiting journalists from operating in the Pentagon if they don’t abide by certain rules. These rules were so absurd that only one of the many news networks with press access agreed, that being the One American News Network. I thought about the control of information, the denial of information, and how authoritarians weaponize the control of information. The government wouldn’t restrict the press…
Yet here I am doubting the idea that it can’t happen here. One of my good friends was scared when the president was elected, believing that she and her identity would be erased. I’ll be honest, I chuckled. I didn’t believe it; I was steadfast in my faith in America. I still don’t believe America is going to end or that people will be erased. However, the more and more I sit and think, even writing this column, the more I think it could happen here, and I keep thinking of this quote by Sinclair Lewis, “When fascism comes to America, it will be draped in a flag, carrying a cross.”
