Steven LaChance Blog

This week Trump authorized the mobilization of National Guard troops in 19 states. Officials say their role is limited to administrative support for DHS and ICE, not direct policing or arrests. At the same time, separate deployments are already active in Washington, D.C. with talks of expanding into cities like Chicago.

On paper this is not a war on American citizens. But using military force in domestic life raises very real dangers. Legal experts warn it could be a testing ground in blue states, normalizing something that should never feel normal: soldiers in our streets, federal power overriding local control, and the line between civilian and military authority being blurred.

History gives us warnings too. In 1930s Germany, Hitler justified his growing use of paramilitary forces by framing it as restoring order. Those early deployments desensitized the public and paved the way for authoritarian control. The United States is not Nazi Germany, but when we see leaders borrowing the same playbook of fear and force, we have every right to ask hard questions.

Why now?
Why 19 states?
Why test this in red states?
And what happens when we get used to soldiers becoming the answer to political problems?

Democracy depends on questioning power, especially when that power puts boots on our streets.