Democrats Support Indefinite Military Force in Nation’s Capital

Since the failed insurrection by Trump-supporting neo-fascists on January 6th (J6), Washington, D.C. has been under military occupation by national guardsmen with nearly 25,000 troops stationed in D.C. at its height during President Biden’s inauguration.¹

At first, the military presence made sense in the wake of J6th. But after the inauguration on January 20th, they didn’t leave. No, they needed to stay because of Trump’s farcical impeachment trial. The trial ended in the predictable acquittal on February 13th. And still, thousands of troops² remained stationed in the capital, this time because of a vague QAnon theory that Trump was going to take over the government on March 4th.³ And after March 4th? They have to stay “for about two more months because possible threats of violence remain.”

Finally, the 2,200 remaining troops left on May 22nd. In total, the 5-month deployment will cost taxpayers half a billion dollars.⁴

But, it still isn’t the end. House democrats have been chomping at the bit to pass sweeping new domestic terrorism laws and create a permanent military presence in D.C. (These are the same Democrats who last year labeled President Trump the second coming of Hitler for sending Federal forces into large cities in response to long-term—and occasionally violent—black liberation and anarchist protests.)

House Democrats passed a $1.9 billion bill (HR 3237)⁵ to “provide emergency funding to harden the complex with retractable fencing, a quick-response force and police training.” This bill includes funding to literally change the geography of the capital to more effectively address threats.⁶ Democrats are using the failed insurrection on J6th to greatly increase the powers of the security deep-state and essentially militarize the nation’s capitol indefinitely.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn, who is the chair of the House Committee of Appropriations, made sure HR 3237 includes $200 million dollars for a permanent military force in the capital.⁷ This is based on a Taskforce report commissioned to review the J6th insurrection. The report says a force could be mobilized by using military police from units across the country that would serve on three-to-six-month rotations. “Another option would be to create a [force] that permanently resides within the D.C. Guard by reestablishing a military police battalion and staffing it with active Guard reserve troops who live in or near the city year-round, perpetually on active duty,” the report says.

So, we need a permanent military quick reaction team in the nation’s capital indefinitely to deal with vague conspiracy theories?

The problem with all this, as awful as J6th was, is that it could have easily been prevented with about a hundred additional officers and proper anti-riot equipment: all of which the federal government already has! (Just last year, President Trump and Attorney General Bill Barr used the military to gas peaceful protesters into clearing the area so Trump could hold a photo op with an upside down Bible).

The other issue is it took till 5:40 PM for National Guard troops to respond to the insurrection. The attack started at 2 PM. Within minutes of the security breach both the Chief of U.S. Capitol Police, Steven Sund, and the mayor of Washington D.C., Muriel Bowser, sent out urgent distress calls requesting National Guard support. However, President Trump waited almost four hours to send them in (with the New York Times reporting an unnamed Defense Department official claiming it was actually Vice-President Mike Pence who made the request).⁸ The attack was as successful as it was in penetrating the Capitol not because of a lack of fencing or absence of a permanent standing army, but because of the (in)actions of one specific individual. As Rising’s Krystal Ball noted, “This is what the national security states always does. They use their own failures to justify increased money & increased power.”

This is all so much security-theater, completely ineffective at addressing the root of the issue all the while increasing state power. After J6th, Speaker Pelosi had new metal detectors installed outside of congressional chambers requiring every congressmember to pass through one before entering the chamber. The House passed a resolution implementing a $5,000 fine for elected officials who flouted the new rules a first time, $10,000 for a 2nd times. Not only is this possibly unconstitutional,⁹ it’s nonsensical. What exactly are additional metal detectors going to do to an armed individual who has already gotten passed all the other metal detectors at the Capitol entrances?

House Democrats are so insistent on increasing the security deep-state because neo-liberalism not only needs less government interference in capital’s ability to maximize profit by any means, but also a strong security state to properly control all those undesirable masses that don’t measure up to the ideal homo economicus.¹⁰ Chile under Augusto Pinochet in the 1970s & 80s revealed this perfectly.¹¹ Pinochet came to power thanks to a U.S.-backed military coup in 1973.¹² Pinochet’s regime was a first real test of neoliberal economic policy focusing on privatization, economic liberalization, stabilizing inflation, and relying heavily on international creditors and corporations. By the 1980s, Milton Friedman was describing the re-orientation of Chilean economics as the “Miracle of Chile.” Of course, he never mentioned the brutal state tactics to suppress trade unions, any political opposition that was center-left, and the general working class. Pinochet is quoted saying he wanted “to make Chile not a nation of proletarians, but a nation of proprietors”. Pinochet accomplished this by disappearing thousands of dissidents, arresting tens of thousands of people, and institutionalizing torture. Under neo-liberalism, the invisible Left hand of the market giveth, what the Iron Right Hand of the state taketh away.

HR 3237 only passed the House by one vote, 213-212. Every single Republican voted against it, joined by only three democrats: Representatives Cori Bush of Missouri, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Jamaal Bowman of New York, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan all voted present guaranteeing the passage of the bill. Conservatives should be prohibited from ever saying the Democrats want to defund & abolish the police, considering they want to spend $1.9 billion on police just in Washington, D.C. Even congressmembers who ostensibly support defundist theory, like AOC, who could have killed the bill by simply voting no, are tools in the neoliberal establishment’s need for an ever-increasing security state.

Thankfully, Senate Republicans are unlikely to support the legislation largely because of their sudden and explosive amnesia related to anything on January 6th. But, don’t be surprised if some Republicans switch sides, especially if this bill is coupled with new domestic terrorism laws that could give the state much greater latitude in crushing dissenting voices. For the past decade, Republicans have attempted to pass increasingly restrictive laws criminalizing protests and even providing justification for private individuals to attack or even kill protesters. Republicans may stroke out whenever you mention J6th, but their incessant ramblings about the 7% of Black liberation & anti-government protests that involved violence in 2020 could provide a compromise position. There is no reason to assume Democrats will oppose such a measure. Now that Trump is no longer in office and the brain tumor that is Trump Derangement Syndrome¹³ is largely in remission, Democrats are less reticent in their intolerance of protesters that disrupt the capitalist order of society.

This article was originally published on Strangecornersofthought.com.

1. Johnson, Glen, and Kadia Goba. “Details from Dems $2 Billion Security Proposal Includes Money for Heirs of Late House Members.” Axios, 12 May 2021.
2. About 5,000 troops remained through March 4th. See: Cox, Chelsea. “Fact Check: National Guard Will Remain in DC through Trump’s Impeachment Trial.” Yahoo! News, Yahoo!.
3. March 4th was the nation’s original presidential inauguration date before the adoption of the 20th amendment in 1933.

   Section 1: The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3rd day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.

   XX Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

   Thanks to the infinite absurdity of the QAnon mind, they hypothesized the military would willingly ignore 88 years of precedent to overthrow a democratically elected president and install a guy who lost by more votes than any other president in history (I guess that makes Trump number 1 at losing). Apparently, Q never told them the military is part of the deep state.

4. Johnson and Goba. “Details from Dems $2 Billion Security Proposal Includes Money for Heirs of Late House Members.” Axios.
5. H.R.3237 – Emergency Security Supplemental to Respond to January 6th Appropriations Act, 2021
6. Axios writes “potentially changing the landscape architecture of the Capitol grounds.” See: Johnson, Glen, and Kadia Goba. “Details from Dems $2 Billion Security Proposal Includes Money for Heirs of Late House Members.” Axios, 12 May 2021.
7. Beynon, Steve. “Guard’s DC Deployment Could Become Permanent as Lawmakers Eye $200M Quick Reaction Force.” Military.com, May 14th, 2021.
8. I won’t go into all the reports of Trump’s behavior during those four hours, mainly because it’s all from anonymous sources.

9. They[congresspeople] shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place.

   Article 1, Section 6 of the U.S. Constitution

10. The person (white, male, cishet, and so on) who embodies the true self-made entrepreneur unconstrained in their ability to wield capital for maximum profit.
11. The “Chili Project” was a multi-decade U.S. experiment to influence the Latin American economy towards neoliberal economic policies led by the State Department and funded by the Ford & Rockefeller foundations. Part of it included scholarships for Latin American students to U.S. universities. Several students attended the University of Chicago and studied economics under Milton Freidman and Arnold Harberger, both pioneers in American neo-liberal economic theories. These students, who are often referred to (both lovingly and derisively) as the Chicago Boys, were influential in Latin American economic policy in the 2nd half of the 20th century, particularly under the military Junta of Pinochet. See: Kelly, Stephanie M. “STRATEGIC PHILANTHROPY: THE FORD AND ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATIONS IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE ORIGINS OF AMERICAN GLOBAL REFORM.” University of Houston, 2013.
12. The U.S. especially disliked the left-leaning democratically-elected Chilean President Salvador Allende who served from 1970 till his death in 1973. U.S. policy strategically used economic measures to destabilize Chile’s economy.

    The United States cut off economic aid, denied credits, and made efforts-partially successful-to enlist the cooperation of international financial institutions and private firms in tightening the economic “squeeze” on Chile. That international “squeeze” intensified the effect of the economic measures taken by opposition groups within Chile, particularly the crippling strikes in the mining and transportation sectors. For instance, the combined effect of the foreign credit squeeze and domestic copper strikes on Chiles foreign exchange position was devastating.

    “COVERT ACTION IN CHILE 1963-1973.” STAFF REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE TO STUDY GOVERNMENTAL OPERATIONS WITH RESPECT TO
    INTELLIGENCE ACTIVITIES UNITED STATES SENATE.

13. Trump Derangement Syndrome — the irrational belief that because President Trump supports a position, that position must be bad and therefore the opposite position must be good.