America on the Edge

It’s deeply troubling to see so many governors, including Missouri’s Mike Kehoe, preemptively deploy the National Guard ahead of planned protests this weekend. Their decision appears based on exaggerated reports from Los Angeles, amplified by the Trump Administration’s propaganda machine. These governors aren’t responding to facts; they’re reacting to fear—fear of their own people.

That’s a dangerous place for any democracy to be.

Though no one in the Trump Administration will admit it, fear and violence serve their strategy. The goal isn’t to preserve order; it’s to provoke chaos, then use that chaos to justify a crackdown. Trump has made it clear that any resistance on June 14 “will be met with very big force.” This isn’t a warning; it’s a threat, and arguably a call to arms. When the state prepares for war against its own citizens, we are no longer speaking of democracy. We are staring into the abyss of authoritarian rule.

Largely unarmed protesters will be met by a government force equipped with batons, rubber bullets, tear gas, side arms, and assault rifles. If violence breaks out, it will be one-sided, just as it was in Los Angeles. The blood spilled there belonged to the people, not the police. Journalists were shot with so-called “non-lethal” rounds. One journalist was shot in the leg, another in the forehead. Dozens of protesters were hit indiscriminately, including a woman just trying to return to her apartment. She had her arms raised in surrender when they fired on her at point-blank range. There was no threat; the only objective was violence.

This is not law enforcement. This is a one-sided fight.

So yes, it’s understandable that some governors are alarmed. But what they’re reacting to isn’t reality; it’s a carefully curated narrative. Los Angeles is a massive city. The protest was limited, like a pebble dropped into a pond. But the Trump Administration magnified that pebble into a boulder and small rippling waves into a tsunami. The fear took root, and fear is all the justification governors need.

If violence follows, it will be used not as a reason to reflect, but as an excuse to escalate; to clamp down, to crush dissent, to push America one step closer to totalitarianism.

That outcome is no longer hypothetical. It is a real, looming possibility.

We must not look away. Our time is now. Stand up! Resist! History is our witness and will record where you stood during this desperate hour for America.