Three Kinds Of Chaos In A Trenchcoat

     The thing about Americans -- the people of the United States, at least -- is that we're essentially ungovernable.  Left, Right and Center, "You're not the boss of me!" has many fans in this country.

     Nevertheless, the Founders and Framers managed to cobble together a framework that forms a country, a federation of states under a -- hey! -- Federal government, the states themselves composed of counties, parishes, boroughs, townships, cities, towns: lots of little government, to argue over, protest, vote out, vote in and complain about.  We write letters to the Editor, go on local cable or global podcasts, call in to radio shows and generally raise hell, and for most of us -- for the overwhelming majority -- it's enough.

     We're not good at getting into line en masse behind a leader or a specific party line; the Bill of Rights has long been as close to a shared ideal as we have, and it's a list of things government is supposed to not mess with or is obliged to protect -- and we argue over the meaning and enforcement of even it.

     Two massive World Wars brought us about as close as we've come to unity, and there was plenty of pushback, both personal and in groups.

     That's our national character: taken as a whole, we're a disorganized rabble.  The results of our most recent national elections bear that out: the House and Senate are within a sneeze of being evenly divided; a bad flu season might tip the majority back and forth, depending who's been hanging out together and if they got their shots.  The popular vote for the Presidency was even closer, with a margin of  victory less than 1.5 percent.

     We don't march in step.  We've got a Constitution and a body of law that protects our chaotic nature.  So the Trump administration's present efforts to quell dissent, going after critics of the President and prominent Democrat-supporting people and institutions, is not only unlawful but a huge mistake.  Rolling Stone's got a great article about it, but the article is at least partially paywalled.

     Attempts to beat this country into line with any single set of narrow notions are doomed.  Usually, such efforts fizzle out.  Sometimes they fester, explode into violence, and then fade away.  And once -- just once! -- we had widespread conventional war.

     Mr. Trump, and especially his inner circle, appear to long for war; they've targeted Portland, Oregon and Chicago, Illinois for the deployment of Federalized National Guard troops and the President is toying with involving the Insurrection Act.  Portland, OR is pretty reliably Left-leaning and had a long run of telegenic violence (arguably in reaction) during the first Trump administration; Chicago is the dominant city of Illinois, a state under popular Democratic Governor JB Pritzker, a prominent Administration critic and likely 2028 Presidential candidate.  They're likely places to start trouble, and sending in the National Guard appears to be intended as provocation: neither city is in a particular crisis at this time.

     I'm not seeing any serving generals lining up to wage war on this nation's cities, even after the President's speech to them calling for just that.

     Americans thrive on chaos.  As a group, we don't like to pushed around.  We don't like being told what to do, what to think, what to believe, how to worship or even if we ought to be religious at all.  Tell us it's a crime to burn the flag (it's not) and you've guaranteed the appearance of public flag-burners.  Oh, most people won't approve of it -- but most people will also disapprove of arresting and charging the flag-burners, as well.

     This kind of thing will be the downfall of the incumbent Republicans.  The only question is how long it will take, and how big a mess it will make.  --And the end result won't be Democrat dominance, but a return to our normal level of chaos and disagreement.  We're a fractious lot, but that's how it works here.