Two days after an ICE agent shot and killed Renée Good in Minneapolis, Rep. Roger Williams issued an ultimatum to the Trump administration’s critics in Minnesota and beyond.
“People need to quit demonstrating, quit yelling at law enforcement, challenging law enforcement, and begin to get civil,” the Texas Republican told NewsNation. “And until we do that, I guess we’re going to have it this way. And the people that are staying in their homes or doing the right thing need to be protected.”
That’s a pretty clear encapsulation of MAGA-world’s views on dissent these days. You aren’t supposed to protest. You aren’t supposed to “yell at” or “challenge” the militarized federal agents occupying your city. And anyone who wants to be “protected” should probably just stay “in their homes.” Williams isn’t some fringe backbencher; he’s a seven-term congressman who chairs the House Small Business Committee. He is announcing de facto government policy.
For nearly a year, President Donald Trump and his allies have been engaged in an escalating assault on the First Amendment. The administration has systematically targeted or threatened many of Trump’s most prominent critics: massive law firms, Jimmy Kimmel, even, at one point, Elon Musk. But it’s worth keeping in mind that some of the earliest victims of the president’s second-term war on speech were far less powerful.
Protests getting you down, lil’ Rog? Going on too long? Getting too loud? Drawing attention you find irritating? Pulling in fence-sitters who don’t want to get murdered by no-name thugs with guns and badges? People who actually know and love the Constitution and don’t like you shitting on it? Neighbors using your repression to build strong communities for themselves and loudly bringing attention to your murderous ethos to spite you? Protesters not giving into your incitements to riot? Taking too long for an excuse to declare martial law? Don’t want to lose your fascist party’s power in the midterms?
Glad to hear it! Thanks for letting us know how frightened you are that we might actually get the word to people you want to keep safely in your bubble until you’re ready to strip them of everything they hold dear, too, and keep you from building a totalitarian state from the ruins of the democracy you’re trying to destroy.
In fact, THANK YOU, lil’ Rog. For validating the protests with your public acknowledgement without even the slightest idea that “sit down and shut up” is a nonsensical response for anyone interested in knowing WHY people are not doing just that. You personally may still have a grade school mindset, but many of us who have to work for a living are well capable of looking past the superficial, and find you nothing more than a scared, inconvenienced liar desperate to retain power.
I goddamn well hope so, you pedophile defending piece of shit. That and more.