Listening to the governor of Maryland, the mayor of Baltimore and a host of other democrats concerning the role of the national guard, my feeling is they just don't get it. The national guard, at its' core, is the same as the minutemen, the militia in the old days. They are indeed citizen soldiers. They believe that their service to the country is a necessity for the preservation of freedom. That is why they are willing to leave their jobs, their families, to serve the country whenever the need arises. It's the reason each state has its' own national guard troops, controlled by the governor of the respective states. But the constitution provides for federalization of those troops shifting full command to the president. And that is where we are at with that at the moment. The legality of Trump using the guard is in question from those on the left.
You have to think about that for a bit. If your city has a very high rate of crime, your police force is short staffed and funding is also a big issue why wouldn't you want to utilize whatever resource you have to bring that under control? The short answer is simply, it looks bad. No one wants to admit that they need help, that they can't handle the job. The governor of Maryland in on the television right now, picking a fight with Trump, expounding about the role of the national guard and how "offended" he is by what the president is doing. Offended by a reduction in crime? Offended by using the resources available to curb that crime, restoring law and order. That's offensive! No, he's just upset because he is considering a run for the presidency but has been ignored lately. Newsome in California has been grabbing the headlines.
I could read some history and provide examples of when the guard was called in, when they were used for domestic purposes, but I don't think it is necessary. Most of us are aware. Remember when the guard had to be called up to escort nine children to a school? Why was that necessary? For their protection against what? You know the answer as well as I do. Are national guard troops trained for that? Yes, their job is to protect the public, that's what a militia does in case you are somehow confused by that. President Eisenhower called up the guard because then governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, a segregationist, refused to allow those children to enter the school. He refused to have the local authorities provide the necessary protection those nine students required. Trump is doing the same for the citizens of DC and says he will do the same for the citizens of Baltimore and Chicago.
All military members take an oath. Part of that oath is to defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic. I would say murderers, thieves, drug dealers and those that commit violent acts of crime are enemies of the state. The state in this case being the entire nation not simply an individual state, city or town. If it takes the deployment of the guard to bring that under control that is exactly what should be done. It isn't an attempt to take control, to establish martial law or anything like that. The purpose is solely to defend that constitution, to defend the rule of law and establish domestic tranquility! A goal plainly stated in the preamble to the constitution.
One could argue and debate about the root causes for the rise in crime in America. Nixon famously began the "war on drugs" declaring drug use and abuse the major social issue facing the nation. Jimmy Carter ran on a platform of "decriminalizing" the use of marijuana and some "social programs" that succeeded in getting him elected. The "war on drugs" has continued with each administration. We can all agree the war on drugs has been a dismal failure. In my way of thinking individual morality is at the core of all of this. I'm not saying each of us should be saints, that's not what I'm saying. What I am saying is when society in general begins to accept immoral actions as some "right" enshrined in the constitution, the decline begins.
The bottom line for me is that every available resource should be used to restore law and order. We can't just keep waiting on the next administration to do something. We can't continue to debate and deflect. We must act, decisively, quickly and with conviction. Truman famously said, The Buck stops here. It was a sign on his desk intended to let everyone know one thing, he would accept the responsibility for whatever decisions were made during his administration. He wasn't going to blame anyone else. Today he would be considered a hard nosed radical and probably a Nazi!
It was Truman that said, drop the bombs! I'd say that was decisive. He was a far different democrat than what we see today, that much is certain. That isn't to say the party flipped, it certainly hasn't, Truman supported those "core" beliefs that still form the basis of the Democratic party. The ideology hasn't changed, only the method of implementation. Today the democrats don't want to do anything, just allow everything. They just want to be your friend. If you are, they'll take care of you, they promise. All you have to do, is pay for it.
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