Is America the New Russia?
Within a week, masked ICE agents have arrested two Democratic politicians, likely without consequences. Is the US on its way to becoming the new Russia, or something worse?
Opinion
I originally wanted to write about something else today. I had a whole piece planned about how men’s refusal to vote for a woman may have cost Harris the election (backed by data, of course). Then, Brad Lander got arrested.
For those who don’t know him, Brad Lander is a Democrat from New York and a promising candidate in the upcoming NYC mayoral election (he has even won the support of an NYT expert panel).
Yesterday, Lander got arrested by ICE agents in court. He was protecting an immigrant that ICE sought to arrest. Lander simply demanded that the agents show him a warrant before he let go of the immigrant. Instead of showing an arrest warrant, which one should need for an arrest, the ICE agents arrested Lander in a chaotic scene.
They are Arresting the Opposition
It wasn’t the first time that ICE agents had violently arrested a Democrat. Last Week, agents pinned down Senator Alex Padilla of California after he pressed Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem with uncomfortable questions about the LA immigration raids. As California’s Senator, Padilla had the right to seek this information. He had every right to demand answers from Noem, yet he was pinned down by two masked men for asking them. Trump’s team later said that the agents didn’t know it was a Senator, but in the clip of the incident, we can hear Padilla say the words “I’m Senator Alex Padilla…”
The Senator, who represents millions of Americans, was quickly released. Brad Lander, on the other hand, spent almost four hours in custody. Republicans have also threatened to arrest California’s Governor Gavin Newsom simply because he’s “doing a bad job”.
ICE agents, who carry out Trump’s mass deportations, seemingly have no trouble arresting political opponents when they speak up against them or demand legal clarity. These men are masked and often carry no warrants.
Right now, these arrests & threats against Democratic politicians are branded as mistakes or unconnected incidents. However, the fact that there are no consequences for the agents’ mistakes is troubling. If they feel like they can get away with arresting any Democrat, what will stop them from repeating such behavior? After all, they can always say it was just a mistake.
Troubling Signs
Nadya Tolokonnikova, an exiled Russian activist, said in an Interview with Die Zeit that “The US today feels like the Russia of 2012”.
I think that’s a great comparison. Many online compare Trump 2.0 to the end of German Democracy after Hitler’s election victory. That is a good comparison in some points: Trump shares Hitler’s vile language, his populism, his anti-elitism (“Drain the swamp” was a strategy used by Hitler, too), his media-bashing & his disdain of Democracy (both Hitler & Trump had their failed insurrection). Modern authoritarianism, however, looks different. Nowadays, dictatorships like to keep up the appearance of a democracy. That’s why Belarus, Iran, and Russia still have elections. The outcome is predetermined. Opponents are jailed. But the “election” is still held. That’s something the Nazis never cared for.
So, Trump 2.0 feels like Russia when Russia’s democracy was falling apart. If the US stays on this track, with more arrests against politicians, they may become the next Russia: A pseudo-Democracy.
In my previous post, I already wrote about how German experts are worried about the safety of the 2026 midterm elections under Trump. These will be a test of how far Team Trump is willing to go.
History shows, in today’s Russia and 1930s Germany, that going back after extreme authoritarian power and fraudulent elections would be difficult. If it comes to that point, it may already be too late. Democratic politicians need to understand that they can’t sit this one out. Voters across the country must continue to make their voices heard loudly.
Trump “has committed more impeachable offenses in the first few months of his second term than all previous presidents combined”, according to law professor Michael Gerhardt. Part of the action that Democrats can take is loudly prosecuting these crimes. Not because it is popular but because it is right.