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THE VIEW FROM HERE - A society can be governed by either force or by consent. When a nation is as polarized, someone always claims to know the solution and that he needs total power to save the nation. The Founding Fathers called these people tyrants. When a country has a large portion of Centrists, then it is governed by rational consensus because the lunatic extremes can be ignored.
Which is More Important Money or Votes?
When Elon Musk tried to buy the Wisconsin Supreme Court election, we saw that money is important only to the extent that it buys votes – which si exactly what Musk tried to do and failed. Waiting for elections to learn the voters’ sentiment, however, is a poor, untimely feedback loop. If we are to be a government for, by, and of the people, we need a more effective way to constantly communicate are opinions. Only Centrists can provide real time feedback issue by issue. Pollsters become vital for those party leaders who know that how Centrist voters will vote in time to change their policies prior to elections. When a voter is captured inside a party controlled by either MAGA or Woker, dissenters are cancel cultured. When one quits GOP or Dem, party leaders can no longer culture cancel the person who thinks for himself. When voters go from GOP or Dem and re-registers as Independents, they have joined the class of voters to be wooed and not castigated.
How many voters are GOP, Dem, and Centrists?
According to Pew Research, the rough breakdown of GOP, Dem, and Centrists is 1/3, 1/3, and 1/3. Centrists beak down 33% leaning GOP and with only 23% leaning Dem. That means 64% of Centrists lean neither direction. In other words, 21% of all voters are totally up for grabs. Since the core MAGA and core Wokers will not budge, they have taken themselves out of the calculus. When a party feeds more red meat to its core it will alienate the Centrists. Dems pushing former male Transgenders cn com pete on women teams will not win elections. GOP believing that Americans gave a mandate it to remove all illegals rather than just the criminal aliens is similarly headed for electoral disaster.
In November 2024, one can discount both the MAGA and Woke cores and only focus on the Centrists as determining the electoral outcome. The vast majority of Americans hate Woke DEI and detest victimizing all illegal immigrants. This view is supported by the post election poll, showing that while all voters have a 37% favorable rating for GOP, only 30% give Dems a favorable rating. The voter dislike of Woke DEI was known long before voters realized that Biden obviously had a disqualifying degree of dementia. Voters Hate Wokeism
Los Angeles, Trump, and Woke Dems
As this column previously advised, the GOP have a deportation a mandate only as to violent criminals. Thus, both the GOP and the Dems should have agreed in advance to a modified sanctuary city approach. Los Angeles City, County, and state of California all have jails or prisons where violent illegals are held. Thus, California should cooperate with ICE to have these illegals arrested while they are still in US jails and prisons. We do not want to deport all convicted illegals since many countries will simply release them upon their return, and that will surely undercut our ability to protect our lives since deportation will be a Get Out of Jail Free card.
There is a gargantuan Constitutional problem treating anyone who has been arrested and has yet to be tried as a criminal. Thus, many illegals in jail waiting trials may not be counted as criminal unless they have a prior criminal conviction.
Due Process Is for Everyone or it Is for No One
Americans, however, believe in Due Process for everyone. When ICE arrests someone on the street and whisks them off to a foreign country with no opportunity to object to a court, then anyone including Mr. Whitey McWhiteWhite, a Mayflower descendant, can be seized and incarcerate for the rest of his life in a foreign country. In issuing one of its injunctions against a Trump deportation procedure, the federal judge made this exact same point. Although some of the Dems’ messages have been garbled, Due Process has been at the heart of much of the present immigration controversies. As this column previously wrote, the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia has nothing to do with whether he is as pure as newly fallen snow or a mass murderer. It is solely a Due Process issue of someone who was under a specific prior court order not to deport him to El Salvador. If Trump can get away with sweeping people off the street and not allow any Due Process when it comes to immigration, he will make more public emergency declarations and then seize and incarcerate anyone who displeases him.
Trump Has Invoked another Phony Emergency
When Trump invoked an emergency in Los Angeles and sent 2,000 California National Guardsmen to Los Angeles, there was absolutely no emergency. Everything is being manipulated by Trump with GOP henchmen like the new United States Attorney for the Central District of California, Bilal A. "Bill" Essayli. Their plan is simple – provoke a confrontation and then at the small infraction attack protestors. ICE pretended that a handful of protestors standing on the sidewalk outside the garage to federal building were blocking ICE agents, and thus, tear gas had to be immediately deployed. This Sunday morning on Channel 4's News conference, Essalyi strongly defended this tactic, i.e. protestors o the sidewalk did not move fast enough ICE cars to leave their garage. After ICE and Essalyi had caused the ensuing violence, Essayli complained that it took the LAPD two hours to show up. That leaves Trump, according to Essayli, no choice but to nationalize California’s National Guard and sent 2,000 troops to police LA streets. If Essalyi had had any bona fide belief that ICE was being held hostage inside the federal building by a handful of civilians, the proper procedure was for him to call the LAPD to come rescue ICE, and not to have a mass of ICE thugs charge out of the building gassing and attacking Angelenos.
There is varying speculation why Trump engineered this attack on Los Angeles. Some opinion that he wants to divert attention away from “TACO Donny” to conceal that Trump is submitting to Putin’s demands to abandon Ukraine and Putin’s demand that Iran be allowed to build nukes. Others think that Trump was upset that the number of criminal aliens which can be easily apprehended is fewer than expected, and thus, ICE has to target garment factories, etc. and falsely claim that the workers are criminals. Trump cares naught who is deported as long as he can claim himself to be a winner or savior. Persons with Histrionic Personality Disorders act rashly without an ability to foresee the ramifications of their behavior. That’s how Trump has disrupted the worldwide economic disorder which has brought no benefit to the US but is resulting in a lot of harm. Tariffs are a form of taxes which are paid by the American consumers and are never paid by the other country. Tariffs, like sales taxes, are paid by American buyers. Unlike sales taxes which are not imposed on food, tariffs tax food. At the same time, Trump is cutting SNAP benefits for America’s poor.
Another LA immigration protest is set for 2:00 p.m. Sunday, June 8, 2025. Let’s be perfectly clear. The LAPD and the Sheriff’s Department are far better trained to handle crowds than the National Guard and the US Marines. If the California National Guard is needed then it is Gov Newsom’s decision and it is for locals to coordinate its deployment with the LAPD, etc. Trump and DOJ Pete Hegseth are working hard to provoke major violence and further polarize America, while depriving California of its National Guard if the situation should deteriorate. A federal injunction against Trump’s deployment of California’s National Guard seems to be appropriate.
At 4:00 p.m., it is clear that the true assault on Los Angeles is coming from Donald Trump. His seizure of the national guard was a provocation as was his prior raiding of factories without evidence of any criminals. Garment factories are where Trump was certain to find a lot of female illegals at sewing machines, but no criminals.
All law enforcement know that whenever passions are inflamed as Trump is doing, there are lunatics and paid provocateurs to light sparks of violence. Trump’s latest Truth Social tweet makes the outrageous lie, “Los Angeles needs to be liberated from a migrant invasion” which only a mentally ill person would write.
The GOP will stop Trump and his sycophants only when there are so many Centrists that it is clear the GOP will be voted out of office.
(Richard Lee Abrams has been an attorney, a Realtor and community relations consultant as well as a CityWatch contributor. You may email him at [email protected])
