Are We REALLY Turning into a Theocratic Fascist State?

It sounds crazy, but is it really?

For several years, people have been sounding the alarm about White Christian Nationalism and the MAGA movement’s tendency toward authoritarianism. Two recent posts from

Kristin Du Mez

and

Jemar Tisby, PhD

have me wondering if the U.S. may have already turned a corner without most of us realizing it.

DHS Propaganda Appropriating Scripture

Kristin Du Mez writes in her post, “Taking the Lord’s Name in Vain,” about a DHS propaganda video in which a heavily-kitted Border Patrol agent deploys with the voice-over of Isaiah 6:

Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? I said: Here am I. Send me.

Du Mez argues that such rhetoric uses Christianity to justify violence, and I could not agree more. She’s a historian who studies modern Evangelicalism. I’m a rhetorician who studies how language shapes beliefs, attitudes, and actions.

We both see the implications of the state attaching a dominant group’s values—Christians in this case—to state power; it increases the likelihood of the state exercising and expanding that power.

Because if Border Patrol agents can be viewed as answering God’s call, then deploying those agents more aggressively can be justified. Then ICE agents raiding schools or hospitals can be justified along the same lines.

This is not a stretch at all. But does Trump really have a “personal army” in the form of I.C.E.?

Trump’s Army?

In “Trump’s Personal Army,” historian Jemar Tisby points out that ICE operates as a paramilitary force that answers to the Executive Branch. Viewed this way, Trump appears to have a personal army with a $170 billion budget.

Here’s how Tisby puts it:

The Big Ugly Bill apportions more than $170 billion to ICE and border security.

This makes ICE more well-funded than any other U.S. law enforcement agency and richer than the entire military budget of all but 15 countries.

… Its mandate is vague and constantly shifting. It started with immigrants. But it can easily expand to include “rioters,” “dissenters,” “disloyal citizens.”

Describing the Border Patrol or I.C.E. as “Trump’s personal army” sounds like a stretch.

But maybe that’s the point?

If Trump and Congressional Republicans created a “Federal Security Agency” to “maintain order,” then most Americans would object to the creation of a not-so-secret secret police.

But using Immigration and Customs Enforcement as a de facto secret police takes advantage of a semantic gray area. The acronym certainly doesn’t suggest “secret police,” and the agency has a history as a law enforcement organization.

By going after anyone who interferes with ICE, from judges to protestors, Trump and his closest advisors—especially Stephen Miller—could effectively wield a secret police without most Americans thinking of it as a secret police.

Drone Warfare and ICE as a Secret Police

For decades, the U.S. has waged wars in Yemen, Pakistan, and other parts of the globe where we are not actually at war.

Because the U.S. military isn’t bombing (like we bombed Iran). We’re launching drone strikes.

The new technology of drones created a semantic, legal gray area through which President Obama could effectively wage wars against the Houthi rebels in Yemen and the Taliban in Pakistan without ever declaring war.

Now, Trump seems ready to take advantage of semantic, legal gray areas to wield ICE as a secret police.

If ICE detains or deports people like Mahmoud Khalil and Kilmer Abrego Garcia, then it looks like immigration enforcement rather than a secret police targeting people the state doesn’t like.

If Trump mobilizes the National Guard to quell protests that might interfere with ICE raids, then it looks like an unusual use of Federal power rather than a secret police using the military for extra support.

What Do We Do?

As someone who studies rhetoric, I believe we can protest the Trump Administration’s hard-line stance on immigration, its aggressive use of ICE, and its expansion of ICE’s mission and powers.

But protest alone is not enough. We must also argue against these things, framing them as authoritarianism and as a type of “secret police.”

Not because we want to scare people. Because if ICE, the military, or both begin to oppress people with legal status who “interfere” with detentions or deportations, then the public will have in its collective mind a concept without any semantic ambiguity: a secret police force.

It won’t be too late until we collectively accept the gradual transformation of ICE into a secret police, like the proverbial frog in the pot.