We have seen some remarkable things in just the past month. We have seen 15 Democrats flee Texas and hide out so that a two thirds quorum would not exist in the legislature — and a bill aimed at creating five new congressional seats in Texas could be stalled. Then we have seen California fight back in kind. Two can play at this game, Governor Gavin Newsom has let it be known. Newsom has made it crystal clear in his imitations of Donald Trump’s coo coo social media style that he’s only too happy to fight fire with fire. And that’s a good thing. Because here is yet another instance where the right-wing lunatics are planning to wreak more havoc in the Golden State and then expand outwards. This is yet another entry into the You Can’t Make This Shit Up file. This guy is actually advocating that the Sheriff of Los Angeles County take over the City Of Los Angeles. Whut? Yes.
Far-right activist Richard Mack of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association says that sheriffs must start "taking over" large cities run by Democrats, just as President Trump has taken over Washington, DC. https://t.co/yw2o6UIUUg pic.twitter.com/IOduZOmCsu
— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) August 21, 2025
That’s an original concept, members of a certain strata of law enforcement simply taking over the government. What’s that you say? It completely contravenes the Constitution, the law of rule and on top of that, it beats hell with plain common sense? Yes, but: We live in the first year of Trump 2.0 where burgeoning insanity is a feature, not a bug. These clowns are serious. Trump has set the stage in Washington, D.C. and now that basic realty TV set up is supposed to go to the next stage and become the template for the rest of the country. And since Trump can’t be personally present to order federal troops into every city, his right-wing sheriffs are supposed to be his proxies and conduct mini insurrections.
The tragedy is that we are in this place and time because we already saw Trump do an insurrection on January 6, 2021. For a few hours that day, there was some sanity. Lindsey Graham announced that he had “tried to be of help” but that this was the bridge too far. Kevin McCarthy was on the phone to Trump to tell him to the rioters off. Mitch McConnell said that Trump was responsible for the fiasco.
But it didn’t last long. That’s the problem. Before too long McCarthy was sorting out pink and red Starbursts, because Trump doesn’t like the orange or the yellow, and heading down to Mar-a-Lago, gift in hand. Graham forgot all about jumping ship and showed up to play golf instead, while McConnell stopped talking about the insurrection altogether, as if it was a bad dream.
The insurrection became a TV stunt. Despite the fact that people were hurt, maimed and killed, it all got logged in the American consciousness as a dramatic spectacle, a theatrical flourish to demonstrate how frustrated Trump the protagonist was. Unfortunately, it was real. And it made a statement: This is the kind of man Trump is. He cares nothing about our norms, institutions, and worst of all, whether Americans live or die. Do you think he’s lost one minute of sleep thinking about the people who lost their lives that day? No, he does not. Because none of this is real to him. This is all television and playacting.
It was even wondered on January 20 if the Secret Service would have to physically remove Trump from the White House but evidently calmer heads were able to persuade him to get on the helicopter and go back to Florida.
America was shown who Trump was. But for reasons which nobody can fathom, let alone answer, the electorate didn’t take the insurrection on January 6 seriously. Now there are federal troops in the streets of our nation’s capitol. And now there is a crackpot, one of many, talking about sheriffs “taking over Democrat cities.”
We began as a pot of frogs, taking a cool bath together, but the temperature has slowly risen over the years. It began to rise one degree for each time Trump said or did the unthinkable and it got normalized. Now even the insurrection of January 6 is normalized. Now federal troops in D.C. are normalized. Now retaliatory raids of political enemies by the FBI are normalized.
So why not have a coalition of redneck MAGA sheriffs take over large cities in blue states? It’s all part of the same pattern.
Just remember, what used to sound insane and impossible a few years ago is now the norm. Yes, we are looking at a convicted sex trafficker being pardoned in the days ahead. And do not be surprised if you find out that your local sheriff has now morphed into your MAGA chieftan and now you live under his (and it will be a he) rule. If you think about it rationally for a minute, given all that we have seen the past ten years, it makes perfect sense.
Remember this bit of wisdom: everything Trump does makes perfect sense once you accept that he’s working for Putin. He’s wrecking America. Those are his orders and he’s obeying them.