1. United States
2. Mass.
3. Letter

The President of the United States is once again threatening to deploy our troops against American citizens. Trump has publicly warned that he is considering invoking the Insurrection Act to stop protests against state violence in Minnesota. Unlike the ICE and CBP agents Trump has sent in, who have already killed a legal observer and brutalized their targets and protesters alike, the folks exercising their First Amendment rights have been overwhelmingly peaceful. These are people who believe in our Constitution, and simply want our government to be held to it, too. What Trump is threatening is the stuff of tinpot dictatorships. One of the crucial protections that has kept America free and democratic has been our insistence that the military never be used as a political weapon against our own. That safeguard is being destroyed. It’s an affront to our most sacred values, and it’s dangerous as hell. If the President chooses to pull the trigger, you need to treat it as the dire emergency for our nation that it is. Have a strategy ready and be prepared to use whatever legislative or political tools you have available to take concrete and meaningful action. Strongly-worded letters and angry videos on social media won’t cut it. If you accept this as business as usual, that’s what it will become.