Enforce the hatch act. Fire Noem and prosecute airport managers.

The 1939 Hatch Act, upheld by the Supreme Court in CSC v. Letter Carriers, outlaws political messaging in publicly funded spaces. Its penalties include removal from service, debarment, suspensions, reprimands, and fines. Yet DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has pushed out a video to airports across the country blaming Democrats for the current shutdown. Some airport managers understand the penalties of the Hatch Act, which is why several are refusing to air Noem’s message. As of today, at least seven airports have declined to run the video at TSA checkpoints, citing policies and laws that prohibit political messaging in publicly funded facilities. If you and the rest of the Democratic Party are serious about defending both the rule of law and what’s left of America’s democracy, you must insist on prosecutions. That means removal from office for Noem, claims against the propagandists who produced and distributed the video, and charges against airport managers who continue broadcasting it. Anything less signals that the Hatch Act — and the rest of American law that could restrain Trump and the MAGA GOP — is a dead letter. This is not a partisan point. Imagine if a Democratic administration produced a video blaming Republicans for a shutdown, then forced airports to broadcast it. Republicans would be demanding prosecutions, and rightly so. The law must apply equally or it means nothing at all. Democrats need to stop pretending this is “politics as usual.” It is not. These are crimes designed to shift blame for a shutdown that is entirely the responsibility of the Republican Party. If there is no accountability now, America will slide further toward a future where propaganda is displayed on every government-owned screen and speaker. That is what has happened in Russia and Hungary— public spaces are saturated with partisan messaging and independent voices are silenced. The Hatch Act was written to prevent that fate in the USA. It must be enforced — with indictments, prosecutions, and disbarment — before it’s too late.