Answering the Hard Questions

 Answering the Hard Questions About Trump, the National Guard, and Authoritarian Echoes

In my last post, I left you with three questions about what happens when governments use the military to crack down on homelessness and immigration. These questions weren’t rhetorical — they demand answers. Today, let’s walk through them together.

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1. What happens when a society treats poverty and displacement as crimes instead of crises?

The result is suffering on top of suffering.
When people without homes are treated like criminals, they get fines, jail time, or records that make it nearly impossible to escape poverty. Instead of being offered housing, healthcare, or mental health support, they are punished for being poor. This doesn’t solve homelessness — it makes it permanent.

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2. How much power should the military have in civilian life?

In a healthy democracy, the military protects from external threats, not internal struggles.
Soldiers are not trained social workers or community builders — they are trained for war. Using them against our own people crosses a dangerous line. The more we allow troops to manage civil life, the closer we move toward a militarized state where compassion is replaced by control.

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3. If we don’t resist early abuses, how far might this expand?

History warns us that it never stops with the first target.
The vulnerable are always tested first — the homeless, the migrants, the voiceless. If society accepts this, the net widens: protests, labor strikes, political dissent, and even journalism could be next. Silence in the beginning guarantees deeper abuses later.

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Why We Must Speak Out

Answering these questions reminds us that this moment matters. The way a society treats its most vulnerable is the truest test of its humanity. If we allow militarized crackdowns to replace compassion and justice, we are walking down the same dark path authoritarian regimes have taken before.

This isn’t just about the homeless in D.C. or migrants at the border — it’s about what kind of society we are willing to become.