The District
Our nation’s capital is just fine. Focus on the big picture of what’s happening – the undermining of our self-governance.
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Focus on the Big Picture
This week, Rachel Maddow continued using her platform to highlight the threats to our self-governance, focusing this week on our elections. President Trump and his policies are very unpopular with the American people, and, according to Maddow, he must know that he can’t face the voters because he’s engaging in a multi-part attack to undermine our free and fair elections.
As a reminder, in 2018, when Trump faced voters during the midterms, Democrats won 41 seats due to Trump’s unpopularity, the largest gain of Democratic House seats since the post-Watergate 1974 elections, when they picked up 49 seats.
Here’s a bit from her overview from this week’s program: [1]
And this is something we're seeing more and more of. If you look inside those numbers, the country, it turns out, is not just turning against Trump, it's hardening in its turn against him.
And what I mean by that is, if you look at just the minority of Americans who say they do approve of Trump, the proportion of Americans who say they strongly approve of Trump is 27%, whereas the proportion of Americans who say they strongly disapprove of him is 47%.
I mean, we haven't seen numbers that low for Trump's approval overall.
We haven't seen numbers that low for people who strongly approve of Trump since right after January 6th. Nearly half the country now describes themselves as strongly disapproving of Trump as President.
The number of people strongly disapproving of him is 20 points higher than the number of people who say they strongly approve.
The country is really against this president by large and increasing numbers with increasingly strong feelings against him.
And I think the average authoritarian doesn't much like the idea of elections in general, but I think an authoritarian-minded leader with public approval numbers that disastrous heading south that fast might particularly dislike the idea of elections right now in America this year.
Here's a look at Austin, Texas this weekend. Thousands of Texans protested this weekend at the Texas state capitol over what Trump is trying to do to change Congressional district maps so Democrats structurally cannot retake control of Congress. They held signs like “Texans Against Tyrants” and “Why are we drawing maps for Trump instead of for Texas?”
Texas Democratic state legislators did come back home to Texas today. They had left the state to try to stop the legislature from convening so that Republicans couldn't change the maps the way Trump had told them to. When the Democrats came back today, Republicans tried to force them to sign consent forms that would allow the assignment of a state police officer to each Democrat to follow each and every Democrat in the legislature.
Everywhere that person goes 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, they're not assigning law enforcement officers to these Democratic state legislators as bodyguards. They're assigning them as minders to monitor the location of these Democrats 24 hours a day so as to be prepared to arrest them at any time.
State Representative Nicole Collier of Fort Worth refused to sign this consent form, and because she would not consent to having a police officer following her around and monitoring her 24 hours a day, Texas House Democrats say she is now effectively being held on the House floor, on the legislature's floor indefinitely. She's been there all day and she is there right now. She apparently is not being allowed to leave.
…
[On the] gambit in Texas and Trump's new threatened executive order saying he's going to try to ban mail-in voting and force states to comply with his election-related orders from the federal government, we're going to talk tonight about how that all fits into what is really starting to seem like a concerted multi-part effort by Trump - to call into question whether we really are going to have midterm elections next year.
And if we do, whether they will look anything like what we have come to know as elections in this country.
We are seeing him move on at least three fronts right now to call into question the existence or the character of the 2026 elections and consolidating the power of the government all in one person.
Using force, both performatively and practically against the population, including secret police and black site prisons and now military force against the civilian population.
Allying our country with dictatorships and against democracies.
Defying or ignoring court orders.
This is the story of Trump's second term in office thus far, and of course it's all part of one story. It's what authoritarian leadership looks like the world over. It's a story that the American people really palpably don't like, which you can tell both from the protests and from the opinion polls about what Trump is doing and how the public feels about him.
But you know what, that lack of confidence, that distrust and distaste by the public for what Trump is doing. It only goes so far.
If we lose the fundamental ability to replace our leaders by voting them out. If we lose the ability to vote our leaders out in elections, public opinion will never matter again.
DC
I was DC this week. As a first-hand observer, the city is safe and isn't any safer because there are military personnel here. I did take the Metro and saw two National Guard members on the train platform - they were near a light standard and provided no meaningful improvement in safety with their presence. The whole effort appears ineffective and performative - there is no evidence that this is necessary; there is certainly no emergency.
In declaring his “emergency” on August 11, federalizing the District’s police department, President Trump did hang on one detail; [2][3] in July, a DC police commander was suspended from one DC district under suspicion of changing crime statistics; the commander had already been placed on administrative leave in mid-May. [4]
However, let’s not lose the forest for the trees. None of these details warrant a mobilization of National Guard troops and bringing in other National Guard forces from five other states. [5] Crime isn’t actually as “out of control” in the nation’s Capital as the White House claims; [6] homicides in D.C. decreased 32% last year from a high of 274 homicides in 2023 and another 12% already this year. [7].
An interesting note: homicides rose 71% between Trump’s first year as President (2017) to his last (2020) during his first term. [8]
Clearly exasperated, Jonathan V. Last of The Bulwark reacted to the blatant lies coming from Trump in justifying his takeover of DC: [9]
"It's just because, again, it's the President of the United States. He just says all these things which are untrue all the time and, like, the world doesn't react to it anymore. [It's] the President of the United States saying lies."
A Little History
Image from the National Archives and Records Administration [10]
Marking the Semiquincentennial of American Independence 250 years ago
From the Massachusetts Historical Society: [9]
King George III issued this Proclamation on 23 August 1775, in response to the arrival of William Penn in England, carrying Congress's petition for independence. This action officially declared the colonies to be in a state of rebellion.
"Open and avowed rebellion"
Throughout the summer of 1775, King George III urges his ministers to declare the American colonies to be in a state of rebellion. An official statement will allow the military to pursue more aggressive measures against the colonists, and allow the king to punish English supporters of the American cause. On 13 August 1775, William Penn arrives in Bristol, England carrying Congress's petition to the king. George III initially refuses to see Penn or receive the petition. Instead, he issues A Proclamation for Suppressing Rebellion and Sedition on 23 August 1775. News of these developments reaches Congress in the fall, encouraging delegates--and eventually all colonists--to rethink their allegiance to the king.
This is the first book from the trilogy that serve as the inspiration to Netflix’s 3 Body Problem series. Here’s an overview of the 2015 Hugo Award winning novel: [12]
“A mind-bending epic.”—The New York Times • “War of the Worlds for the 21st century.”—The Wall Street Journal • “Fascinating.”—TIME • “Extraordinary.”—The New Yorker • “Wildly imaginative.”—Barack Obama • “Provocative.”—Slate • “A breakthrough book.”—George R. R. Martin • “Impossible to put down.”—GQ • “Absolutely mind-unfolding.”—NPR • “You should be reading Liu Cixin.”—The Washington Post
The Three-Body Problem is the first novel in the groundbreaking, Hugo Award-winning series from China's most beloved science fiction author, Cixin Liu.
Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion. The result is a science fiction masterpiece of enormous scope and vision.
GIF Game
Notes and Sources
[1] "The Rachel Maddow Show - Aug. 18 | Audio Only," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, August 18, 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_Wza8OE_8o
[2] “Declaring a Crime Emergency in the District of Columbia,” Executive Order, The White House, August 11, 2025, https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/08/declaring-a-crime-emergency-in-the-district-of-columbia/
[3] Ted Oberg, “Trump threatens ‘complete and total federal takeover' of DC,” NBC4 Washington, August 22, 2025, https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/trump-threatens-complete-and-total-federal-takeover-of-dc/3978724/
[4] Paul Wagner, “DC police commander suspended, accused of changing crime statistics,” NBC4 Washington, July 18, 2025, https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/dc-police-commander-suspended-crime-statistics/3959566/
[5] Anne Flaherty, “National Guard in DC to carry M17 pistols, conduct law enforcement duties, task force says,” ABC News, August 22, 2025, https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/defense-secretary-hegseth-authorizes-2k-national-guard-troops/story?id=124876085
[6] “FACT: Yes, D.C. Crime Is Out of Control,” press release, The White House, August 11, 2025, https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/08/fact-yes-d-c-crime-is-out-of-control/
[7] “2025 Year-to-Date Crime Comparison,” District Crime Data at a Glance, Metropolitan Police, Washington DC, retrieved August 24, 2025, https://mpdc.dc.gov/dailycrime
[8] Ibid.
[9] Jonathan V. Last, "Trump is LYING About the DC Takeover," The Bulwark, August 18, 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amjErAc2cuY
[10] “By the King, a Proclamation, For suppressing Rebellion and Sedition,” Collections Online, Massachusetts Historical Society, retrieved August 24, 2025, https://www.masshist.org/database/viewer.php?item_id=818&pid=2
[11] “King’s Proclamation for Suppressing Rebellion and Sedition,” History, Art & Archives, United States House of Representatives, retrieved August 24, 2025, https://history.house.gov/HouseRecord/Detail/25769822301
[12] Cixin Liu, The Three-Body Problem, Tor Books, 2014, https://www.amazon.com/Three-Body-Problem-Remembrance-Earths-Past-ebook/dp/B00IQO403K/
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