Trump’s Foreign Policy Philosophy Hard to Pin Down
Masood Farivar, Voice of America
Is President-elect Donald Trump a foreign policy realist or idealist? Is he bringing Richard Nixon’s hard-edged realpolitik to his foreign policy or following in the footsteps of the more idealistic Ronald Reagan?
The question has become a parlor game among Washington's policy pundits.
Trump’s frequent invocation of Reagan’s “peace through strength” mantra and campaign pledge to rebuild America’s “depleted” military has invited comparisons to the Republican icon credited with winning the Cold War.
His advocacy of a foreign policy based on America’s national interests has led some to liken it to Nixonian realism, while his aversion to foreign interventions has won him the label of a non-interventionist and even isolationist.
Don’t Fence Trump In
Trump has professed no great power doctrine and his advisers discourage applying labels to his vision of the world.
“I’m not going to be put into the little academic, graduate school box because I think it doesn’t suit, and it doesn’t apply in a rapidly changing world,” said K.T. McFarland, Trump’s incoming deputy national security adviser, when asked to describe the Trump doctrine.
While Trump’s call for “peace through strength” reflects Reagan’s view of deterrence, “there are parts of Nixon and (Henry) Kissinger that Donald Trump has also advocated,” McFarland said at the U.S. Institute of Peace, alluding to Trump’s interest-based approach to world affairs.
Trump’s Speeches
A foreign policy neophyte, Trump has shied away from declaring any grand foreign strategy during the campaign, though he did give two major speeches devoted to foreign policy and national security.
In the first speech, delivered at the realist-leaning Center for the National Interest in Washington in April, Trump outlined what he called a “coherent foreign policy based on American interests” and called for “getting out of nation building,” creating stability and quashing “radical Islam.”
“Containing the spread of radical Islam must be a major foreign policy goal of the United States and indeed the world,” Trump said. “Events may require the use of military force, but it’s also a philosophical struggle, like our long struggle in the Cold War.”
In the second speech, at Youngstown University in Ohio in August, Trump ratcheted up his rhetoric about terror, warning countries around the world that they’d be judged based on their commitment to the U.S. goal of fighting terrorism.
“All actions should be oriented around this goal, and any country which shares this goal will be our ally,” Trump told a rally of supporters.
‘Strategic Surprise’
It was a theme that Trump would repeat, in one iteration or another, throughout the campaign, but his advisers say Trump’s pre- and post-election pronouncements on foreign policy, often delivered off the cuff, should not be read as policy prescriptions.
“Actually, he didn’t say a lot about foreign policy and national security on the campaign trail, and what he did say really doesn’t add up to a policy,” said James Carafano, director of foreign policy at the conservative Heritage Foundation who advises the Trump transition team on foreign affairs. “That’s very frustrating because the people want to know what’s this guy going to do.”
With the new administration yet to take office, McFarland, too, cautioned that Trump’s foreign policy is in an early stage of development.
“That’s what a new administration does: It takes time to rethink things and to come up with policies,” she said.
If history is any guide, Trump could quickly find himself facing a set of foreign policy crises different from the issues he campaigned on. Political scientists have a term for an unexpected world event that drives a new president into uncharted territory: “strategic surprise.”
For former President George W. Bush, who campaigned on pursuing a “humble foreign policy,” the strategic surprise came September 11, 2001.
For President Barack Obama, who vowed to end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the “Arab Spring” protests in North Africa and the Middle East marked a strategic surprise, leaving his administration more deeply mired in the region than he’d hoped.
What international crisis might alter the trajectory of the Trump administration’s foreign policy agenda has become a guessing game, with the number of scenarios exceeded only by the variety of foreign policy labels attributed to Trump.
A game-changing terrorist attack on American interests is one possible candidate. Another contender: an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) launch by North Korea.
“I think the world is not necessarily going to allow President Trump to do everything he’s planned on,” said Blaise Misztal, director of the national security program at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington. “I think you’re going to see a triangulation between what he’s said, what he’s advised to do, and what is actually feasible on the world stage.”
Flip Flopping on Issues
While Trump has flip flopped on some issues, NATO and torturing terrorists, for example, he’s held steady on others. Among them: terrorism, trade, China and Russia.
In the weeks since his election, he’s reiterated his pledge to make terrorism a focus of his foreign policy, talked tough on trade, challenged the “One China” policy, and iterated again a desire to reset relations with Russia even as he embraced intelligence findings that Moscow interfered in last year’s presidential election.
Brian Katulis of Center for American Progress, a liberal Washington think tank, said the “most radical shift” Trump will likely undertake will be “engagement and involvement” with Russia, something Obama unsuccessfully attempted during his first term in office.
But former CIA director Michael Hayden said Trump is likely to reconsider his approach to Russia once he learns from intelligence agencies and allies that Russia and Syria are not committed to fighting IS.
“I’m personally very, very skeptical of any convergence between American and Russian interests in this part of the world,” Hayden said. “In fact, I’d offer the view that American and Russian interests are actually heading in different directions.”
Another major change: downplaying a postwar American foreign policy tradition of promoting democracy and freedom around the world.
“Trump has signaled as a candidate and in the transition a proclivity to appreciate authoritarian and repressive leaders around the world,” Katulis said. “And this may be the biggest departure that is historic, that there really won’t be as much of a values-based approach that focuses on human rights democracy and freedom in other countries. And that I think puts the United States itself on shaky territory.”
But McFarland played down those concerns, saying “the three bedrocks of (postwar) American foreign policy” — American leadership, American values and international alliances — will remain under the Trump administration.
Unpredictability
There is usually some continuity between administrations on foreign policy, but “that rule actually may not apply under Trump,” Katulis said.
“We’re dealing with something here that is just fundamentally different and off the charts,” Katulis explained.
That 'something' is Trump’s well-known unpredictability. Trump has criticized President Obama for telegraphing his policy moves and has vowed to remain unpredictable. But experts say unpredictability can be dangerous in the international arena where both allies and adversaries expect a certain degree of predictability from the United States.
"Predictability is the cornerstone of deterrence," said Clarke. "You need to be predictable if you’re the United states, both in what your allies know you’ll do and in what your adversaries know you’ll do and how you’ll respond."
Comments
NOW we are getting reports from out of control CBP and INS at various airports around the US apparently going rouge......
The frontrunner for France's presidency weighs in on the incident in Houston airport. A border agent can cause global ripples.
Emmanuel Macron
Verified account
@EmmanuelMacron
There is no excuse for what happened to @Henry_Rousso. Our country is open to scientists and intellectuals. #WelcomeToFrance
Henry Rousso
@Henry_Rousso
I confirm. I have been detained 10 hours at Houston Itl Airport about to be deported. The officer who arrested me was "inexperienced"
The US illegally detained...the professor who taught my undergrad seminar on "The Holocaust in France".
Incomprehensible for US to deport a respected scholar who came to the US to attend a conference in Houston.
AND who is not a Muslim????
This is just how truly disconnected Trump is fro the reality of the world around him.....
The NYTs ad he is tweeting about is in fact supporting "truth vs fake news"...and is intended to drive more to their online service...trump fails to state that the subscriber rates are heavily increasing since Trump's bashing of the NYTs.....
Donald J. Trump
Verified account
@realDonaldTrump 2h
2 hours ago
For first time the failing @nytimes will take an ad (a bad one) to help save its failing reputation. Try reporting accurately & fairly!
Trump does not seem to fully understand the ad itself and if the NYTs subscription rates are off the chart increasesfor a print media MAYBE Trump should think about that....
Since there seems to be no true US FP at the moment other than Trump tweets....the world is now appearing to ignore the US and Trump and goes about what it needs to do to protect themselves from Trump and his tweets...
"Wary of Trump unpredictability, China ramps up naval abilities" -
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-defence-navy-idUSKBN16500P
Former Iran president to Trump: "The contemporary U.S. belongs to all nations"
http://hill.cm/uJgGpZO
THAT so called proRussia Ukrainian peace plan that was handled via Trump's personal lawyer Cohen and Flynn....Trump's personal lawyer seems to be having a really hard time getting his own personal involvement story straight....
He is now at story FIVE......
Natasha Bertrand
✔
@NatashaBertrand
Cohen told me, NYT, NBC, WaPo various versions of "I met with Sater & Artemenko for 15-20 min in NYC hotel." Version 5 now includes dinner.
REMEMBER...initially he denied the meeting ever took place now they had dinner as well....
This is the DHS Intelligence assessment that Trump requested that was to support his legal argument for his second Muslim Ban try and to answer serious questions raised by the 9th Federal Circuit Count that the DoJ could not even provide answers on....
Trump has been rumored to have rejected the DHs assessment as it does not match his own opinion THUS he is rumored to be "shopping for an intel report from somewhere" that supports his views on banning Muslims...
The @AP has posted the full internal DHS document that blows apart the case for Trump's travel ban:
https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3474730/DHS-intelligence-doc…
This intel report is critical as it is DHs that handles immigration.....customs and border controls....and thus directly involved in the day to day world of immigration...
…
Many European leaders from different political parties...have often stated since the 1970s that the US has an inherent ability of using democracy to justify the sliding of the US into a state of "smiling fascism".....
Will Americans submit to despotism in an urge to “escape from freedom”? Erich Fromm saw it coming
http://ow.ly/anXf309lQes
President Donald Trump took his rancorous feud with the press to a frightening new level last week when he posted an inflammatory tweet that echoed tyrants of the past, calling the all-caps “FAKE NEWS” media “the enemy of the American People.”
As many were quick to point out, the phrase “enemy of the people” has a disturbing and violent history, and has long been used by totalitarian dictators to foster resentment and hatred of certain groups, and eventually to crush dissent and opposition. The infamous French revolutionary and Reign of Terror apologist Robespierre declared that the revolutionary government owed “nothing to the enemies of the people but death,” while the term was widely used in Stalinist Russia to single out dissidents, who were either imprisoned, executed or sent to the Gulag (in the end, almost all of the original Bolsheviks became “enemies of the people” during the great purge — which in reality meant enemies of Joseph Stalin).
Needless to say, the fact that President Trump thought it was appropriate to use this incendiary language on the free press — long considered the “bulwark of liberty” — is dangerous and alarming, and just the latest manifestation of the Trump administration’s authoritarian tendencies. Just one month into his term, the president has spent most of his time in public scapegoating and demonizing the free press, blatantly lying and espousing conspiracy theories that undermine faith in the electoral system and displaying his contempt for the idea of separation of powers and judicial review (once again attacking a sitting federal judge).
None of this behavior is particularly surprising for a man who has spent that past two years shattering democratic norms — e.g., threatening to jail his political opponent, encouraging violence against peaceful protesters, publicly sympathizing with oppressive dictators, advocating war crimes and so on.
It is tempting to write this all off as Donald being Donald — an impulsive, thin-skinned little man-child who can’t take any criticism — but that would be a mistake. Trump has surrounded himself with sycophantic enablers and right-wing extremists who appear eager to advance his authoritarian agenda. One of these individuals is the president’s 31-year-old senior adviser, Stephen Miller, a weaselly young man who would be perfectly cast as a Star Wars villain. Last week, Miller made the almost cartoonish assertion that “our opponents, the media and the whole world will soon see as we begin to take further actions, that the powers of the president to protect our country are very substantial and will not be questioned.”
Like the phrase “enemy of the people,” this is the kind of language used by party hacks in a totalitarian state, not a free and democratic society.
Not long ago this kind of rhetoric would have provoked outrage from both sides of the aisle and widespread disapproval from the populace. But today, in our hyper-partisan political landscape, many Americans have instead cheered Trump and his administration’s increasingly dictatorial and undemocratic behavior. This invites the question of whether the American people will stand up to autocracy if and when it comes, and how much of the populace is actually prepared to give up its freedom and submit to a strongman.
Shortly after the election, Yale historian Timothy Snyder, who recently said that we have “at most a year to defend the Republic,” wrote a chilling article in Slate narrating Adolf Hitler’s unexpected rise to power — without once saying his name — to draw parallels with our current historical situation, and to highlight how the German people quickly fell in line once Hitler had consolidated power and established his totalitarian regime.
One of the many brilliant Jewish intellectuals to flee from Germany after Hitler’s rise, philosopher and psychoanalyst Erich Fromm attempted to explain the shocking spread of totalitarianism in his lifetime with his influential and urgent 1941 book, “Escape from Freedom.” This classic investigation into the psychology of authoritarianism can help elucidate some of what is happening today. In the first half of the book, Fromm surveys the profound cultural, economic and political changes that had occurred since the Middle Ages with the Protestant Reformation and the emergence of industrial capitalism, and explores how these shifts impacted the human psyche and the individual’s interaction with the external world.
Fromm posits that industrialization and the rise of liberalism resulted in the “complete emergence” of the individual (i.e., “individuation”), along with newfound freedom, but also upended “primary ties” that had once provided men and women with “security and a feeling of belonging and of being rooted somewhere.” In other words, modernization freed man from traditional authorities that had greatly limited him, but also provided him with security and meaning in life. “Growing individuation,” writes Fromm, “means growing isolation, insecurity, and thereby growing doubt concerning one’s role in the universe, the meaning of one’s life, and with all that a growing feeling of one’s own powerlessness and insignificance as an individual.”
That brings us to Fromm’s powerful thesis:
If the economic, social and political conditions on which the whole process of human individuation depends, do not offer a basis for the realization of individuality … while at the same time people have lost those ties which gave them security, this lag makes freedom an unbearable burden. It becomes identical with doubt, with a kind of life which lacks meaning and direction. Powerful tendencies arise to escape from this kind of freedom into submission or some kind of relationship to man and the world which promises relief from uncertainty, even if it deprives the individual of his freedom.
The crucial point Fromm was trying to get across is that personal freedom may not be enjoyable or even desirable to the individual if it also leaves him or her feeling isolated and powerless, or without any kind of meaning or purpose in life. Like Karl Marx, Fromm believed that capitalism had turned human beings into cogs in a machine, sapping them of their individuality and creativity, and leaving them alienated and susceptible to authoritarian forces.
Fromm distinguished between negative freedom, or the “freedom from” traditional authorities and cultural/social restraints, and the positive “freedom to” live authentically and realize one’s true individual self. If one is granted negative freedom without positive freedom, and thus left uncertain, alone and powerless, he or she may be inclined to escape from freedom and submit to a higher authority. An analogy would be the urge that many adults have felt at least once in their life to return to their mother’s womb, where one is deprived of freedom, but safe from the dangerous and chaotic outside world.
It is not hard to see this psychology at work in modern America, where economic inequality has grown rapidly over the past several decades, where livelihoods have been outsourced or automated and where communities have collapsed due to the forces of globalization and the technological revolution, leaving millions of people desperate and isolated. When these economic factors are combined with other factors, including the perceived dangers facing America (i.e., Islamic terrorism) — which are greatly inflated by the mass media and politicians — and cultural/social shifts over the past few decades, the victory of an authoritarian demagogue like Trump becomes less surprising (as does the fact that Trump supporters are more likely to display authoritarian personality traits).
The danger of the increasingly authoritarian Trump administration is heightened by the growing number of Americans who are now prepared to support a strongman if it means restoring, as it were, “primary ties” that once provided “security and a feeling of belonging and of being rooted somewhere.”
Seventy-five years ago Fromm argued that to counteract this dangerous drive toward authoritarianism, it was necessary to “expand the principle of government of the people, by the people, for the people, from the formal political to the economic sphere.” Democracy, he continued, “will triumph over the forces of nihilism only if it can imbue people with a faith … in life and in truth, and in freedom as the active and spontaneous realization of the individual self.”
Like Bernie Sanders today, Fromm advocated democratic socialism and believed that only a truly democratic society — politically and economically — could stop the dark clouds of despotism. Today, as President Trump rehashes the language of past tyrants, one can only hope that the desire for freedom will triumph over the urge to submit.
Reference the non compliance by ICE...INS and CBP of the Federal Court cease and desist orders against the Trump EO.......
REMEMBER the Trump Muslim Ban was directed against SEVEN largely Muslim countries BUT Trump and his WH stated it was not though a "Muslim Ban"....REALLY????
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/25/muhammad-ali-son-detain…
Border agents detained and questioned the son of the boxing legend Muhammad Ali about his religion when he flew back to the US this month, a family lawyer said.
“Where did you get your name from? Are you a Muslim?” they asked the 44-year-old Muhammad Ali Jr, who was born in Philadelphia and is a US citizen.
When Ali confirmed to immigration officials at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood international airport in Florida that he was a Muslim, they began questioning him about where he was born, family friend and lawyer Chris Mancini told the Courier-Journal newspaper. The questioning lasted for about two hours.
Ali had been at a black history month event in Jamaica with his mother, Khalilah Camacho-Ali. She was allowed to enter the country after producing a photo of herself with her famous ex-husband, who died last year, but her son had nothing to prove his link to the boxer.
The 7 February incident was the first time the family had been detained or questioned in this way, despite regular international travel, Mancini said.
They consider it religious profiling linked to President Donald Trump’s campaign promise to bring in a “Muslim ban” and his now-suspended executive order banning citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the US.
“To the Ali family, it’s crystal clear that this is directly linked to Mr Trump’s efforts to ban Muslims from the United States,” Mancini said, adding that they were trying to find out how many others faced similar questioning, and were contemplating filing a federal lawsuit.
“Imagine walking into an airport and being asked about your religion,” Mancini told the paper. “This is classic customs profiling.”
Ali’s is the latest in a string of complaints about US immigration controls after the inauguration of Trump.
The former prime minister of Norway was held for nearly an hour at Washington Dulles airport earlier this month and questioned over a visit to Iran three years ago, which he had made to speak at a human rights conference.
Meanwhile, the best-selling Australian children’s book author Mem Fox has suggested she might never return to the US after she was detained and insulted by border control agents at Los Angeles international airport. The 70-year-old said she was left “sobbing like a baby” after two hours of questioning while on her way to a conference.
A British Muslim schoolteacher travelling to New York last week as a member of a school party from south Wales was denied entry to the US. The foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, had previously claimed the US government had committed to allowing all UK passport holders to enter the country.
BLUF...YES ICE...INS and CBP are directly questioning US citizens who hold a valid US Passport....
BUT WAIT..this individual was definitely not from the SEVEN banned Muslim countries was he BUT he did have a Muslim name and that is not racial profiling????
Another billionaire behind the "people's revolts" of Brexit & Trump...
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/feb/26/us-billionaire-mercer-…
Five reasons why Russian propaganda works [GER] - @steffendobbert for @zeitonline_pol
Sorry in German.
http://www.zeit.de/politik/ausland/2017-02/falschmeldungen-fake-news-ru…
EU Mythbusters
✔
@EUvsDisinfo
We've shown you many times how a disinformation gets amplified by the pro-Kremlin machine. See another case study:
http://www.zeit.de/politik/2017-02/fake-news-emanuel-macron-russia-hist…
In English also in German.
Does Trump's tweets and public statements actually support Russian disinformation and or propaganda attacks on the US and Europe OR does the Russian infowarfare actually support Trump????
A very interesting question when one actually takes the time to analyze the Russian infowarfare as it is released into the 24 hour news cycles and on social media...
EU Mythbusters
Verified account
@EUvsDisinfo Feb 24
"Unemployed murderers from no-go zones". This is how pro-Kremlin outlets see #Sweden:
http://eepurl.com/cDe2YT
NOTICE if one takes the time just how these Russian released infowarfare articles make it into the US right wing social media sites AND lands then in FOX News...
NOTICE even Trump admitted his Swedish comments started with a FOX News article that was later proven to be false....
THEN a leading right wing blog site offered to fly journalists to Malmo to verify the FOX News article....
AND in the end the Swedish government themselves called out both FOX News and Trump......for pushing fake news comments...
Washington Post
✔
@washingtonpost
Trump is upset the media is not reporting a meaningless statistic about the national debt
http://wapo.st/2mi7CS6
Donald J. Trump
Verified account
@realDonaldTrump 7h
7 hours ago
The media has not reported that the National Debt in my first month went down by $12 billion vs a $200 billion increase in Obama first mo.
AND Trump is not violating the Emolument clause of the US Constitution....??
Kuwait could pay up to $60,000 for party at Trump Hotel in Washington
http://reut.rs/2mieVJu
Making a profit for his businesses as President of the US..AND that is what "draining the swamp"....
Prayforsweden
Trump's wrong, it's 'quiet and safe' in Malmo
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39074420
Trump Is Attempting to Politicize American Intelligence Agencies - The Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/02/the-high-cost-of-p…
How @realDonaldTrump went from planting stories to being obsessively freaked out by a media he can't control
https://nyti.ms/2lGZEAq
By a 53-25% margin, Americans want to see Congress investigate contact between Trump's team and Russia.
http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/majority-americans-say-congr…
The dominoes are falling.
Issa no doubt is making a political calculation. He faces a tough re-elect in 2018.
But that's a big crack in the wall. More to come?
I can't recall, wasn't there a POTUS who had to resign after trying to interfere with DOJ's independence in the context of an investigation?
Trump is now becoming delusional.....when he had his own inaugural he claimed for weeks it would be the largest and best ever seen....
THEN he tweeted in rage that the fake news had underreported the numbers and they were ALL the way back to the Washington Memorial....REMEMBER all that tweet chatter and then he was disproved...
THEN yesterday he stated there were six blocks of people waiting to get into an invitation only CPAC ONLY there was no one outside when journalists took photos to disprove Trump....
THEN all those flag wavers in Florida when he flew back to DC....that no one ever saw ..........
THEN the day after his inaugural one of the largest ever Women's demonstrations against Trump rolled into DC and that was verified...AND it even included women supporting ProLife who joined in......
Donald J. Trump
Verified account
@realDonaldTrump 1h
1 hour ago
Maybe the millions of people who voted to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN should have their own rally. It would be the biggest of them all!
Donald J. Trump
Verified account
@realDonaldTrump 10h
10 hours ago
FAKE NEWS media knowingly doesn't tell the truth. A great danger to our country. The failing @nytimes has become a joke. Likewise @CNN. Sad!
THE SAD thing is this President does not seem to even realize he is constantly lying AND that alone is dangerous.....
Why Women Should Risk More…
Why Women Should Risk More Rejection in Dating
The New Double Standard Being Used Against Women
It’s About Time: The New Reverse Double Standard
The Sexual Double Standard Cuts Both Ways
Demanding More From Your Hookups
Channeling Sex and the City is Not a Winning Dating Strategy
First the Trump WH came for the free press...then they came for the judiciary.....then they came for free speech...then the destruction of the 1st Amendment.....
REMEMBER Bannon as an avowed Leninist stated he wanted to destroy the "establishment"...THEN at CPAC he stated he wants the deconstruction of the total government.....
BUT WAIT...AND what are the Republican Governors doing as well to support the Trump rhetoric of "those paid thugs and professional demonstrators"... ...some in Europe are saying this is just America sliding straight into fascism with a smile on their faces..not the America that for years sworn the mantra of rule of law...good governance and transparency.....
Republican lawmakers introduce bills to curb protesting in at least 18 States
By Christopher Ingraham February 24 at 11:37 AM
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/02/24/republican-lawma…
QUOTE
Since the election of President Trump, Republican lawmakers in at least 18 states have introduced or voted on legislation to curb mass protests in what civil liberties experts are calling “an attack on protest rights throughout the states.”
From Virginia to Washington state, legislators have introduced bills that would increase punishments for blocking highways, ban the use of masks during protests, indemnify drivers who strike protesters with their cars and, in at least once case, seize the assets of people involved in protests that later turn violent. The proposals come after a string of mass protest movements in the past few years, covering everything from police shootings of unarmed black men to the Dakota Access Pipeline to the inauguration of Trump.
Some are introducing bills because they say they're necessary to counter the actions of “paid” or “professional” protesters who set out to intimidate or disrupt, a common accusation that experts agree is largely overstated. “You now have a situation where you have full-time, quasi-professional agent-provocateurs that attempt to create public disorder,” said Republican state senator John Kavanagh of Arizona in support of a measure there that would bring racketeering charges against some protesters.
Protests erupt across the U.S. after Trump signs travel ban
Play Video1:31
Protesters in cities across the nation rallied against President Trump's executive order banning U.S. entry for refugees, migrants and foreign nationals for 120 days. Here's a look at some of the protests that took place in airports and city squares across the U.S. after the order was signed. (Dalton Bennett, Erin Patrick O'Connor, Elyse Samuels, Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)
Others, like the sponsors of a bill in Minnesota, say the measures are necessary to protect public safety on highways. Still other bills, in states like Oklahoma and South Dakota, are intended to discourage protesting related to oil pipelines.
Democrats in many of these states are fighting the legislation. They cite existing laws that already make it a crime to block traffic, the possibility of a chilling effect on protests across the political spectrum, and concerns for protesters’ safety in the face of aggressive motorists.
None of the proposed legislation has yet been passed into law, and several bills have already been shelved in committee.
Critics doubt whether many of the laws would pass Constitutional muster. “The Supreme Court has gone out of its way on multiple occasions to point out that streets, sidewalks and public parks are places where [First Amendment] protections are at their most robust,” said Lee Rowland, a senior attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union.
This is by no means the first time in American history that widespread protests have inspired a legislative backlash, says Douglas McAdam, a Stanford sociology professor who studies protest movements. “For instance, southern legislatures — especially in the Deep South — responded to the Montgomery Bus Boycott (and the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education) with dozens and dozens of new bills outlawing civil rights groups, limiting the rights of assembly, etc. all in an effort to make civil rights organizing more difficult,” he said via email.
“Similarly,” he added, “laws designed to limit or outlaw labor organizing or limit labor rights were common in the late 19th/early 20th century.”
The ACLU’s Rowland says the new bills are not about “creating new rules that are necessary because of some gap in the law.” She points out, for instance, that “every single city and county in the United States” already has laws on the books against obstructing traffic on busy roads.
Rather, Rowland says the laws’ intent is “increasing the penalties for protest-related activity to the point that it results in self-censorship among protesters who have every intention to obey the law.”
Even the accusations of “paid” or “professional” agitators, which Trump has promoted, have been leveled at protesters before.
“This is standard operating procedure for movement opponents,” Stanford’s McAdam said. “Civil rights workers were said to be ‘outside agitators, and the tea party was dismissed as an ‘AstroTurf’ phenomenon — funded from on high by the Koch brothers and others — rather than a legitimate ‘grass roots’ movement. In all these cases, including the present, the charges are generally bogus, with the vast majority of protesters principled individuals motivated by the force of deeply held values and strong emotion.”
But now, social media has made it possible to organize larger protests more rapidly than ever before. “The older laws are becoming less effectual in dealing with these kind of groups,” said Michael Heaney of the University of Michigan, a political sociologist who studies protest movements. On top of that, “the courts have said, ‘Look, the people have a right to protest in this way.’ ” So on some level the new legislation represents an attempt by lawmakers to catch up with new realities of 21st-century protesting.
Here’s a list of laws that have been introduced or voted on since the election.
Arizona
Arizona’s bill, introduced this week, would open up protests to anti-racketeering legislation, targeting protesters with the same laws used to combat organized crime syndicates. It would also allow police to seize the assets of anyone involved in a protest that at some point becomes violent. It recently passed the state Senate on a party-line vote and is now before the House.
Colorado
A bill under consideration in Colorado would strengthen penalties for “tampering” with oil and gas equipment. It’s intended to prevent activists from shutting off pipelines, a tactic that’s been used in other states.
Florida
A bill introduced by Republican George Gainer in the Florida Senate this month would provide criminal penalties for protesters obstructing traffic and exempt drivers from liability if they struck a protester under certain conditions. It was filed this week, and if enacted would take force on July 1.
Georgia
A "Back the Badge" bill recently passed by the Georgia Senate increases penalties for blocking "any highway, street, sidewalk or other public passage." The bill is sponsored by six Republican senators.
Iowa
A bill supported by nine Republican sponsors would make protesters who intentionally block highways subject to felony charges and up to five years in prison. The bill’s lead sponsor told the Des Moines Register it was introduced in response to a November incident in which a protest Trump shut down part of Interstate 80 in Iowa.
Indiana
An Indiana Senate committee recently toned down a bill that would have allowed police to shut down highway protests using “any means necessary.” The current version allows police to issue fines for such behavior.
Michigan
A Michigan bill voted on late last year would have increased fines for certain “mass picketing” behavior, and made it easier for courts to shut down such demonstrations.
Minnesota
Bills under consideration in Minnesota would increase fines for protesters blocking highways and airports. A separate measure before the legislature would make it possible for jurisdictions to charge protesters for the costs of policing the protests.
Missouri
A Republican lawmaker has introduced legislation that would make it illegal for protesters to wear masks, robes or other disguises during protests deemed to be illegal.
Mississippi
A bill before the Mississippi legislature would make obstruction of traffic a felony punishable by a $10,000 fine and a five-year prison sentence.
North Carolina
A North Carolina Republican has pledged to introduce legislation making it a crime to “threaten, intimidate or retaliate against” current or former state officials, in response to an incident involving the heckling of Gov. Pat McCrory. The Senator proposing the legislation, Dan Bishop, confirmed via email that he still intends to introduce the legislation, perhaps as early as next week, after consulting with potential co-sponsors.
North Dakota
A number of North Dakota bills have been introduced in response to the long-standing protests there against the Dakota Access Pipeline. The measure that drew the most attention was a bill that would have removed penalties for motorists who strike protesters with their car in some circumstances. That bill failed to make it out of the House, but a number of other measures increasing penalties for certain types of protest action are advancing through the legislature.
Oklahoma
Inspired by pipeline protests in North Dakota, the Oklahoma legislature is considering a bill that would increase penalties for trespassing on certain pieces of “critical infrastructure” like pipelines and railways.
Oregon
A novel piece of legislation in Oregon would require public community colleges and universities to expel any student convicted of participating in a violent riot.
South Dakota
A Senate panel in South Dakota recently approved a bill that would increase penalties for certain acts of trespassing and blocking highways. It’s a response to pipeline protests in North Dakota, and to the potential for similar protests in South Dakota if the Keystone XL pipeline gets built.
Tennessee
A Tennessee Republican wants drivers to be protected from liability if they inadvertently strike a protester who is blocking a roadway.
Virginia
A Virginia bill that would have increased penalties for people who refused to leave the scene of a riot or unlawful protest died in the state Senate last month. The bill had been requested by law enforcement.
Washington state
Washington lawmakers are considering a bill to increase penalties for people blocking highways and railways, acts that the bill's sponsor has characterized as “economic terrorism.”
Trump supporter: Trump-Russia probe requires a special prosecutor - NOT Sessions!
http://ln.is/www.politico.com/sto/Gztw7
Russian election interference was just not in the US.....BUT WAIT...Trump really never did truly condemn the Russian interference did he????
BUT he did at a rally call out to Russia to find the so called missing Clinton emails and WikiLeaks then helped out....
UK officials think Russia may have interfered with Brexit vote
http://www.businessinsider.com/labour-mp-ben-bradshaw-suspicious-russia…?
Black/dark money supporting the Brexit side are now coming to light in recent UK investigations....
France's Hollande fires back at Trump over Paris comments
http://reut.rs/2mhHF5a
French President Francois Hollande fired back at Donald Trump on Saturday after the U.S. president remarked in a speech that a friend thought "Paris is no longer Paris" after attacks by Islamist militants.
Hollande said Trump should show support for U.S. allies.
"There is terrorism and we must fight it together. I think that it is never good to show the smallest defiance toward an allied country. I wouldn't do it with the United States and I'm urging the U.S. president not to do it with France," Hollande said.
"I won't make comparisons but here, people don't have access to guns. Here, you don't have people with guns opening fire on the crowd simply for the satisfaction of causing drama and tragedy," Hollande said, responding to questions during a visit at the Paris Agric fair.
During a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday, Trump repeated his criticism of Europe's handling of attacks by Islamist militants saying a friend "Jim" no longer wanted to take his family to Paris.
Russian state media: "@WhiteHouse confirms US government will not investigate Trump-Russia links" 《《《 err, that's not how USA works. Yet.
Recall alert: 2 sources (one of them DUMA member) who published news of GRU change have since deleted stories.. something odd happening
..@iponomarev was one of the sources but has since deleted his FB post and tweet.
This story was tied to the so called no Russian connections to the Trump WH...they had indicated yes there were early in this particular news cycle....
Trump WH Press Corp......Greetings from even Belarus...EVEN Thailand is getting into the act now.
Greetings from Belarus, @POTUS where even "Europe's last dictator" allows all journalists to his pressers!
Brian Klaas
✔
@brianklaas
Last week, I, an American, got lectured by a military junta in Thailand about freedom of the press.
This is where we are at as a country.
NOW even the Israeli's are seeing the Trump DPA Gorka being a neo white nationalist anti Semitic
For a Trump WH which appears to be controlled by the far right anti Semitic side of American politics Trump has a long at to go to distance himself...that is if he really is that distant....if one listens to his rallies he used ever dog whistle of racism and anti-Semitic slogans there are in the political book....
The well-walked bridges between a top Trump aide and Hungary's anti-Semitic far right
http://www.haaretz.com/us-news/1.773663
BUT WAIT...Gorka came as a former Editor from Breitbart.com just as Bannon did....which is a white nationalist anti Semitic blogsite claiming to be "real journalists and a real news media outlet"....
The global image of the US as the defender of free press and freedom of speech took a major PR hit yesterday at the hands of the Trump WH....
Places where the BBC has been banned: North Korea, Zimbabwe, Myanmar, Uzbekistan, Rwanda, China and the White House:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/white-house-blocks-new…
As more and more of these types of Trump actions make it to Europe..many Europeans are now simply writing off anything the US says....
Many are saying...is the US marching to the tune of ethno fascism????
Typical comment....this is what they see Trump actually doing....
"There will be many damaging revelations about me in the days and weeks to come, and I need to pre-emptively delegitimize their source."
Does anyone inside the Trump WH simply do a simply QA of anything being sent out of the WH via social media????
Yesterday Russian flags are being waved with Trump written on them and VP sent out a tweet praising Israel with the supposedly Israeli flag WHICH turned out to be the NICARAGUAN flag.
True professionalism?????
THEN yesterday at CPAC Trump talks about his friend Jim who claims Paris is a chaos just as there was chaos in Sweden and the French now want to know what Trump supposedly knows that those living in Paris do not know????
THEN we had at FOX a so called Swedish security specialist that was neither a Swede nor a security specialist....
Trump needs to fully understand this JFK statement as he continues his "war" with the "enemy of the people"...the Fourth Estate of American democracy.....
QUOTE
"For nation that's afraid to let its people judge the truth & falsehood in open market is nation that's afraid of its people"
JFK
AND believe me Trump is afraid of the "people" learning that he is a corrupt fraud of a so called great businessman and one who has deep ties to Russian oligarch money..
Mexico is also indicating that they will swing away long term from US trading and focus more on expanding their EU and China trade preferences...and both the EU and China have signaled they will work with Mexico....
Thus more lost US jobs....
Trump does not truly appreciated the depth and strength of globalization in allowing countries to swing their trade markets to other areas...
Mexico warns US over border wall funding
BBC News
Mexico has warned the US against imposing a unilateral tax on Mexican imports to finance a border wall, saying it could respond in kind.
Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray said the government could place tariffs on selected goods from US states reliant on exports to Mexico.
The president has proposed to levy a 20% tax on Mexican imports to pay for a border wall.
In a radio interview on Friday, Mr Videgeray said that "Mexico believes in free trade", but "would have to respond" if the US tried to fund a border wall by imposing a tax on Mexican imports.
"What we cannot do is remain with our arms crossed," he said.
"Mexico will face this as a reality and not just as a rhetorical threat because we have realised that rhetorical threats come and go."
According to reports, the foreign minister has previously identified states including Iowa, Texas and Wisconsin as possible targets for retaliatory tariffs.
Mexico is by far the top destination for Texan exports, with goods worth $92.4bn exported there in 2015, according to the US Department of Commerce.
The wall is a sensitive political subject in Mexico. President Enrique Pena Nieto cancelled a trip to meet Mr Trump last month over the dispute and has said Mexico will not fund the wall.
On Thursday US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly met their Mexican counterparts in Mexico City.
Neither side made any mention of the wall in Thursday's news conference after their closed-door meetings.
BLUF....the Mexicans are not bluffing on their proposed US tariffs....especially corn coming from Iowa a main Trump supporting state...
Iowa corn growers stated they though Mexico could not find substitute suppliers...BUT with an overage of production in corn right now world wide...several other major non US countries have offered to step in and provide Mexico with cheaper than US corn supply prices...forcing Iowa to find now global markets which is a tough haul due to cheap prices and corn over production worldwide....with a coming predicted bad growing season due to climate change that Trump claims does not exist...
BLUF...another looming Trump FP self made twitter FP disaster...
A great explanation of the Putin tactical and long term strategic moves he is making...from a former US NATO General who fully understands what Putin is doing.....highly suggest the Trump WH read it.
Former NATO Commander Breedlove: Putin Feels Emboldened
http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/natosource/former-nato-commander-b…
Suspect McMaster's has already read it.....
Another Russian in your face direct challenge to Trump/Bannon/Miller and Gorka WH....nothing but silence comes back...absolutely right now no Trump definable Russian FP is to be seen....anywhere.....
No even comments yet out of the new NSA McMaster....
A well known member of Russian Duma says, after recognizing documents of "DNR/LNR" Russia might give them full military assistance
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=J-pyYsQDvjE
THIS is in fact a Russian quasi defacto annexation of eastern Ukraine and Trump says absolutely nothing...
Trump is simply disingenuous when he bashes MSM at CPAC for being dishonest and lying and using "unnamed sources" WHEN he himself has also do it in the past...which he seems to have continently forgotten...
The story of @realDonaldTrump old spokesman, John Barron — who was actually Trump himself...
http://ln.is/washingtonpost.com/Gy5q6
Something that SWJ commenters and readers should actually know and it is startling similar......
Now Trump White House bans selected media from briefing. Putin began his rule with an assault on Russia media
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39085235
REMEMBER...when the Trump spokesperson was directly asked..."will you tolerate critical reporting"...his response was what again....
"free press is critical for a democracy"..if it does not exist then we are on the road to a dictatorship....
NOW here is a FP move that Trump could throw the" entire force and weight of the US Government"....at.......notice just how it seems to not be noticed by Trump.....
North Korea evades sanctions with network of overseas companies: U.N. report
http://reut.rs/2mvmI2u
Let's see all the recent Trump Presidential promises that he has released into the media news cycles.....
1. He threatened to bring in the Feds to end the Chicago killings
2. He has promised to build his wall and remove illegal immigrants but in the process the US economy will take a major hit for the next ten years...
3. He is going to bring MILLIONS of jobs to the US...but the US economy is currently running at near to full employment
4. He is going to send all those "bad dudes" back to Mexico...
5. He threatened to cut university funds for UC Berkeley for their blocking of a white nationalist speech who openly supports pedophiles.....
5. At CPAC he promised to end drug smuggling BUT failed to talk about all the illegal money laundering US banks and companies do for the Mexican cartels and all those illegal weapons going to Mexico making millions for US illegal arms dealers....
6. NOW this promise when the entire world's combined police forces have barely dented the problem...
Donald J. Trump
Verified account
@realDonaldTrump
Trump vows to fight 'epidemic' of human trafficking
He then stated he will bring the "full force and weight of the US Government against the problem"....
BUT WAIT...the "full force and weight" will be involved in tossing out an estimated 11M illegals....and watching the new border wall.....
Trump was yesterday at CPAC the victim of the world's first actual "true flag" attack...as opposed to "false flag attack"...because in this particular case the flag was the actual Russian flag....
1000 were distributed and waved at CPAC by CPAC attendees without a single CPACE attendee realizing it was the Russian flag.....well at least the Russian flag has the colors red...white and blue in it...
Perfect example of just how well educated CPACE attendees are...it took the social media alert to push the WH aides to "discover the mistake"...
US "suddenly" bars Syrian behind "White Helmets" nominated film from attending Oscars
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. immigration authorities are barring entry to a 21-year-old Syrian cinematographer who worked on a harrowing film about his nation's civil war, "The White Helmets," that has been nominated for an Academy Award.
According to internal Trump administration correspondence seen by The Associated Press, the Department of Homeland Security has decided at the last minute to block Khaled Khateeb from traveling to Los Angeles for the Oscars.
Khateeb was scheduled to arrive Saturday in Los Angeles on a Turkish Airlines flight departing from Istanbul. But his plans have been upended after U.S. officials reported finding "derogatory information" regarding Khateeb.
Derogatory information is a broad category that can include anything from terror connections to passport irregularities. Asked for comment, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, Gillian Christensen, said, "A valid travel document is required for travel to the United States."
"The White Helmets," a 40-minute Netflix documentary, has been nominated for Best Documentary Short. If the film wins the Oscar, the award would go to director Orlando von Einsiedel and producer Joanna Natasegara. Khateeb is one of three people credited for cinematography; Franklin Dow is the film's director of photography.
The film focuses on the rescue workers who risk their lives to save Syrians affected by civil war. Many of the group's members have been killed by Syrian President Bashar Assad's air forces. The group also was nominated for last year's Nobel Peace Prize.
"The White Helmets" includes emblematic scenes of the deadly 6-year-old conflict: people digging through destroyed homes looking for survivors, at constant risk of "double tap" attacks that target first responders after they've arrived at the scene of a strike.
Khateeb had been issued a visa to attend the ceremony with Hollywood's biggest stars. But Turkish authorities detained him this week, according to the internal U.S. government correspondence, and he suddenly needed a passport waiver from the United States to enter the country.
The correspondence indicated he would not receive such a waiver. There was no explanation in the correspondence for why Turkey detained Khateeb.
AND FOX just continues to support those lies...
toomas hendrik ilves
Verified account
@IlvesToomas 6h
6 hours ago
Fake Sweden expert on Fox News – has criminal convictions in US, no connection to Swedish security - DN.SE
dn.se/nyheter/varlden/fake-sweden-expert-on-fox-news-has-criminal-convictions-in-us-no-connection-to-swedish-security/
Telling from "The Moscow Times"........
"Trump is Kremlin’s puppet" — Editor in chief of @MoscowTimes
https://www.rawstory.com/2017/02/trump-is-kremlins-puppet-russian-edito…
Dan Rather slams Trump’s fake news attacks: ‘Americans are getting tired of the tirades’
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/02/dan-rather-slams-trumps-fake-news-attac…
Daniel Baer
Verified account
@danbbaer I spent yrs calling on the Chinese govt to let US journalists do their job
Never thought I'd have to call on my own
Former US ambassador to OSCE
Even more Russian connections..this time with the NRA....
Article on Sheriff Clarke's expensive Dec 2015 trip to Russia and how Russia is working with the NRA
https://thinkprogress.org/nra-and-russian-cousin-18f607d40240#.z72sy0nnd
Trump claims at CPAC that he hates unnamed sources....BUT WAIT....
Trump himself used unnamed sources...
Donald J. Trump
Verified account
@realDonaldTrump
An 'extremely credible source' has called my office and told me that @BarackObama's birth certificate is a fraud.
If Trump cannot take the heat of the kitchen then quit the kitchen and go home....
I never thought I'd see the day the White House denied access to US media outlets STILL welcome at press conferences in Beijing and Moscow.
Trump the gift that just keeps giving for use in Russian propaganda directed straight at the heart of US democracy....
From my monitoring of Russian media....
Russian media are covering this story with feigned outrage and difficult-to-contain jubilation.
The propaganda gift of Trump keeps on giving.