Ironically In 1876, Hayes was elected president in one of the most contentious elections in national history. He lost the popular vote to Democrat Samuel J. Tilden but he won an intensely disputed electoral college vote after a Congressional commission awarded him twenty contested electoral votes. The result was the Compromise of 1877, in which the Democrats acquiesced to Hayes's election and Hayes ended all U.S. military involvement in Southern politics. (from Wikipedia)
I don’t feel about writing an long history article about this, but the mere fact that I had to look this up is sobering, to say the least, appalling to say a bit more, and chilling to really lay it out the way it is.
The question is whether or not Trump could federalize the national guard to do his will inside the country.
The answer is that only governors can activate the guard to enforce the law. I thought this was the fact but had to look it up:
The Posse Comitatus Act is a United States federal law (18 U.S.C. § 1385, original at 20 Stat. 152) signed on June 18, 1878 by President Rutherford B. Hayes. The purpose of the act – in concert with the Insurrection Act of 1807 – is to limit the powers of the federal government in using federal military personnel to enforce domestic policies within the United States. It was passed as an amendment to an army appropriation bill following the end of Reconstruction, and was subsequently updated in 1956 and 1981. en.wikipedia.org/…
In doing a little research I discovered that federal troop were actually employed during the Hayes administration in 1887, a year prior to the Posse Comitatus Act. They were used to put down the Great Railroad Strike.For history buffs there’s a lot of information about it here. Suffice to say, as the picture on the right shows, it wasn’t a pretty picture.
Those of us who were aware of the shootings at Kent State know what can happen when the forces of “law and order” feel they have the license to use deadly force. I will spare you the iconic Pulitzer Prize winning picture from May, 4, 1970. You can see it here. If you’re too young to remember this, it was the seminal domestic event that lead to student strikes across the United States. If you’re my age and were in college at the time, as a Kos reader, I expect you participated in them.
Again, I don’t want to sensationalize this article, but reading these first person accounts in light of the election of Donald Trump brings on in me a sense of foreboding.
Monday, Nov 14, 2016 · 2:22:26 AM +00:00
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HalBrown
Thank you to those who took the poll. I wonder if Kos knows the age demographic of readers. This better informs me when I write. It is good to know most of you are old enough to remember the Vietnam War era, and some even the fight for civil rights starting in the 1960’s and continuing to this day. There is a lot of wisdom among readers and contributors.
