In the last few days, drones have reportedly been spotted over Fort Lesley J. McNair, in Washington, DC, where Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth live. Officials are worried, and so am I, though for different reasons.
Did you know our secretary of state and secretary of defense live on an army base?
And they’re not the only ones.
Pam Bondi, Stephen Miller, and other senior Trump officials have moved into military housing. Tulsi Gabbard and Russell Vought are browsing the available housing, but have not moved yet. One more senior official, unidentified, has been advised to move by security officials.
The official excuse is that they face threats from a range of purported foes, including, we are told, cartels, foreign adversaries, and protesters.
But I can’t help feeling we’re not getting the real story. And, frankly, what that might be chills me.
Why does a king (and his courtiers) go into his castle and pull up the drawbridge?
Because they see themselves as besieged — or are planning to do something they know will cause them to be besieged.
Harvard professor Steven Levitsky — an expert on threats to democracies — made this sobering observation:
It is something you never see in a democracy. Government officials live on military bases or other sort of fortified zones [only] in authoritarian regimes.
In authoritarian regimes.
Coming at a time when fair elections are openly threatened and our constitutionally guaranteed freedoms challenged at every turn, when we see this group withdraw to a hardened inner sanctum, we’d better be paying close attention.
But thus far little attention has been paid to this matter, and what it may mean.
Hellbound and Down 