As an outside observer, I'd say it's by far not as bad as in Russia yet but they're heading towards a similar model. Due process has already been eroded, prosecution is more selective than ever, there are attempts to criminalize harmless minorities, a large government-controlled police force arrests anyone they want to (including journalists), government-critical press is bought, sued, and intimidated, Congress is held in contempt, court orders are ignored, and the FBI works directly on behalf of the president. That being said, they've still got a long way to go.
>> there are attempts to criminalize harmless minorities
> like what?
Among other minorities, they're going very strongly against transgender people and support groups and try to criminalize them. They're obsessed with transgender people for some reason. For example, Executive Order 14168, Executive Order 14183, Executive Order 14187, Executive Order 14190, Executive Order 14201, and by offering cash bounties to the FBI for "...information leading to the identification and arrest of transgender activists promoting 'radical gender ideology'."[Wikipedia] Pam Bondi described such activists as "domestic terrorist groups."[ibid] There is also a large initiative by the Heritage Foundation to make the FBI classify transgender people in general as domestic terrorists and introduce a new classification they call "Transgender Ideology-Inspired Violence and Extremism" (TIVE).
Why they are so particularly violent against transgender people and so obsessed with that topic is a complex matter. I suppose their hatred for this tiny group is based on a mix of religious fanaticism, Elon Musk's direct influence on the US government, extremely insecure masculinity, the need of Fascism for inventing inner enemies (because it doesn't have any stringent ideology), and the fact that this group is so small and insignificant that they cannot possibly defend themselves - unlike the US gay community, who have a large lobby by now and include people like Peter Thiel.
> identification and arrest of transgender _activists_
This isn't chasing trans, it's looking for people who promote 'radical gender ideology'. It's not activists who support trans either. Emphasis on _radical_ and _ideology_.
"Turn over your state's voter information to the Federal Government for ... reasons, or we'll keep up the ICE raids in your cities that have already led to death and injuries" would be one simple example. Oppression... or extortion... or both.
"We want to suppress voters under some false boogeyman of 'illegal voters'. You are refusing to give us data which we need to do this, so instead, we'll keep ICE in your cities who have been shown to have no issues with escalating violence, until you do."
I struggle to believe you cannot connect those dots.
In addition, why would ICE enforcement in a city go away because voter rolls are turned over? Is illegal immigration in Minnesota a problem worthy of active enforcement or not?
In other words, oppression of citizenry to advance the efforts of a government to suppress voting that it dislikes.
The current administration's "we need your voter rolls" has fuck-all to do with "requiring ID to vote".
> Like in literally every country
As a citizen of Great Britain, Australia and now the US, I'm well aware of this.
And it doesn't change the "you can vote without ID in blue states!" from being the absolute bullshit that it is, and again, has nothing to do with why DHS is demanding voter rolls from blue states.
Ask any minority. Lest you think it will be limited to minorities though, ask Alex Pretti, or even ask the NRA what they think about Trump saying that if he didn’t want to get shot, he shouldn’t have been carrying a gun.
