ArcaMax

SAN DIEGO -- What does political analysis sound like when it comes from Generation X? For one thing, it can be set to 80s music.

Talking Heads probably hoped that a Trump presidency was a trauma that Americans would only have to experience Once in a Lifetime.

No such luck. The sequel isn't even six months old, and already, many critics agree, it's a stinker.

Just look at occupied LA. The second-largest city in the country is beginning its second month of an invasion by the federal government.

If you think the word "invasion" is hyperbole, you should watch videos from the assault this week in MacArthur Park in downtown Los Angeles. U.S. Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on horseback joined federalized National Guard troops in armored trucks to terrorize mothers and children.

Mayor Karen Bass compared it to a "military operation" and said her city was "under siege."

Borrowing from David Byrne, lead singer of the iconic band, Talking Heads:

And you may find yourself living in a nativist nightmare

And you may find yourself without civil liberties due to your skin color

And you may find yourself shoved by unidentified masked men into a civilian vehicle with out-of-state license plates

And you may find yourself battling fascism with no rights at all

And you may ask yourself, "Well, how did I get here?"

By my count, at least five factors brought us to this point.

-- Bureaucratic job insecurity. Interim ICE Director Todd Lyons desperately wants to keep his job unlike his predecessor Caleb Vitello who was fired in February, just one month into the new administration, because Trump said Vitello wasn't deporting enough people.

-- Racism. The immigration crackdown is driven by ethnic anxiety, the war on diversity and a fear that changing demographics will result in the displacement (or replacement) of white people, a cohort that has grown accustomed to being on top.

-- Anonymity. In the same way that social media trolls revel in the fact that no one knows their identity, the fact that law enforcement officers and those who impersonate them are not wearing badges or IDs appears to be encouraging behavior that is brutish and disrespectful.

-- The quota. Border czar Tom Homan and Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller have set an impossibly high daily quota of 3,000 arrests, which can only be met if U.S. Border Patrol and ICE agents break the rules and maybe even break the law.

-- Gavin Newsom. Trump hates the California kid with the heat of a Death Valley summer. The president sees a handsome and charismatic rival who is a skilled communicator and campaigner. Trump's war on the state's largest city is a proxy war on California and its governor.

It has all come together in a stew of chaos, trauma, fear and profiling with a pinch of authoritarianism. And the pot is about to boil over.

Meanwhile, from Congress to the Middle East to the Supreme Court, the mad king is winning. Trump has really taken to heart what one of his predecessors -- former President Bill Clinton -- said about how it's better to be wrong but strong than right but weak.

Trump likes to come across as strong, but he is often wrong. He'll never admit that he made a mistake, yet he seems to acknowledge his errors with every flip-flop. He didn't see the value of the North American Treaty Organization until he did. He talks a good game about imposing punitive tariffs on nations that are friends and allies, but he keeps pushing back the start date. And he is solidly in favor of deporting undocumented immigrants -- all of whom he considers criminals -- unless they work for farms, hotels or restaurants. If you don't like Trump's position on any issue, just give it a couple of days.

But if Trump is winning, why does it feel every day as if America is losing? For those of you keeping score at home, even though Trump hasn't even been in office for six months yet, our losses are staggering. Here's a partial list: our respect for the Constitution, our federalist system which protects the local autonomy of cities and states, our reliance on judicial review which gives the federal courts the power to oversee Congress and the White House and our tradition as an immigrant nation and safe haven.

Trump and his MAGA posse are determined to save America. What a pity if, in the process, they destroy everything about the place that made it worth saving.

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To find out more about Ruben Navarrette and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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