I am a long-time resident of Dundee, and last Saturday was Dundee Day.

Dundee Day is a slice of Americana.

There was a parade with marching bands, Boy Scouts, politicians, and civic organizations.

The pancake man was there. Parents brought their kids to the duck pond to win a small prize. There was a dunk tank. They had a beer garden with musicians. I saw friends and neighbors that I hadn’t seen since last year’s celebration.

Dundee is not unique. In fact, last weekend, Millard and South Omaha had similar activities. Events like this go on in towns and neighborhoods all across America.

Yes, last Saturday I saw a slice of Americana. A Norman Rockwell kind of scene. It was the exact opposite of the America that Donald Trump and his administration see.

As Dundee and people across the country were celebrating the waning days of summer, Fox News reported the Trump administration is planning to send National Guard troops to the Democratic cities of Chicago and Baltimore, along with Republican states like Nebraska and 18 others.

That’s right. The reports are that the National Guard is coming to the Good Life State. They are already patrolling the streets of Washington, D.C. But they’re not going to stop there.

According to Fox News, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming are in line, along with Nebraska, to have military troops patrolling the streets.

It’s a tale of two countries.

One country is living peacefully with their families. They are getting the kids ready for school and making plans for football season. While the country Trump sees appears to have criminals and immigrants running rampant through the streets, raping women, and selling your kids Fentanyl.

Trump and his cult followers would have you believe they are doing this to fight crime. I don’t believe that is the case. The number of violent crimes in D.C., Chicago, and Baltimore has been on a downward trajectory for some time. Nebraska has relatively low crime rates per 100,000 people compared to the rest of the country.

Yes, there is some crime here, but overall, Nebraska is a peaceful state. However, if Trump sends in the guard to stop crime, does that mean he thinks Governor Pillen is ineffective in keeping our streets safe?

I don’t believe that the guard is being called out to fight crime, but rather they are being mobilized now to normalize the idea of living in a police state.

Little by little, things that would have shocked us years ago don’t seem so shocking anymore. If you can believe social media and conservative news outlets, Cracker Barrel changing its logo is more of a threat to our way of life than soldiers rounding up day workers at Home Depot and locking them up.

As you are probably aware, the ability for a president to call out the guard in any other location but Washington, D.C. is rather limited. The Guard in each state is under the control of their governor. That’s why he’s sending them to red states. He knows these Republican governors, like most Republican politicians, have lost their backbone and will do whatever he demands.

Here in Nebraska, I’ve been told that the Guard has been training for the last week or so. The guardsmen are expected to be activated for three months, with the possibility of having that extended for up to a year.

I have no doubt that if a Democratic president were sending out the guard like this president is, conservative media and Republican politicians would be up in arms, but because it’s their guy, they stay quiet.

Our founding fathers were wise men. In his farewell address to Congress, George Washington warned of the dangers of partisanship. The use of these troops is obviously politically motivated and very partisan.

Benjamin Franklin famously said, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”

We would be wise to heed their words.

If we don’t, a generation from now, that slice of Americana I saw last weekend could have a very different look. Instead of marching bands, Boy Scouts, and civic organizations, we’ll have a parade of tanks, military drones, and armed soldiers.

Tom Becka is a long time Nebraska broadcaster who for over 30 years has been covering Omaha and Midwest issues on both radio and TV. He has been a guest on numerous national cable and news shows, filled in for nationally syndicated talk radio programs and Talkers Magazine has recognized him as one of the Top 100 talk show hosts in the country 10 times. Never afraid to ruffle some feathers, his ‘Becka’s Beat’ commentaries can be found online on Youtube and other digital platforms.

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