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FBI agents are patrolling the streets of Washington D.C. The National Guard has been mobilized via text message. The president has seized control of the city’s police. The nation’s capital is becoming a laboratory for the president’s vision for U.S. cities. We are witnessing authoritarian consolidation — not the rise or threat of fascism, but its enactment. Many people are understandably voicing alarm. In fact, it’s clear that alarm is all some people have to offer, including Democratic leaders.

On Bluesky, Democratic Senator Adam Schiff posted, “Don’t look away. Don’t stay silent. If you do, don’t be surprised if it’s your city next.” While this rhetoric seems to acknowledge the severity of the moment, that’s about all it does. Coming from a sitting senator in the alleged opposition party, it’s insulting. Trump is seizing upon the nation’s capital, and this is what the Democrats have to offer? Rather than enacting or even outlining their own plan to resist Trump, Schiff tells us to watch what’s happening and talk about it. If we don’t, he warns, we could be next. However, watching and talking will not insulate any of us from the spread of Trump’s authoritarian violence. The only service Schiff provides here is a reminder that waiting for “someone” with institutional power to “do something” in our defense is not an option. There is no plan. The Democrats are not coming to save us. If we want to get through this, and protect as many people as we can, we are going to have to do more than watch and talk.

Trump’s D.C. takeover was preceded by an incident in which former DOGE staffer Edward “Big Balls” Coristine was allegedly beaten up by two teenagers. Last week, Trump posted a photo of the bloodied 19-year-old on social media and threatened to take “federal control of the city and run this city how it should be run.” Trump has repeatedly insisted that Washington D.C. is a crime ridden hellscape, despite a dramatic reduction in reports of violent crime in the area in recent years. The young people accused of attacking “Big Balls” are both 15 years old, a detail the administration is using to bolster its arguments that Washington D.C. is at the mercy of juvenile offenders who the president argues should be charged as adults.

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Washington D.C.’s peculiar legal status has left the city vulnerable to a power grab like this one. Washington D.C. is not a state, or part of a state, which empowers the federal government to make decisions a governor would normally make, like whether or not to deploy the National Guard. While D.C. has its own mayor and city council, federal authority looms large over the city’s budgets, legislative actions, and legal process. By law, the president can use an emergency declaration to temporarily take control of the city’s police. “He’s doing this because he can,” Charles Allen, a member of the Washington D.C. Council told the New York Times. “He has the ability to place the military on our streets. He has the ability to take over our police.”

There is currently a trial underway to determine whether Trump violated the law by deploying National Guard troops in California against the wishes of local officials, and without just cause. In Washington D.C., Mayor Muriel E. Bowser has cast doubt on challenging Trump’s actions in court, telling reporters, “What I would point you to is the Home Rule Charter that gives the president the ability to determine the conditions of an emergency. We could contest that, but the authority is........

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