It's Just Your Fantasy. It's Not Reality...

No way would Bret Stephens' scenario play out:  people linking arms to prevent deportations, inspiring "rogue" local authorities.  The things some people scare up in their heads! Fantasies like this should be kept private, not published as mainstream news commentary. It's just fear-mongering, here at home.

Imagine the following scenario: 

Trump is in the White House and decides to make good on his signature promise of mass deportation of migrants. Federal agents are deployed to towns and cities to do the job, but many of them flatly refuse to participate in what feels to them like a modern-day re-enactment of the Fugitive Slave Act. They are joined by Democratic mayors and hundreds of thousands of Americans who are willing to form human chains around homes and neighborhoods to keep the agents out. But Trump doesn’t back down, and governors in red states call out the National Guard to break through the protests. Many are hurt, some are killed, and riots ensue. 

That’s the incendiary America we are likely to get again in a second Trump term, whether the match is lit by deportations, another incident of police brutality or something else. The right-wing fantasy of somehow shutting down the left won’t be met quietly. 

I'm pretty sure local people will protect local people if it comes to righting the ship, Mr. Stephens. There's still a lot of natural good-willed persons working hard to deliver as promised. It's easier to see at the ground level.