[ Jarrett Stepman is a columnist for The Daily Signal. He is also the author of “The War on History: The Conspiracy to Rewrite America’s Past.” Send an email to Jarrett.]

President Donald Trump ordered the National Guard to “war ravaged Portland” on Saturday in a move that has been a long time in coming.

Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities have been besieged for months in the Oregon city with little indication that local authorities will do anything to get control of the situation.

In early September after a serious anti-ICE riot in which protesters violently clashed with police, Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said that he would do nothing to help the federal government enforce the law and would protect the city’s “sanctuary” status for illegal aliens.

“We will not engage with the federal immigration enforcement that goes on,” Wilson said, according to KOIN 6 News. “That is our sanctuary city goals; that is what the governor’s goals are. So you can rest assured we won’t be engaging with or working with ICE in any circumstances.”

That came after Portland’s city council plotted earlier in the year not to stop the violence but to eject ICE from the city.

It couldn’t be clearer that Portland’s leaders have little interest in getting the rioters under control outside of pressure from the Trump administration.

Now Oregon Democrats and their legacy media defenders are doing their best to spin a tale that Portland has no problems at all and this is just the Trump administration being real mean.

Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat, posted a video on X supposedly showing that all is well around Portland’s ICE facilities in the middle of the day when the sun is shining.

This is a part of the genre of crime deniers who think that a single snapshot of the city at an ideal time is indicative of how things are going in general. I’m pretty sure you could find a nice spot of countryside along the Eastern Front in World War II during the spring and have said, “Look, all is well! What war?”

As many noted in response, the problems at ICE facilities typically occur at night when the protesters gather to cause chaos.

Here’s a different view of the same place at a different time.

I’d say the French Revolution was a largely hellish experience and I’m sure France is good at making Pinot Noir.

Outside of the outright denials, some Oregon Democrats are simply trying to pin the blame for Portland’s problems on the Trump administration’s presence.

An open letter to Trump by Oregon state Democrats and other local leaders insisted that Trump’s deployment was “perpetuating outdated narratives” about Portland being out of control.

They wrote that the incredible crime surge in the city and the complete mayhem in the summer of 2020 was Trump’s fault rather than the fault of left-wing activists and irresponsible city leaders. Americans are supposed to believe that all is well in Portland, and if it isn’t, it surely must be the president’s doing.

But it’s the Democrat narratives that are completely bunk. The primary issue right now for Portland is not just an intractable problem with basic street crime, though that was a big one after the George Floyd riots when the city defunded the police.

No, the problem is that Portland is returning to violence and chaos because organized agitators in their city—like Antifa and other similar groups—want to stop federal immigration enforcement. They are throwing a continual violent tantrum because they aren’t getting their way.

Not only are the ICE facilities besieged on a regular basis, but many residents are fed up with having their lives disrupted while local officials do nothing.

Since Portland is clearly not willing to do its job to protect the lives of federal employees in the city, the Trump administration has a duty to step in and put the kibosh on Portland’s Jacobins.

S.Q. 836 WOULD IMPORT CALIFORNIA’S VOTE SYSTEM, THWART CONSERVATIVES

Jonathan Small OCPA President

A recent decision by the Oklahoma Supreme Court effectively provided the green light for an initiative petition that would completely upend Oklahoma elections, replacing our system with the one used in the states of California and Washington.

Oklahoma’s current election system allows Republican voters to pick Republican nominees in party primaries while Democratic voters do the same. The two parties’ candidates then face off in the November general election along with any independent candidates who file.

But a group calling itself Oklahoma United wants to eliminate that system through State Question 836 and instead require that all candidates—Democrats, Republicans, and independents— be placed on a single primary ballot with all voters participating and the “top two” candidates advancing to the general.

In practice, SQ 836’s model can reduce voters’ November choices to two candidates from the same party. This has often been the case in California. Kamala Harris was elected to the U.S. Senate from California in a general election that pitted her against another Democrat.

Had the California model been used in Oklahoma in 2018, the governor’s race that November would have pitted Democrat Drew Edmondson against Democrat Connie Johnson.

Because multiple strong candidates ran for governor as Republicans that year, they split the Republican vote enough that Edmondson and Johnson would have been the “top two” vote recipients despite most votes being cast for a Republican in the primary.

Under the SB 836 system, incumbent U.S. Reps. Kevin Hern of Tulsa and Stephanie Bice of Oklahoma City would not be members of Congress. Both finished second in their primaries and became the Republican nominee in runoff elections.

It’s impossible to retroactively determine how election outcomes might have changed with different nominees, but if those two seats flipped to Democratic control because of the California system, it likely would have tipped control of Congress to Democrats this year.

Supporters of SQ 836 claim it will produce more “moderate” candidates. Do the elected politicians in California and Washington state seem moderate to you?

Supporters also claim SQ 836 empowers registered independent voters. Yet SQ 836 almost guarantees that no independent candidate will ever be placed on a general-election ballot again. Not one independent is serving in a statewide or legislative office in California or Washington.

Put simply, the California model makes governments far more left-leaning, regardless of the wishes of the voting majority.

The advocates trying to swindle Oklahomans into adopting this California voting model should be honest and admit it is an attempt to give far-left ideas, and those who advance them, a better chance to win in Oklahoma without strong majority support.

SQ 836 is a naked attempt to help far-left Democrats seize control of Congress. If this effort advances in Oklahoma, it will quickly proliferate to other red states.