The Show Must Not Go On

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler was jeered by protesters and then tear-gassed by federal agents on Wednesday night. It’s not an easy time to be a politician. But the gassing of a group that included the mayor is further evidence that these actions are more performative than protective. The Atlantic’s Anne Applebaum: The president is deploying the kind of performative authoritarianism that Vladimir Putin pioneered. (You can camouflage federal agents, you can’t camouflage that…) Sadly, the administration is determined to take this show in the road.