By Matthew Hayward July 13, 2025 Let me say this clearly: The National Guard was created to defend the states, not to enforce the will of the federal government. It was meant to serve as a local militia, an armed extension of the people under the control of the state. The highest authority a Guard member was ever supposed to answer to is their elected governor, not a bureaucrat in Washington, not a federal agency, and certainly not a sitting president weaponizing military force on domestic soil. Yes, I know the laws have changed. I know the Montgomery Amendment, the National Defense Act, and the Supreme Court’s decision in Perpich v. Department of Defense rewrote the rules. But legal does not mean constitutional. Gradualism does not legitimize usurpation. You do not get to trample foundational principles and call it progress. What is happening now, federalizing state forces to deploy them in cities without gubernatorial consent, is blasphemous. It is an insult to the very spirit of th...