Local Leaders Normalize Militant Solidarity

Elected municipal officials increasingly appear at activist events that celebrate armed resistance abroad and endorse radical reform at home, lending mainstream legitimacy to militant rhetoric. When mayors and city councilors do this, it both reframes local policy debates (e.g., community control of policing, anti‑ICE organizing) and shifts national perceptions about where radical ideas enter governance. — If repeated, this dynamic can make municipal governments a vector for normalizing transnational militant solidarity and reshape policing and immigration policy at city scale.