The Reichstag Fire was used to create a “state of exception,” as Carl Schmitt, Hitler’s favorite legal scholar, called it. In Schmitt’s terms, a state of exception arises when an emergency, a singular event, shakes up the accepted order of things. This is when the sovereign steps forward and institutes new, extralegal rules. The emergency enables a quantum leap: Having amassed enough power to declare a state of exception, the sovereign then, by that declaration, acquires far greater, unchecked power. That is what makes the change irreversible, and the state of exception permanent.
Gessen, Masha. Surviving Autocracy (pp. 10-11). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
47 has declared war on American cities governed by Democrats asserting that they are unsafe, out of control, and in need of the military to restore order. He is declaring a “state of exception” which gives him extraordinary powers to take control of major American cities such as Washington, DC, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Memphis.. To what extent do you agree with this assertion? Could the US military be coming to establish military control over a city near you any time soon?
This declaration of a state of exception to usurp power is a standard play in the autocratic governance playbook
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My city Rochester, NY, will soon be subjected to National Guard troops patrolling our streets because we are a Sanctuary city sympathetic to immigrants, with a Democratic mayor in a Blue state headed by a Democratic governor. Although this intrusion is unwelcome, the armed forces presence may have an inhibiting effect on violent street crime because potential criminals may be deterred by tanks and heavily armed soldiers visible in their neighborhoods. Unfortunately, this benefit is outweighed by the federal government's predictable response to the inevitable street protests which will arise. The street protests will be characterized as proof of "insurrection" thereby reinforcing the government's argument that the armed forces are justified under the Insurrection Act. Garry Mount
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