The Reichstag Burns Again
Would-be dictators love an emergency. It allows them to claim that in a state of chaos, only extraordinary measures will save us. Everything is suddenly on the table, including illegal force, the suspension of civil liberties, and the translation of democracy into unitary rule. Nothing is too extreme in such a moment. Everything is represented as an existential threat.
Hitler (may his name be obliterated) understood this dynamic perfectly. When the Reichstag, Germany’s seat of government was destroyed by arson in 1933, Hitler used it as a pretext to alter the terms of engagement. The blaze was apparently set by the proverbial lone actor, but Hitler claimed that it was merely the tip of the torch. The state was under siege by a cabal of Communists who were determined to upend German civilization. Twenty-four hours after the fire, Hitler forced the issue in the form of sweeping diktats that gave his government extraordinary powers. The so-called Reichstag Fire Decree of 1933, removed civil liberties from the framework of German law and allowed dictatorial suppression of rival parties. Every consequential democratic safeguard was swept into the garbage overnight.
We may ask ourselves about where we are in this process, but the Sauron playbook is essentially the same. There is no criminal emergency in Washington D.D. The same for Baltimore. The same for Chicago. Violent crime has fallen in each place, and the statistical evidence is unassailable. But statistics do not matter to dictators. To use the immortal phrase of Kelly Anne Conway, handmaiden and water carrier for Republican radicalism, they are invalidated by the force of alternative facts. What could numbers possibly mean in the face of an assertion by the Only One Who Can Save Us? It doesn’t matter that Trump’s claims are lies. For Trump, there is only the truth of his delusions.
And so the troops will be deployed to Democratic states, with special attention to Democratic cities. All the better for midterm elections, which would otherwise be a rout for unpopular Republicans. But popularity is fast becoming a side-bar issue. What matters now is the monopoly of force. The federalization of law enforcement by a private army run by our predatory president will have more to say about the outcome of elections. The process has begun. This will not end well.