Donald Trump and his advisers are preparing for the possibility of invoking the Insurrection Act, a move that would take the United States closer to federal military rule than at any point since the Civil War, and which I’ve been shouting into the void for years.
Yes, the Act has been used in modern times. Presidents have invoked it, (albeit rarely) to protect civil rights marchers in the South when law enforcement failed to… to save lives after massive natural disasters… and to quell riots when police could not. But never in the last 160 years has an American president invoked it to deploy troops against political dissenters or to consolidate power against domestic opponents.
That’s what would make this moment unprecedented. For the first time since the Civil War, the commander-in-chief could turn the U.S. military inward not to preserve the Union, but to expand his personal power.
If that happens, the last real line of defense may not be Congress or the courts. It will be the governors and their people.
First and foremost, America’s governors need to saddle up — now — and hold an emergency meeting to respond to White House overreach. They’d be fools to treat Trump’s flirtation with the Insurrection Act as another cable-news debate. The federal government is threatening violent force… against U.S. states… for dubious purposes… and against the will of the people. If ever there was a reason to gather on an emergency basis, it is this.
I’m not delusional enough to think GOP governors will show up. But several have expressed grave concerns about the idea of the White House sending troops from Red States into Blue States, including Republican governors from Oklahoma to Vermont. At a minimum, Blue State governors need to get on airplanes and get together.
So where are these state leaders? Why aren’t they on planes right now? You would think Illinois Governor JB Pritzker or California Governor Gavin Newsom would be willing to play host. But any of them who are willing to show some backbone and leadership — and who can book a conference room for a few dozen people — should make this happen as soon as possible.
The point of bringing the governors together wouldn’t merely be a symbolic act of defiance against the Trump administration, although the public would benefit from knowing that real adults are assembling somewhere to deal with this crisis, since Congressional leaders have routinely displayed the spinal fortitude of wet noodles in a boiling pot. The governors could agree on mutual aid and defense pacts. In other words, if one state is unlawfully invaded by the federal government, all states would band together in opposing the action — and initiate lawful measures to push back against federal encroachment and punish states that allow their troops to be used to infringe on the rights of another.
This idea isn’t especially creative or novel. But the fact that it hasn’t happened yet displays a lack of urgency. America’s governors will regret the inaction if Trump hits his emergency button and they haven’t put these proactive measures in place.
As for the people themselves, well, there’s a lot that can be done. At the end of last week, I sat down with my friend Stacey Abrams for one of the most important conversations I’ve had since this crisis began. If you missed it, you can watch it above.
Stacey is one of the clearest thinkers alive on how democracies slide into autocracy and, more importantly, how they can climb back out. She has studied the global playbook of authoritarianism for decades, and she’s distilled it into what she calls the 10 Steps to Autocracy and the 10 Steps to Freedom.
Abrams listed every country that’s followed this pattern (Turkey, Hungary, Brazil, India, Russia, and beyond) and noted that the United States has now checked every box, including step nine: the normalization of violence. That includes what we’re seeing right now, i.e. militarized raids in U.S. cities and threats of using federal troops to “restore order.”
When I asked Abrams what that means for this moment, she was blunt:
“[When they are] using the power…of government to quash dissent and when you have paramilitary forces, you know, rappelling out of helicopters, breaking into low-income housing and arresting children; when you have National Guard troops positioned on the streets; when you have priests and pastors being pelted by ICE agents from rooftops for no reason other than to [restrict] their American right to speak up — we have a responsibility to also speak up.”
The White House doesn’t need to suspend elections or dissolve Congress to bring the republic to its knees. All it needs to do is turn the machinery of the state inward, against its citizens. That’s why this conversation about the Insurrection Act matters so much. If the president moves toward invoking it (and if his loyalists in DHS and DOJ keep quietly preparing for it, or not-so-quietly as the Vice President demonstrated this weekend) the states and the people must respond in concert.
Everyone will be posting this week about the NO KINGS rallies across America, slated for Saturday, October 18. You should go. But if you can’t make it to one, then listen to Stacey and find the next best thing.
“You can do something now. And the more of us that do something now, the less likely it is that we get to the place where you’ve got to do that next hard thing that really does put you at risk. There are some of us who can do the risky things now, the higher risk things now, but there are a lot of us who’ve got to calibrate what we can do. But none of us — not a single one of us — can do ‘nothing.’”
Check out her 10 Steps Campaign. That’s the kind of resistance we need right now. Indeed, the civic courage of a single individual is always what — in moments of great challenge — inspires others and spreads like wildfire and ultimately defines the character of a nation. If we don’t want our national character to be influenced by apathy and inaction, then now’s the time to prove it.
P.S. WHAT’S HAPPENING ON TREASON
Here’s what’s coming up.
TODAY / Tues, Oct 14 (2:45p ET) - Tara Setmayer cuts through the noise - Former Lincoln Project senior advisor and long-time GOP strategist (now ex-GOP) Tara Setmayer sits down with me on Substack LIVE to cut through the noise and talk about what’s coming this week. You can join here.
Weds, Oct 15 (12noon ET) - Subscribers Only - Weekly Wednesday Coffee - Bring a cup of Joe. Bring your questions for a chance to win a signed book. We’ll do another round of Q&A about what’s going on here in DC. You can join here.
Weds, Oct 15 (5p ET) - Ryan Lizza drains the swamp - Leading Washington journalist (CNN, Politico, Telos News) Ryan Lizza joins me on Substack LIVE to take stock of the administration’s revenge campaign, nine months in. You can join here.
