The current U.S. administration has announced its intention to invoke the Insurrection Act, a centuries-old federal law that allows a president to use the military against civilians. Even for those of us watching from outside the United States, that sentence carries a chill.

The Insurrection Act, passed in 1807, was never written for political convenience. It was meant for national survival. Abraham Lincoln invoked it during the Civil War, when eleven southern states had seceded to preserve slavery and had taken up arms against the Union. Lincoln had no choice but to raise a volunteer army to defend the country and preserve the Constitution. The aim then was to reunite a divided nation, not to punish dissent.

That context matters. Because what is unfolding now looks nothing like 1861.

The commander in chief now claims that an “insurrection” is underway in Portland, Oregon, and insists he can federalize the National Guard to restore order. A federal judge, Karin Immergut, who was appointed by the same administration, has already blocked an earlier attempt to send 200 troops into Oregon, ruling that the claims of violent rebellion were “untethered to facts.” There is no credible evidence that an insurrection exists.

The Insurrection Act is one of the few exceptions to the Posse Comitatus Act, which forbids the federal military from acting as domestic law enforcement. It is meant to be used only when every civil remedy has failed. Once invoked, it allows military force to operate within U.S. borders under the president’s direction. That power can protect democracy in one context or erode it in another.

The Brennan Center for Justice calls the Insurrection Act “one of the most expansive and least defined executive powers on the books.” It does not automatically suspend constitutional rights like due process, but it concentrates immense power in the executive branch. And that concentration of power is where history begins to rhyme.

Before a democracy collapses, it usually centralizes. Hitler did not seize Germany in one night. He inherited a weakened democracy, then slowly dismantled its checks. First came the Reichstag Fire Decree, which suspended civil liberties in the name of security. Then came the Enabling Act, which allowed him to rule by decree. After that, he created the SS, a paramilitary force that operated beyond judicial oversight, claiming to “restore order” while eliminating anyone who opposed him. The SS was not built overnight; it grew out of the justification that Germany needed protection from chaos.

That is what makes the current rhetoric in America so unsettling. It uses the same language law, order, protection …….while slowly blurring the line between public safety and political control.

It starts with redefining what counts as rebellion. It expands by labeling protesters as threats to the state. Then it turns inward, silencing those who question it. We are already seeing that in the form of pressure on journalists, comedians, and media commentators who criticize the administration. Figures like Jimmy Kimmel, whose job is to use humour to expose hypocrisy, find themselves targeted and vilified. It is not because comedy is dangerous. It is because satire makes people think, and thinking is the one thing authoritarian systems cannot afford.

This pattern is not new. In Nazi Germany, the first people silenced were not soldiers; they were writers, artists, academics, and anyone with a public voice. Censorship begins under the guise of “national security,” but what it really protects is power.

And here is where silence becomes complicity. Many people who chose not to vote, who tuned out because they were tired of politics, are now watching from the sidelines as democracy tests its limits. The Insurrection Act does not distinguish between participants and observers. Once invoked, it gives authority to treat all citizens as potential enemies of the state. Silence will not spare anyone from its reach.

Lincoln used the Insurrection Act because the Union was literally under attack. This administration is using it as a threat against its own citizens. Lincoln fought to keep the Constitution alive. Today, the Constitution is what stands in the way of power being consolidated. That is not a war to save democracy; that is a struggle to control it.

Democracy rarely ends with a single event. It dies in small, reasonable steps — each one defended as necessary, each one justified as temporary, until the temporary becomes permanent. What begins with troops on the streets and voices silenced on air ends with a population too afraid to speak at all.

For those who think this cannot happen in America, history says otherwise. The framework is already there. The only question is whether enough people recognize it in time to stop it.

References

Reuters. “Trump claims without evidence that insurrection is taking place in Portland.” (Oct 7 2025).

Associated Press. “Judge temporarily blocks Trump administration from deploying troops in Portland.” (Oct 4 2025). link

Politico. “Courts confront militarized cities as Trump tests the waters with National Guard deployments.” (Oct 6 2025).

Brennan Center for Justice. “The Insurrection Act Explained.” link