This is an excellent, and terrifying, analysis of the most likely Trumpian use of a "Reichstag Fire" moment to act repressively after a terrorist attack.
Jane Chong,
"At this point invocation of the Reichstag fire is useful in only one narrow sense—to help prepare us mentally to mitigate and respond posthaste to the worst-case scenario: an actual attack on U.S. soil, paired with an unacceptably illiberal response from the White House."
and pointing to a reason to be prepared:
"there is little point worrying about whether the Trump administration has (in the limited sense) Reichstag-fire designs at all unless the object is to inculcate in the public sufficient awareness of what is happening so as to stave off the administration’s ability to capitalize on terror. Now is the time to start drawing lines—that is, before disaster puts a vice grip on our emotions: how do we think the administration will respond to a small-scale or large-scale attack, and what are the White House reactions and policies we deem unacceptable?"
Though her solution is far too institutional and trusting in Republican Congress to act to be persuasive.
Jane Chong,
How To Deal with Reichstag Fire Fears in the Age of Trump
As she notes with unalterable logic:"At this point invocation of the Reichstag fire is useful in only one narrow sense—to help prepare us mentally to mitigate and respond posthaste to the worst-case scenario: an actual attack on U.S. soil, paired with an unacceptably illiberal response from the White House."
and pointing to a reason to be prepared:
"there is little point worrying about whether the Trump administration has (in the limited sense) Reichstag-fire designs at all unless the object is to inculcate in the public sufficient awareness of what is happening so as to stave off the administration’s ability to capitalize on terror. Now is the time to start drawing lines—that is, before disaster puts a vice grip on our emotions: how do we think the administration will respond to a small-scale or large-scale attack, and what are the White House reactions and policies we deem unacceptable?"
Though her solution is far too institutional and trusting in Republican Congress to act to be persuasive.
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