Literally Hitler Syndrome and the Deployment of the National Guard

I want to make a point or two regarding the deployment of the National Guard. I was in the Guard in Florida and in Georgia from 1987 to 1993 (late Reagan to early Clinton), and we routinely trained for civil unrest. In the Florida Guard, I served in a field artillery battery, and in the Georgia Guard, I served in an airborne long range surveillance unit. We maintain a certain level of training so that in the event of war, we can be activated to serve as members of the federal government. This has been realized significantly since the terrorist attacks of 9-11. We are also available to serve the state government in the case of civil unrest or a natural disaster. This has been the Guard's mission since before I was born.

Can the Guard be activated by the president in the case of domestic unrest? Yes. This happened in 1957 when Arkansas governor Orval Faubus activated the Arkansas National Guard to enforce the state's segregation policy. President Eisenhower then federalized the Arkansas National Guard, which he had authority to do, and then deployed the legendary 101st Airborne Division, a regular army unit, to enforce desegregation.

I was once activated when the Klan was getting ready to deliver a speech at the MLK memorial in downtown Atlanta. We were bused down to Fort Gillem the day before, did our riot drills, and spent a cozy night sleeping on the floor of a warehouse (it wasn't that bad, trust me). We were deployed in riot gear in our army uniforms preemptively to keep the peace. Nearly everybody else was activated except maybe the local cub scout dens, and the police and yes, military, presence was so overwhelming that nothing happened. The Klan made their forgettable speech, people protested peacefully, we had a few derogatory comments directed against us, and we all went home.

I will not offer commentary on the situation in LA as it's unfolding, and misinformation is rife. However, the deployment of federalized Guard troops and Marines, while unusual, is not apocalyptic. With a little research, you can find out how many times a state Guard unit has been activated for civil unrest.

In recent years, all of us have become subject to Literally Hitler Syndrome. If the president is a Democrat, rest assured that the political right will dutifully make comparisons to Hitler and provide pictures of the president with a small mustache. It goes the other way whenever the president is a Republican.

So, how do you overcome LHS? Read fat books and get context. I would recommend Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer for starters. While there are points about our current president that even I as a conservative Republican take issue with, we are not Germany in the 1930s, nor are we dangerously close, as some hysterical memes proclaim, to gassing political opposition. I've even seen at least one respectable historian whose work I admire fall into this trap. So, take a moment to thank your Founders for a government with divided powers. Germany's post World War I Weimar Republic allowed dictatorial powers in the case of a national emergency, but our Constitution does not. More than one president has overreached in the past, but was ultimately contained by our system which was NOT the case in Germany 90 years ago. There are more differences, but that's the topic of another discussion.

We'll have a new president in January of 2029, and he or she may eagerly anticipate comparisons to Hitler by the political opposition for as long as this fad continues. In the meantime, no, the deployment of the National Guard does not signal an imminent, headlong rush into totalitarianism.