When the Empire Comes Home: Domestic Deployment, Insurgency Language, and the Final Phase of Federal Power

The Red Line Has Been Crossed The federal government is no longer treating civil unrest as a law enforcement problem. In fact, during the 2020 protests, more than 96,000 National Guard and state guard members were activated across the United States to support local authorities, constituting one of the largest domestic military operations outside of war in American history. This shift in approach reflects a federal response to civil unrest that increasingly frames protests as a threat requiring military and paramilitary tactics rather than traditional policing methods. It is treating it as domestic insurgency. That’s not my phrase. That’s the official language coming from White House operatives like Stephen Miller, who said this week that federal agents are now engaged…