One of the inherent safeguards against the rise of totalitarian fascism in America is our multilayered system of government. We don’t just have one national government and nothing else. Power is dispersed across overlapping layers of authority — municipal, county, state, and federal. 

Over the years, that has unfortunately slowed national progress on important causes (think: the anti-civil-rights cry of “states’ rights!” or governors refusing to expand Medicaid), but it also makes it somewhat more difficult for a tyrannical president to weaponize the state for a political agenda — because there is no one single state.

But this safeguard is now in jeopardy. President Trump and Sen. Tom Cotton are floating the idea of militarily occupying American cities — and the idea is being normalized by the and some pundits. That kind of escalation would not only exacerbate tensions and likely result in a further curtailing of democratic rights, it could also undermine one of the key structural safeguards against presidential authoritarianism.