Venezuela Timeline

1. Most of the military leadership in the United States is conservative, not socialist. Marxism never caught on here.
2. A major component of the armed forces of the United States is guaranteed by the 2nd amendment, and they tend to be Republicans
3. Almost half the surface forces of the organized military are under state, not federal, control.
4. American have a tradition of free elections going back to the middle ages, whereas the Spanish countries only had their first free elections in the 19th century, and have no democratic (small “d”) tradition
5. Americans have a tradition of the military not seizing power (which originated with George Washington), Spanish countries don’t

Don’t let facts get in the way of a good talking point

Very scary.
It’s all in the playbook

If you want to see how it’s done look no further than President Abraham Lincoln.
He declared Baltimore to be under Martial Law (no rights or due process). The Supreme Court ruled the power to declare Martial Law is given to Congress so Lincoln’s declaration was null & void. Lincoln’s response was to ignore the ruling. The grandson of Francis Scott Key (author of The Star Spangled Banner) wrote an editorial asking how under the “Balance of Power” Lincoln could ignore the Supreme Court?
For this editorial he was thrown into Ft. McHenry for 14 months (no charges, judges, jury’s, lawyers or bail). Upon release he wrote a book about his experience as a political prisoner. The 2 editors that printed his book were arrested & thrown into Ft. McHenry. Dozens of newspapers that weren’t pushing Lincoln’s narrative were shut down with some editors fleeing & others jailed. Thousands in Baltimore were jailed without ever being charged or seeing a judge. Weapons were confiscated, searches were done without warrants, & mail was opened & read.
In an attempt to cut off the political & physical power of Baltimore he had arrested (without charges) the Mayor, entire City Council, US Congressman representing Baltimore, the Chief of Police, Board of Police Commissioners, & (there were too many to jail) fired all 800 Police officers.
That’s not even the tip of the iceberg of what Lincoln illegally did & all it took was for Lincoln to tell the North, “True I may be overstepping my authority BUT I’m doing it to save the Union.”
The only way this could happen again in America is if it’s done under the guise of “Saving America” or “For the greater good”

Kuvult,

Wow talk about taking things out of context. You left out the part where Lincoln invoked War Powers, as this was in 1863 at the height of the Civil War and Maryland was in imminent danger of siding with the Confederacy which would indeed jeopardize the Union. This is unlikely to be repeated in peacetime.

Gadfly1,
I’m not talking about 1863. I’m talking about one month into the war (May, 1861). Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Roger B. Taney wrote the following ruling nullifying Lincoln’s order of Martial Law in Baltimore.
“In Merryman, Taney decisively rejected President Lincoln’s unilateral suspension of the writ of habeas corpus in and around Baltimore at the outset of the Civil War, concluding that the Constitution only authorized Congress to suspend the writ and that no emergency, no matter how existential, could justify subversion of such a vital constitutional precept.”
Lincoln ignored the ruling claiming it was an emergency measure to “Save the Union”. Even though Taney wrote, “NO EMERGENCY, NO MATTER HOW EXISTENTIAL”
Bottom line Lincoln violated the Constitution he swore to uphold & more disturbing got away with it. This opens the door for any future Presidents to ignore the Constitution in the name of “Saving America” or for the “Good of the masses”

xCTL, you seem to be preemptively defending Mr Walz for his pro-China positions. Private wealth in China is mostly under close observation and ultimate control by the government. So, Mao was simply hacking away those who disagree with him, and Xi figured out how to allow benefits of capitalism while keeping control with more modern means does not make that regime more attractive. You can see this with Russia that has a slightly less advanced system – it switched to a more totalitarian the moment they felt they need to.