“It’s an Emergency” How Crises Have Expanded State Power From 1798 to the Present

Look, I don’t like expanded police powers, surveillance, emergency declarations, suspension of normal rules… but this is an emergency. We can deal with civil liberties later. That logic isn’t new. It’s a recurring pattern in U.S. history — and almost every time, the rollback never comes. A crisis hits, government claims extraordinary authority, and when the crisis fades, the powers don’t fully retreat. They ratchet. The baseline shifts. What used to be unthinkable starts to feel normal. In this episode of Past is Prologue, I trace that “emergency powers ratchet” across two centuriesbefore bringing it to the present moment and what’s unfolding right now. In this episode, we cover: The Quasi-War and the Alien & Sedition Acts (1798): “national security” as cover for partisan repression The Civil War: suspension of habeas corpus, military arrests, and how emergency authority becomes precedent World War I: the Espionage Act, sedition enforcement, propaganda, and Schenck’s “clear and present danger” The post-WWI pivot: the Palmer Raids and the migration of emergency logic inward (“the enemy among us”) World War II mobilization — and the moral catastrophe of Japanese American internment (Korematsu) The Cold War as “permanent emergency”: HUAC, loyalty oaths, blacklists, and policing ideology as governance 9/11 and the War on Terror: the Patriot Act, DHS, surveillance, indefinite detention, Guantanamo, and the end of endpoints The core argument: emergency powers are politically addictive — and institutions rarely return to baseline once fear becomes normal The present: why today’s claims of emergency and “security” should trigger immediate skepticism — and civic resistance

00:00 — The “emergency” argument (and why the rollback rarely comes) 00:35 — The emergency powers ratchet: crisis → authority → baseline shift 01:27 — Past Is Prologue intro + today’s topic 01:53 — The Quasi-War: fear, fragility, and the first big expansion of police power 03:09 — Alien & Sedition Acts: national security as cover for partisan repression 04:19 — The recurring formula: emergency + politics = expanded power 05:07 — The Civil War: Lincoln, habeas corpus, and executive power in existential crisis 07:18 — The lesson that sticks: “move first, ask legal questions later” 07:45 — World War I: total war and emergency governance at scale 08:07 — Espionage Act + sedition: criminalizing dissent and manufacturing unanimity 09:36 — Creel’s propaganda apparatus + managing the press 10:03 — Schenck v. U.S.: “clear and present danger” and the legal rubber stamp 12:49 — Postwar pivot: emergency logic migrates inward 13:10 — The First Red Scare + Palmer Raids: repression in the name of “internal security” 14:29 — The New Deal builds capacity; WWII turns it to full throttle 15:46 — WWII mobilization: coordination, rationing, censorship, and propaganda 17:05 — Japanese American internment: the clearest civil liberties catastrophe 18:20 — Korematsu: courts defer; fear overrides rights 19:14 — What remains “acceptable” after 1945: the ideas that linger 20:20 — The Cold War: emergency power becomes a default setting 21:23 — The enemy “among us”: second Red Scare conditions take shape 22:01 — HUAC, loyalty oaths, blacklists, and policing ideology 23:25 — McCarthy exploits a system already built for repression 24:01 — The Cold War’s inheritance: emergency governance sustained indefinitely 25:04 — 9/11: the modern ratchet click forward 25:57 — Patriot Act + surveillance expansion 26:20 — DHS: the security state reorganizes itself 27:12 — The War on Terror’s key shift: a war with no endpoint 27:49 — Guantanamo, indefinite detention, and legal black holes 29:08 — Rendition, torture-by-proxy, and reputational damage 29:55 — Domestic politics adapts: disloyalty narratives and opportunists 31:03 — Iraq: narrative convergence and marginalizing skepticism 32:12 — Takeaway: emergency powers are politically addictive 33:15 — The present moment: federal power surge in