Re:Italy is extending its coronavirus quarantine measures to...
by dwohnitmok on Monday March 09, 2020 @11:51PM
(#22532580)
It's perhaps worth noting that even in the U.S., these wartime mobilizations have often been carried out by comparatively authoritarian governments (especially in comparison to peacetime U.S. government), e.g. the suspension of habeas corpus and mass arrests during the U.S. Civil War, German internment and the Espionage and Sedition Acts of World War 1, and mass Japanese internment camps and the Office of Censorship during World War 2.
The US was sometimes able to mobilize quickly in response to extraordinary circumstances (WWII production being an example), but that isn't really our default state, and requires consensus-building rather than orders from on high. But sadly our ability to do so even in extraordinary circumstances has atrophied.