Naomi Klein Quotes

In times of crisis, we should have a period of 6 months of dictatorship to straighten things up, then return to democracy.

If the United States is hit with a weapon of mass destruction that inflicts large casualties, the Constitution will likely be discarded in favor of a military form of government.

If we had a terrorist attack, the way the people respond is going to determine whether that attack is just a tragedy or whether that attack becomes an all-out disaster.

We have a country that is in a very delicate situation.

Ukraine is facing a serious threat of isolation as some local political forces want to put an end to democracy and democratic reforms in the country

Nothing can destroy democracy in America faster than a political-military crisis.

It is fundamental that the great powers of Congress to conduct war and to regulate the Nation's foreign relations are subject to the constitutional requirements of due process. The imperative necessity for safeguarding these rights to procedural due process under the gravest of emergencies has existed throughout our constitutional history, for it is then, under the pressing exigencies of crisis, that there is the greatest temptation to dispense with fundamental constitutional guarantees which, it is feared, will inhibit governmental action.

We have reasonable grounds to believe that the life of the state is being threatened

After the First World War, Germany was trying to build a democracy. Then when the Reichstag, the legislature, was burned down in 1933, this was seen as such an emergency that human rights had to be suspended. The attack on the World Trade Towers has allowed Bush and his gang to do anything. What are we to do now? I say when there's a code red, we should all run around like chickens with our heads cut off. I don't feel that we are in any great danger.

When Captain Moussa Dadis Camara came to power, too many thought he would hold to his promise to stand down, introduce democratic elections and restore the rule of law.

I'm not really a political animal but I am rather fascinated by the meltdown of England and America. In the end, it seems as if America might come out of it, but I'm not sure if England is ever going to recover.

Only two countries in this hemisphere are not democratic, but many countries in both Central and South America, and in the Caribbean, are really fragile democracies.

For every African state, like Ghana, where democratic institutions seem secure, there is a Mali, a Cote d'Ivoire, and a Zimbabwe, where democracy is in trouble.

There were three causes that accounted for the proclamation of martial law in Poland. First it was the progressing economic ruin of the country. Second, it was the decomposition of the functioning of the state. And third, a threat of a civil war.

The president's very right about one thing: When you have a disaster of that scale, whether it be natural or a terrorist attack, there's only one part of our entire government, state or local, that is equipped to handle it, and that's the U.S. military.

I saw what happened when a dictator was allowed to take over a piece of a country and the country went down the tubes. And I saw the opposite during the war when America joined the fight.

History has shown that Big Government expands quickest in the immediate aftermath of a crisis - real or manufactured.

The introduction of political pluralism often quickly led to bad results.

In the past decade, nearly a dozen elected Latin American presidents have been forced from office.

Those republics which in time of danger cannot resort to a dictatorship, or some similar authority, will generally be ruined when grave emergencies occur.

I may in an emergency do things on military grounds which cannot be done constitutionally by Congress.

In ancient Greece, a crisis was a period of judgment. It’s healthy for a country to go through a crisis.

The overthrow of a democratically elected government is a very serious crime and those involved — great or small — must face the consequences. Otherwise we will continue to see a repetition of coups and other politically motivated criminal activity.

I begin to despair of the republic and look to a thing which I always shrink from, as an event that cannot be avoided. The thought is dreadful.

Martial law ... destroys every guarantee of the Constitution.