| Sumario: | Since 2017, interest in the National Guard has increased as it has taken on a more prominent role in domestic political disputes. We ask how the National Guard—the heirs of the republican ideal state-led citizen militia—became a tool of federal intervention in, and control over, the states. We argue that the view of the National Guard as a key bulwark against federal aggression was always more political myth than reality, leading to a constitutional compromise and thus an opening for contestation. This has manifested in areas of traditional political struggle in US institutions, in trends toward greater executive power, greater national authority, and greater partisan polarization. In short, the United States may be on the verge of a renegotiation of the federal bargain on a scale not seen since at least the 1960s.
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