When, for whatever reason, a nation's normal government is suspended, the phrase used to denote that period is
interregnum. My dictionary says it's from
inter- (between) plus
regnum (reign).
You can make a case our nation's normal government is suspended, just by looking at tonight's top diaries. [tue 11pm edt]
We have Schwartzeneger issuing "executive orders". It seems Blackwell might be in a position and willing to rule his electoral opponent ineligible. And Charlie Grapski, running as a Democrat in Florida, arrested on a blatantly false charge. There's more, much more.
A list of just the past few days has police attacking demonstrators, the
de facto suspension of
habeas corpus, a Republican leader, under several criminal clouds, clearly responsible for failing to protect children handing the investigation over to some people who owe him personal favors, Diebold equipment still being used when it is unquestioned that it is hackable, the near-completion of Halliburtons "camps for refugees" inside the US, the continuation of illegal procedures regarding wiretapping, and the treatment of prisoners....
You're all invited to give recent examples of our interregnum. You hear "connect the dots." In this case we can make a 3200 dot-per-inch photograph with no guessing involved about what we're seeing.
Myself, I don't like interregnum so much. It goes back to a period where England got rid of their Kings for awhile, and reg, as I understand, refers to Kings. I'm an American. I've never had a King, and I don't have one now.
But we certainly don't have normal government either. I think it's important to put a name to what we are now experiencing. My Latin is poor and the best I could come up with is "without law" which some website tells me is "Vacuus Lex." Here's a poll. I offer a couple of things, and if you've got better, please say that.