Trump Has Proven the US Is Ripe for a Right-wing Coup
So, my take on Trump was always that he wasn’t a coup threat because he was too incompetent to pull it off, but that he was dangerous in the sense that he was showing someone who IS competent what was possible.
I still think that’s the case. He’s a boob.
But Trump has proven something important today: Capitol police, whose job is to protect Congress, just let the protestors through. They removed barriers and even took selfies with them.
If an Antifa group had tried this, swarming up, trying to climb through windows, shoving aside barriers, lounging in the Speaker’s Office, they’d have been shot down like dogs. Instead, I’m seeing arrest totals of around fifteen.
So what we now know is that when a serious right-wing mob or militia, one that really does intend to overthrown US government (this group did not), shows up, the cops will not stop them; their opposition will be no more than token.
At that point, it will come down to the military. In this case, it’s clear the military would not acquiesce, but for a President who gets the military onside enough to at least paralyze them, or is smart enough to make sure that the colonels or generals in charge of capitol-adjacent troops are on his side or will not intervene, the coup will succeed.
Anyway, the US is now a pre-coup nation. The necessary conditions are in place: vast inequality, poverty, a stabbed-in-the-back narrative, and a storyline that a right-wing President was overthrown through voter fraud. The police have indicated they will not stop a coup. All that remains necessary is to paralyze the military, or make a deal with them, and a smart, would-be dictator will be able to do the job.
I don’t say this lightly, and I don’t say it WILL happen. I don’t know if it will. But the conditions for it are there.
Note that the conditions are there, right now, for a right-wing coup, not a left-wing one. The cops and many members of the military are sympathetic to the right, not the left.
I’ve been saying for some time that left-wing people should consider getting out of the US if they can, and if not, figure out how to protect themselves from what is coming.
That is now more true than ever. A right-wing coup in the next ten years or so, or a civil war is now at least in coin-flip probability territory.
Might avoid it; might get lucky. But it is a bet and one with near equal odds.
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I didn’t think of myself as criticizing Ian’s management of his site, but that’s what I guess I was doing, and I apologize. It’s his site. My intended target was his menagerie of commenters (i.e. YOU). Thank you for thanking me for my interest in your comments, but I doubt that it will continue much longer and I hope you’re not too crushed. Soon enough you will be deprived of my odious trollery.
I know for an absolute fact the DOD of the USA has a contingency for dealing with enemies domestic and internal. Anyone not duly elected is not going to take control of anything. This is wargamed all the time. Further yesterday’s farce was by design. Pence & McConnell are not stupid, they did something to discredit those who wanted to challenge the electoral vote counts and Trump. Easy: trump [sic] started the riot and then it was allowed to happen. 4 dead not bad. Coup, madmen, riots, doesn’t matter trump et al will always be considered crazy at best and traitors at worst. What comes next if your poor and in the working class – misery. The only way to create equality and equity in this society is make sure people have enough money. That’s sort of a place holder for a decent life. It can be achieved in a number ways. As a student of Jared Diamond I’d say, there will be blood, & a civil war. But this is a global thing, not just American. In some ways we are at war with reality. Reality doesn’t care. As for god, be careful what you pray for.
Sad news to report, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has resigned. This on top of Elaine Chao’s resignation earlier in the day.
@Hugh,
It’s the rats who leave the sinking ship. We will see what other rats try to save themselves from the sinking ship.
poor Betsy all alone in that big house . . . and that other big house and the other . . . no one to turn to but a brother with a murderous private army
Scrolling past people we are not interested in reading is so easy. If, for some reason, I can not or will not, scroll past people that don’t say things that interest me, I really don’t see why that is Ian’s responsibility.