Of Course Trump’s Coup Would Be Soft

Ya know who made this pt in 2017, well before his run —@BetoORourke

But: still does matter in less sexy races, especially in House, state lege and, to chew a favorite rag, gov races https://t.co/ez8HMAhjec

— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) January 11, 2021

"Less sexy races" like Hawley's campaign for POTUS?

Make no mistake, the politicians who challenged the 2020 election results weren't doing so because they thought it would work. They did it so they could get free airtime and raise money for 2024.

And it blew up spectacularly in their faces. https://t.co/zonVLuKn4r

— Dan K. Eberhart (@DanKEberhart) January 11, 2021

Not to mention:

Very real concern among Rs working on senate races that Rick Scott, who backed the objections to the PA results, won’t now be able to raise money as NRSC chair as companies balk at giving to Rs who took that move.

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 11, 2021

And to the "but unity!" crowd:

"I've been studying authoritarian regimes for three decades, and I know the signs of a coup when I see them," writes former Trump administration official Fiona Hill https://t.co/0UwkCtwA5L

— POLITICO Magazine (@POLITICOMag) January 11, 2021

Fiona Hill has interesting things to say about coups and how they are usually carried out:

There’s a standard coup “checklist” analysts use to evaluate coups. We can evaluate Trump’s moves to prevent the peaceful transfer of executive power against it. To successfully usurp or hold power, you need to control the military and paramilitary units, communications, the judiciary, government institutions, and the legislature; and mobilize popular support.

Let's consider one or two of them:

Communications: In the old days, coup plotters would seize the Central Telegraph or Post Office, and later, radio and TV towers. Trump put a loyalist in charge of the Post Office. He did not take TV and radio by storm, but he discredited the “mainstream media” who were critical of his actions as the “Enemy of the People” and recruited or pressured FOX news, Newsmax, OAN, and social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook into participants in his efforts to sway public opinion in his favor. Twitter, in essence, was Trump’s equivalent of the TV and radio tower. He directly messaged the 88 million people who “followed” his account. He used social media and cable news to propagate false self-serving narratives, reinforce messages to provide justification for his actions, and mobilize his supporters.

Really most unfair to cut off his access to Twitter after the coup failed, no?

The legislature: Finally, Trump usurped the Republican Party. He claimed the more than 74 million who voted for him in November 2020 as his personal base—his popular support. He threatened to destroy the careers of Republican members of Congress who did not favor overturning the election result. At the Jan. 6 rally preceding the storming of the Capitol, Donald Trump Jr. even referred to the GOP as the “Trump Republican Party.” In the end, even after the Capitol was seized by Trump’s violent mob, 147 Republican members of Congress, led by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, did endorse some of Trump’s efforts to challenge the 2020 election results and overturn the constitutional order. So did Sens. Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz and six other politically ambitious senators who wanted to tap into Trump’s popular support. In this way, Trump’s control of the legislature and a significant popular mandate was almost within his reach. 

And a recap/consideration of the outcome:

So, what thwarted Trump’s slow motion, in-plain-sight attempt at a self-coup? Fortunately, there was pushback from all the key institutions you need for a coup....major media outlets reported the facts truthfully. Social media outlets flagged the president’s lies about the election—albeit belatedly—and Twitter and Facebook ultimately cut off his accounts. Third, the judiciary and courts held firm....in the legislature, the vice president performed his constitutional role, as did the Republican Senate majority leader and most of the Senate. The only two elements that rallied behind the president’s coup attempt were the handful of senators and the majority of House Republicans and his popular support, in the form of an insurgency—the mob that stormed the Capitol. 

I've elided a bit, for brevity. I included the bit about "major media outlets" because I'd say they finally started reporting the truth when it was plain Trump had (a) lost the election and (b) was, despite that loss, insisting that he hadn't lost, and (c) didn't finally get blunt about it until Wednesday evening of last week.  He'd been advocating this outcome for a long time, as Hill notes; the media finally decided to call Trump on it when it became clear it was safe to do so.  Sort of like Walter Cronkite finally turning "against the war," although Cronkite did that in '68, Nixon won re-election in '72, and the U.S. wasn't out of Vietnam until '75.  And still Cronkite was bolder than any reporter who waited until this past week to note the President had gone too far.

The good news for the United States is that Trump’s “self-coup” failed. The bad news is that his supporters still believe the false narrative, the Big Lie that he won the election. Trump has not repudiated it, nor have the House and Senate Republicans who voted against the Electoral College results. Millions of people still think the election was stolen. They still support Trump the person, not the Republican Party, and many are prepared to take further action on his behalf.

That's pretty much on our government and our elected officials, not the media. I'm not sure what we do about that, but expelling Hawley and Cruz from the Senate, and at least censuring Gohmert and Brooks (who really should be expelled, too) and Johnson in the Senate (another candidate for expulsion, IMHO.  At this point, I'm in favor of a rather large scale purge, in fact), as well as the House Minority Leader and frankly most of the Republicans in the House, is in order.  We really should not pass this off as "whatever the voters of their district/state will tolerate."  That Congress is the people's; the rest of us have a say in who gets to sit there.