Some laughed at the ridiculousness of Trump’s scheme to somehow get judges, or state legislatures, or the Electoral College to anoint him the victor of an election that he couldn’t win by getting the most votes – either by popular count or in the Electoral College. Such an insensible takeover is based in the fantastic conception that the election was rigged in some kind of Democrat conspiracy.
Trump began conniving months before Election Day to instill the idea of this conspiracy. Fearing defeat, he began setting up his plans to try to overturn, by any means necessary, a fair and democratic election that would remove him from office. National opinion columnist Will Bunch, says, “In a nation that stakes its claim to 'exceptionalism' on 44 peaceful transfers of power (despite one that wasn’t) over 231 years, its current leader is attempting a coup.”
(Will Bunch.“Trump, GOP’s ridiculous, flailing coup isn’t a joke. It’s a crime. There must be consequences.” The Philadelphia Enquirer. November 22, 2020.)
A coup d'etat? What exactly is a coup?
According to editors of the Encyclopedia Brittanica, a “coup d’état,” also called a “coup,” is the the sudden, violent overthrow of an existing government by a small group. The chief prerequisite for a coup is control of all or part of the armed forces, the police, and other military elements. Unlike a revolution, which is usually achieved by large numbers of people working for basic social, economic, and political change, a coup is a change in power from the top that merely results in the abrupt replacement of leading government personnel.
Some scholars say what happened on January 6, 2021, in Washington D.C. by a group of right-wing thugs was “election violence,” similar to what is seen in some foreign countries in violent overthrows of governments. They claim those who staged the attempt were not “agents of the state, such as military officials or rogue governmental officials.” Instead, they say, it appears those involved were “civilians,” or people not directly affiliated with the government or active-duty military branches.
However, the the Coup D’etat Project at the Cline Center for Democracy at the University of Illinois’ Cline Center for Democracy wrote in 2013:
“We define a coup d’état (a French term for overthrowing the government) as the sudden and irregular (i.e., illegal or extralegal) removal, or displacement, of the executive authority of an independent government.”
Under this definition by the Cline Center, the action on January 16 at the United States Capitol was a coup d-etat.
Other names for the actions of the mob include “insurrection.” According to Merriam-Webster, "insurrection" is the "act of revolting against civil authority or an established government." Other description of insurrection, like that of the Cambridge Dictionary, specify the act is usually a violent one. Synonyms include "revolt" or "uprising," according to Merriam-Webster.
"What happened here today was an insurrection, incited by the President of the United States," Sen. Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah, said in his remarks on the Senate floor late Wednesday night after the Capitol was secured.
(Louis Jacobson. “Is this a coup? Here’s some history and context to help you decide.” Politifact. January 6, 2021.)
Sedition is also a crime under the U.S. Code, which characterizes it as two or more people who conspire to overthrow the U.S. government, or "prevent, hinder, or delay the execution" of U.S. law by force. It's punishable by a fine and up to 20 years in prison.
Some elected officials have leveled the accusation of sedition squarely at President Trump, including New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Sam Liccardo, mayor of San Jose, California, and a former federal prosecutor. In a statement, he said that the President "should be tried for sedition."
(Louis Jacobson. “Is this a coup? Here’s some history and context to help you decide.” Politifact. January 6, 2021.)
Insurrection and Sedition – a Coup?
Are we splitting hairs with a formal semantics inquiry about what to “call” the actions of an angry, aggressive mob of anarchists on December 6, 2021, in Washington DC? Perhaps. The ugly violence and destruction on that infamous day are fully evidenced in film and voice recordings. The actions of the mob were evil. Period. However, exacting details is necessary both to understanding the truth and to punishing those responsible.
More broadly the kind of activity involving breaking into the Capitol Building and damaging property of the Capitol Building, taking things from the Capitol falls pretty squarely under the legal definition of a “riot.” Was the riotous activity done in a coup – “the removal, or displacement of the executive authority of a government”?
Some are saying the actions on Wednesday constitute a coup because protesters breached the Capitol as lawmakers were carrying out their constitutional duty to count Electoral College votes and choose the next president.
Anthony Clark Arend, a specialist in international law at Georgetown University, said that he’s skeptical of labeling the lawmakers’ challenges to the electoral vote count a coup, but he thinks it could be valid for the storming of the Capitol. Arend said …
"I do think the violent actions by the protesters currently occupying part of the Capitol could be seen as a coup attempt. To the extent to which the president can be seen as encouraging these actions, I would argue that he is supporting a coup attempt."
(Louis Jacobson. “Is this a coup? Here’s some history and context to help you decide.” Politifact. January 6, 2021.)
Rep. Adam Kinziger, R-Ill., said, "Anywhere else in the world, we would call this a coup attempt, and that's what I think it is."
NBC News’ Lester Holt said, "There have been some elements of a coup attempt."
"Invading the national legislature through force sounds like a coup; peaceful protest is obviously not," said Michael Klarman, a Harvard Law School professor.
Retired Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a key witness in the impeachment hearings against President Trump, told CNN's Anderson Cooper Thursday he thought the events at the Capitol could be categorized as a "failed coup."
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, wrote in a statement Wednesday evening: "We must call today's violence what it actually is: a failed attempt at a coup."
(Louis Jacobson. “Is this a coup? Here’s some history and context to help you decide.” Politifact. January 6, 2021.)
It is my unprofessional and admittedly limited opinion that, “failed” or not, an attempted coup is a coup just as Shakespeare's proverbial “rose by any other name would smell as sweet” – but in this case offensively odoriferous. The stink will linger in the halls of the Capitol long after repairs to the structure conceal the mob's physical destruction.
Back in November 2020, the writer Indi Samarajiva, who lives in Sri Lanka and headlined his piece, “I Lived Through a Stupid Coup. America Is Having One Now,” wrote about living through a ridiculous failed coup in his homeland two years before and how the people’s seeming victory was followed by legitimate but weakened and inept government and then deadly violence on an Easter Sunday that killed 269 people. He saw Trump’s America that November as already way too far down this track. Samarajiva wrote …
“There’s a ticking bomb at the heart of your democracy now. Your government, the very idea of governance is fatally wounded. Chaos has been planted at its heart. I don’t know what this chaos will grow into, but I can promise you this. It won’t be good.”
(Indi Samarajiva. “I Lived Through A Stupid Coup. America Is Having One Now.” indica.medium.com. November 10, 2020.)
An addition, in November, Wall Street Journal opinion columnist and former editor Gerard Baker wrote
“To launch a coup you need more than a giant, suppurating grievance and access to Twitter. You need a fanatical commitment, a detailed plan, an energy, a sophisticated apparatus of revolution.”
Jonathan Chait, pundit and writer for New York Magazine, answered Baker saying …
“Not exactly. Those are the things one needs to carry out a coup. To merely launch a coup, you only need a party leader who refuses to abide by an election and recruits allies to cancel its result. That isn’t a fright story told by wild-eyed liberals. It’s what’s happening right now.”
(Jonathan Chait. “A Disturbing Number of Republicans Support Trump’s Coup Attempt.” Intelligencer. November 17, 2020.)
And, recruitment and recruits there were. A whopping 106 House Republicans signed their names to an amicus brief sent to the Supreme Court in support of a lawsuit by Texas attorney general Ken Paxton. Paxton, reportedly under investigation by the FBI for bribery and abuse of office – allegations he of course denies – falsely claimed in his suit that Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin violated the Constitution by counting invalid votes. The brief asked the court to force all four states to throw out every vote cast and, while they’re at it, to appoint electors who support Trump.
(Bess Levi.' “106 House Republicans Back Trump's Bid to Overthrow the Government.” Vanity Fair. December 10, 2020.)
In nonsensical, ridiculous partisan-Trump support, over a quarter of Senate Republicans and possibly scores of House Republicans had planned to dispute the results of the 2020 general election.
The Senate – after the mob rioted – voted 93-6 against objections to Arizona's vote certification. Republican senators Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Cindy Hyde-Smith, John Neely Kennedy, Roger Marshall and Tommy Tuberville all carried through with objecting to the electors.
No longer is talk of Trump attempting a coup a laughing matter. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Democrats are prepared to move forward with impeachment next week if President Donald Trump doesn't resign.
Governor Andrew Cuomo joined other Democrats in the country in calling for President Donald Trump to immediately resign from office, and Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski joined the chorus, making her the first Republican senator to say he should leave office. Cuomo said …
"I call on every New York federal official to call on president Trump's resignation. Don't put the country through impeachment. Don't wait for any cabinet action. Call for him to resign as his own act."
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell has joined those calling for President Donald Trump's term to abruptly end by saying Trump should resign.
Even the The Wall Street Journal editorial board on called on Trump to resign.
However,
You and I … and the rest of world that has followed his presidency … know that Trump will not concede to losing the 2020 election, nor will he resign. He has no interest in the future of American democracy, the Constitution, or the welfare of the common people of the United States.
Once in the position of most powerful individual on the face of the earth, Trump pursued his own narcissistic interests of gaining more money, power, and domination. The autocrat created his Mighty Red Kingdom by inculcating a Make-It-Great Again cult of subservient right-wingers with promises like building walls to keep out the riff-raff and making tough laws to thwart socialistic government takeovers.
Crowds adored the King as he played upon their xenophobic fears of diversity, their inner feelings of White fragility, and their lingering mistrust of black and brown Americans. Swells of devoted servants cheered as he promised more access to guns, money, and Jesus.
And, as the monarch manipulated his faithful with displays of personal machismo, his notorious legend grew ever stronger and ever more egotistical – he became the stable genius who conquered COVID-19, the statesman who avoided World War III while smiting Kim Jong-un with Cupid's love, the legendary pussy grabber who scored untold liaisons with “beautiful pieces of ass,” and the only man in America who could “stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and wouldn’t lose any voters.”
In short time, Trump morphed into his holy role of “The Great White Chosen One.” He became a prophet to those who called themselves Evangelicals, conservatives, right-to-lifers, Second Amendment defenders, right-wing conspirators, millionaires, billionaires … and, of course, to those militias in his midst – Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Three Percenters, and members of the Ku Klux Klan, the Army of God, the White League, and the Aryan Nations. Never objecting to their inclusion in his flock, Trump embraced these terrorist militia groups as his allies and enforcers while successfully manipulating them under the banners of America, Trump USA, and even the Confederacy.
All of these self-proclaimed patriots played parts – direct or indirect but pivotal – in sedition, insurrection, rioting, and yes … in the attempted coup. The common and key element of their belief was, and still is, the devotion to the MAGA King. Without the encouragement of Trump to overturn the certified election results, none of the mayhem, destruction, and death on January 6, 2021, would have happened.
They, all of the Trump faithful, own the execution of the coup d’état. What remains after the attempt is their obligation to take corrective actions in the aftermath. The cult is revealed. Is this now the end of their allegiance to crazed anarchy and sedition, or is it just a terrible beginning of a revolt resulting from an undying allegiance to an unhinged autocrat who cares nothing about the United States of America?
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