Status of Trump’s Attempted Coup
Reader A submitted the assertion to the left, and Reader B commented, “Yes it was. It just wasn’t set up for that person to be supported by sycophantic power hungry assholes to let him have his way. That’s where the problem lies.”
Reader B has nailed this, IMHO. Had Donald Trump come along, and kept his outrageous behavior to a simple blend of pathological lying, fraud, extortion, witness tampering, abusing his powers, coddling dictators, encouraging racial violence, kicking people off healthcare, and dismantling the federal government, everything would have been fine. Our country is more than equipped to deal with four years of that.
Similarly, if, when Trump crossed the line and began squeezing state officials to break their oaths, and commit treason against their country, had the Senate pulled the plug with the 25th Amendment or some other instrument, that would have been fine too.
Where Reader B got this right, again IMO, is that the framers of the Constitution couldn’t have imagined a case where both the president and the senate would conspire to wrest control of the entire federal government into their own hands.
Now, at this point in time (late in the day, November 20, 2020), it’s still likely that we will put a spear through this constitutional crisis, largely because he and his team are so comically inept. This whole effort is thwarted to a degree by the fact Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, knows no more about election law than my auto mechanic.
With that in mind this attempted coup, will not result in our becoming Russia, China, North Korea, or any of the other 40 – 50 dictatorships around the world. But, give Trump credit, his incompetence notwithstanding, it appears that there are no lengths to which he would push this country in order to retain power, and ultimately make it permanent.
It’s one of these things where, if it weren’t so dangerous, it would be great fun to watch. As someone said recently, it’s like being strapped to a chair and forced to watch a toddler play with a handgun.
