Note 12/4/2021: This article was originally published on June 5, 2019, and appears unchanged below. The "soft coup" this blog post is describing is the Republican self-coup, which is a distinct event from the coup attempt to overthrow the 2020 election. More information on the differences between these two events can be seen in the post below:
https://authenticamericandream.blogspot.com/2021/01/index-of-trump-republican-coup-news-articles-commentary.html
A year after this blog post was written, Trump and the Republican Party enacted the first stage of their coup attempt to rig 2020 election by sabotaging the Postal Service. This blog post shows that it was clear that by early-to-mid-2019, the idea of a coup was no longer beyond the pale for Republican strategists--foreshadowing their move from a self-coup to a "classic" coup attempt. It seems likely that the Republican strategists understood what they had done was a self-coup and were actively primining their base for the incipient 2020 election coup attempt.
Unfortunately, no one took it seriously until it was too late to stop. While the Postal Service was being blatantly sabotaged in plain sight (with Trump publicly stating that his entire goal was to ensure mail-in votes would "be lost"), the Democratic Party just sat and watched. Most of the media didn't even start calling the Republican plan to overthrow the election a coup attempt until the Insurrection happened... Even fewer understand the distinction between the self-coup which subverted our government throughout the entire duration of the Trump administration and the 2020 election coup attempt.
Had we taken the danger seriously back in 2019, we might have been able to stop what was to come. Even I underestimated the danger when writing the concluding thoughts on this post.
Insanely, the Democratic Party and Justice Department still don't seem to be taking the coup attempt seriously, meaning they are inviting the Republicans to continue their illegal activities... May God help us, because our entire government has abandoned us citizens.
Last year, an anonymous article by an individual in the Trump administration was published. In this article, the individual stated that many officials close to the president were doing all they could to keep his regime propped up despite his own incompetence (which included disregarding and disobeying the president's orders when administration officials deemed this to be the best course of action).
An idea which began circulating (including in one of the top comments on that article, as well as from interviews by Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon) was that this was an admission that a "soft coup" had taken place.* Unlike typical coups where the regime changes loudly and chaotically, things were proceeding in a slow, quiet, and orderly fashion.
* (Although commentators and propagandists had previously talked about a "soft coup" taking place, this article was the first piece of actual evidence which, no matter how tenuous, could fit with the soft coup narrative).
It is debatable whether a consistent pattern of administration officials disregarding unhinged orders by the president (not in order uphold their duty to laws, ethics, the Constitution, and America, but in order to keep the Trump administration from collapsing on itself so that it may continue to commit unlawful, unethical, unconstitutional, and un-American acts) is really enough to be called a "coup". However, things start to get more dire when we consider that the entire Republican Party, with almost no exceptions, has been going out of their way to aid Trump in his obstruction of justice (e.g. by individuals such as former House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes blatantly sabotaging investigations) and unhesitatingly parrot his propaganda lines (e.g. numerous Republicans repeating Trump's line that the new House Intelligence Committee chairman, Adam Schiff, should resign (or even be forcibly removed) for daring to believe in facts). This is in addition to the party completely disregarding the Constitution and our system of government in order to steal two seats on the Supreme Court (an act in line with a "classic" coup, and eerily similar to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's far-right hijacking of his nation's court system).
The situation becomes grave when we realize the Republican Party's allegiance to Trump has only deepened every time Trump has urged Russia to hack his opponents and interfere in our system of government, every time Trump sides with Putin and Russian intelligence agencies over US agencies, and every single time new information is released showing the extent to which Trump and his administration and his associates have shady ties with Russian individuals and the Russian government.
Every time individuals connected to the Republican Party--such as Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, national security advisor Michael Flynn, Rick Gates, and numerous others--as well as organizations which are closely associated with right-wing politics--such as the NRA, which was infiltrated by convicted Russian agent Maria Butina and has many shady monetary ties to Russian individuals--are found guilty in criminal activities and conspiring with our enemies, Republican politicians only double-down their support, rather than acting with disgust and renewing their commitment to American values and ridding our nation of un-American individuals who trample on our principles. (Which they would have done, if they ever actually indented on "draining the swamp").
Politicians who not only lived through the Cold War, but some of whom were serving in the US government at the time, are actively (not passively) propping up an administration which is cozy with a former KGB agent. (Although Putin famously declared there is no such thing as an ex-KGB agent, revealing he remains in the Cold War mindset). This is an administration which asked for aid from Russia to get elected and received it in an unprecedented campaign of interference. Politicians who once criticized Obama for not standing up to Russia and other nations with the same firmness which Ronald Reagan rebuked the Soviet Union have done a complete 180.
If this had happened during the Cold War, it would have been considered a coup.
If a presidential candidate, whose ties to the USSR were so suspicious that a counterintelligence investigation was opened to determine whether he was acting as a Soviet agent, won the presidency with the help of Soviet interference in the US elections (which the candidate himself asked the Soviets to do in a public speech!!!), it would have been called it a coup.
If a president who was not only accused of conspiring with the USSR in order to get elected, but also consistently sided with Soviet intelligence agencies and leaders over US agencies and those of our allies, called the investigation into Soviet interference in our elections a "witch hunt" and "hoax" and nonchalantly chatted with the leader of the USSR about this investigation, it would have been recognized for what it was--a coup.
If this president's entire party gave him unconditional support in spite of this obvious corruption, they would be considered participants in the coup.
If media outlets who shared a political orientation with both the president and the USSR gave the president and his party unconditional support in spite of this obvious corruption, they would be considered participants in the coup.
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Now, the word "coup" has moved out of the blog-o-sphere and onto the lips of the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. Even more shockingly, Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has agreed with Trump that he faced a "coup" attempt. (While in the process of writing this article, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi voiced similar concerns to a few of the ones I raise, further validating all my fears.)
Trump has been going on rants and, in essence, claiming the Mueller investigation into potential criminal conspiracy with Russian hackers and obstruction of justice (which Trump is not exonerated from, but, in fact, guilty of), as well as the Democratic Party's feeble attempts to hold him accountable for his high crimes and misdemeanors, is a "coup".
Starting on January 15, 2019, Trump retweeted a post suggesting he was facing a coup. After the redacted version of the Mueller report was released on April 18, Trump personally stated in a number of interviews and speeches that he was facing a coup. Here is a list of all the times Trump has attempted to push his narrative on the ongoing coup.
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During his presidency, Trump has tweeted 12 times about a "coup", all of which happened in 2019.
• January 15, 2019: retweet from Tom Fitton (far-right activist and president of the organization Judicial Watch).
• February 18, 2019: tweet quoting Dan Bongino (right-wing commentator) who appeared on Fox and Friends (one of Trump's favorite TV shows).
• February 18, 2019: tweet quoting Sean Hannity.
• February 23, 2019: retweet from Tom Fitton.
• April 9, 2019: retweet from Tom Fitton.
• April 11, 2019: tweet quoting Maria Bartiromo (Fox News pundit), with a 7 minute Fox News video segment about the how Attorney General Barr alleged "spying" occurred against the Trump campaign. (The quoted part is the final statement in the video).
• April 22, 2019: retweet from Tom Fitton.
• April 22, 2019: retweet from Tom Fitton.
• April 22, 2019: retweet from Tom Fitton.
Source: http://www.trumptwitterarchive.com/archive/coup/ttff
"Really, it's a coup, it's spying, it's everything that you could imagine, it's hard to believe in this country that we would have had that." -Donald Trump, April 25, 2019, call in to the Sean Hannity Show
Source: https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1121585938499608576
"This was a coup. This was an attempted overthrow of the United States government...this was an overthrow, and it's a disgraceful thing, and I think it's far bigger than Watergate, I think it's possibly the biggest scandal in political history in this country, maybe beyond political." -Donald Trump, April 25, 2019, call in to the Sean Hannity Show
Source: https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1121588816719032320
"Again, bigger than Watergate, because it means so much. This was a coup. This wasn't stealing information from an office in the Watergate apartments. This was an attempted coup. Like a third world country. Inconceivable." -Donald Trump, April 25, 2019, call in to the Sean Hannity Show
Source: https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1121590484089094145
"They tried for a coup, it didn't work out so well. And I didn't need a gun for that one, did I? All was taking place at the highest levels in Washington, D.C. You've been watching, you've been seeing. You've been looking at things that you wouldn't have believed possible in our country. Corruption at the highest level, a disgrace. Spying, surveillance. Trying for an overthrow. And we caught them, we caught them." -Donald Trump, April 26, 2019, speech to annual NRA meeting in Indianapolis.
• May 1, 2019: retweet from Judicial Watch Twitter account, with short video segment of Tom Fitton on Sean Hannity's show on Fox News.
• May 5, 2019: retweet from Judeo-Christian demagogue Jerry Falwell Jr.
• May 12, 2019: tweet quoting Tom Fitton.
On May 23 at a press conference Trump once again reiterated the coup narrative and continued his treason accusations. A journalist asked Trump who he believes committed treason, and reminds him that treason is punishable by death under US law. Trump then named James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, and Lisa Page as among the individuals who he believes committed treason. Trump doesn't deny whether or not he believes death is an appropriate punishment, a fact which has not escaped the headlines.
Also on May 23, Trump authorized Attorney General Barr with "full and complete authority" to declassify information to use as propaganda to support the "investigate the investigation" witch hunt. (As a reminder, Barr will likely be held in contempt of Congress because he refuses to allow anyone to see the unredacted Mueller report and its evidence--yet Trump has given him the orders to declassify any information which may paint an unflattering picture of those who dared to investigate Trump for his crimes and corruption...).
On May 24, while talking to reporters, Trump said, "They will be able to see how this hoax, how the hoax or witch hunt started and why it started. It was an attempted coup or an attempted takedown of the president of the United States. It should never have to happen to anybody else. You are going to learn a lot. I hope it will be nice, but perhaps it won't be."
Trump supporters have tried to brush these comments off as just regular Trump-style exaggeration and not things meant to be taken seriously. However, when the President of the United States claims over a dozen times that there has been a coup attempt against him, when the President of the United States commits obstruction of justice while interfering in the investigation which he has labelled a coup attempt, and when the President of the United States continues to push this coup narrative month after month, it is not an innocent exaggeration or a whacky joke.
Source for these stats: https://www.axios.com/president-trump-tweets-engagement-4c6067a8-734d-4184-984a-d5c9151aa339.html
***
There are entire books analyzing the manner in which Trump exaggerates, lies, gaslights, deflects, and distorts words in his propaganda, so I won't exhaustively cover that here. If you've been paying attention at all over the past 3 years, it should be apparent that Trump is attempting to introduce new ideas into the discourse in order to normalize things which should not be considered normal, let alone acceptable. To distract from the ongoing Republican coup, Trump is priming his supporters to engage in the mental gymnastics necessary to believe Democrats and neutral investigators upholding the law tried to start a coup. And the public at large will be gaslighted until it either believes Trump or becomes too worn-down to continue combating his lies and allows the Overton Window to become pushed so far to the right that Trump's narrative becomes normalized.
Coming just weeks after Trump claimed the Mueller report completely exonerated him (despite Attorney General Barr's 3.5 page summary literally containing a quote from Mueller stating he wasn't exonerated), Trump's increasingly-unhinged and unprompted rhetoric about coups should be setting off every single alarm bell in existence. In typical Trump fashion, his rants about coups were interspersed with confusing and illogical acts and connections to Obama and Clinton (and in typical fashion, useful idiots and witting agents in the media will likely spend all their time talking about Trump's statements on the so-called coup by Democrats, just as he wanted, rather than directing their focus on the real issue at hand: TRUMP AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY'S COUP ATTEMPT).
(By the way, the absolutely unhinged idea that Trump opponents and neutral investigators were the ones somehow engaged in a coup is an excellent example of the "Big Lie" technique National Socialists decried--a technique which Trump has constantly employed).
To give a realization of how severely we've been gaslighted and allowed the narrative to become twisted, remember that Republican leaders (and even Trump's own campaign team) are shocked that they managed to get this far.
Lindsey Graham: now licking Trump's boots and helping him obstruct justice as if this never happened. Graham has gone so far as to suggest Donald Trump Jr. should ignore a subpoena issued by the Senate Intelligence Committee (headed by Republican Richard Burr). Demonstrating an insane lack of integrity, Graham is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Even worse, he stated he would declare Trump innocent in the case that impeachment makes its way to the Senate... Many have suggested his change of heart after Trump's election is the result of blackmail--either from Russia or Trump himself.
Democrats were overconfident that they would win in the largest landslide in history, and even Trump's campaign team doubted he would win. Instead, the most-disliked candidate in US history, the most mentally-unstable candidate in US history, and the most brazen liar in US politics wiped the floor with the Democrats. Now Democrats are quaking in their boots and too afraid to impeach him...
Nunes must be shocked that Pelosi and others are actively arguing against impeachment. It looks like there was no need for him to try so hard to obstruct and sabotage the investigations--the Democrats are in power in the House and aren't bothering to hold Trump accountable anyway!
Now let it sink in for a moment that right-wing propagandists news commentators and Congressmen have been attempting to paint the Mueller investigation as a coup as early as December 2017. And, of course, sane people noted that, if anything, Trump and Republicans were the ones gearing up for a coup. A year and a half later, Trump and Republicans have finally openly admitted it: we are in the midst of a coup.
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To give another example of how Trump has been attempting to paint any opposition toward him as illegitimate, throughout the 2016 and 2018 elections, Trump constantly tried to push the hoax that there were millions of illegal votes being cast for the Democratic Party. Instead of being shaken to the core by this utter disregard for our nation's electoral process, these claims don't raise any eyebrows for people who have become used to Trump's lies (but, dangerously, Trump supporters are more than willing to believe these hoaxes the president is pushing!) Beyond this, he has labelled all media unsupportive of him as "the enemy of the American people" and advocated for 'locking up' his political opponents.
Generally, Trump's calls to "lock them up" are just empty rhetoric. However, Trump has recently moved forward to investigate the investigations into himself and suppress any further inquiries into his actions. He has even hinted at the idea that he may prosecute his enemies for treason, and has tweeted multiple times that he is the victim of a 'treasonous hoax'. (As a side note, now that we know where Trump sets the bar for treason, we should have no qualms about trying and executing him and his associates for committing treason with our enemies in Russia, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and elsewhere.)
In other words, Trump is setting the stage not just in terms of rhetoric, but in terms of actual legal proceedings, to ruin the lives of those who dare to uphold the law by investigating his administration's corruption--another action taken by tyrannical regimes in "typical" coups. And his supporters love it.
Developments such as these have caused Democratic Party leader Nanci Pelosi to express concerns that Trump won't step down if he loses the 2020 election. This is major news, considering Pelosi has gained a reputation for being hopelessly over-cautious and unwilling to begin impeachment proceedings and other bare-minimum methods of oversight.
Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer, shared the same concerns. (Cohen began his prison sentence on May 6, 2019. With Cohen's guilty plea to campaign finance violations Trump became an unindicted co-conspirator. In other words, Cohen is going to jail for this but Pelosi and others are unwilling to even attempt to impeach Trump for it).
“My loyalty to Mr. Trump has cost me everything: my family’s happiness, friendships, my law license, my company, my livelihood, my honor, my reputation and, soon, my freedom. And I will not sit back, say nothing, and allow him to do the same to the country,” Cohen said at the hearing’s closing. “Indeed, given my experience working for Mr. Trump, I fear that if he loses the election in 2020 that there will never be a peaceful transition of power, and this is why I agreed to appear before you today.”
Source: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/2/27/18243686/michael-cohen-testimony-closing-statement
As much as I used to believe the idea that Trump may not step down as president was just alarmist nonsense, Trump himself made a tweet implying he would be completely justified if he chose to...
On May 4, Judeo-Christian demagogue Jerry Falwell Jr. posted the following tweet:
Which Donald Trump retweeted on May 5.
A few hours later Trump made a tweet reiterating the "stolen 2 year" sentiment, thereby planting the idea into his followers' minds that he would be justified if he were to take actions extending his term.
"Despite the tremendous success that I have had as President, including perhaps the greatest ECONOMY and most successful first two years of any President in history, they have stolen two years of my (our) Presidency (Collusion Delusion) that we will never be able to get back....."
".....The Witch Hunt is over but we will never forget. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!" -Donald Trump, Tweet, May 5, 2019
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1125235131759960064
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Equally worrying as the ongoing Republican coup is how the Democratic Party is willing to let it happen. Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic Party leaders have said multiple times before and after the Mueller report was released that it's "not worth" attempting to impeach Trump. Pelosi seems to believe that pursuing impeachment will incite more pro-Trump reactionaries to vote than the number of Democrat voters that such an action will inspire.
But in reality, no one is going to bother to show up to the polls to vote for Democrats if the party refuses to do its CONSTITUTIONAL DUTY to impeach a president who violates the Constitution and commits crimes while in office (not to mention, committed crimes in order to obtain that office in the first place!) I don't know why Pelosi thinks Democrat voters don't want to hold Trump accountable for his high crimes and violations of the Constitution...
Although, slightly reassuringly, some prominent Democratic candidates in the 2020 presidential election such as Elizabeth Warren have openly urged for impeachment and made justice an important talking point in their platforms, regardless of Pelosi's position.
The 2016 election was lost due to low voter turnout because individuals who would typically vote for the Democratic Party were too uninspired by one of the most disliked and low-energy candidates in US history, as well as from overconfidence that someone as unstable and incompetent as Trump wouldn't manage to gain any significant support. Yet, here we are again--'do nothings' like Pelosi are making voters apathetic while simultaneously banking everything on the hope that someone as unstable and incompetent as Trump can't possibly win two elections (yet someone as disliked as George Bush managed to win two terms just a decade and a half ago).
***
Getting back on topic, the fact that the Democratic Party leadership is willing to enable this coup is shocking, because their rhetoric shows that they view the situation to be very grave. They are not simply naively ignorant as to what is happening. They are well-aware, yet doing nothing in their power to stop it.
To summarize some recent events: the House Judiciary Committee subpoenaed Attorney General William Barr in order to obtain the unredacted version of the Mueller report. After general refusals and failures to comply with this and other requests by Congress, the Committee gave him a final deadline of 9 AM on May 6. If he did not comply by this date, the Committee would hold a vote on whether to recommend the full House of Representatives vote to hold him in contempt of Congress. (An individual found in contempt of Congress can be jailed or fined until they comply). On May 8, the Committee voted, and agreed that the entire House should now vote on whether to hold him in contempt. Going easy on Barr, the vote in the full House has been scheduled for June 11, over a full month after the line in the sand was drawn.
Immediately after the Committee voted, Committee chairman Jerry Nadler said, "We've talked for a long time about approaching a Constitutional crisis. We're now in it... Now is the time of testing whether we can keep a republic, or whether this republic is destined to change into a different, more tyrannical form of government. We must resist this." Surprisingly, Pelosi was quick to agree that we were indeed in a Constitutional Crisis.
So, in their own words, Democratic Party leadership has declared that a Constitutional crisis began on May 6, 2019. It will continue until action is taken to bring the Attorney General to justice and as well as the President of the United States for his obstruction of justice and other high crimes, misdemeanors, and violations of the Constitution. Every day that impeachment is not pursued is another day that Pelosi and other Democratic Party leaders are actively allowing this Constitutional crisis to be prolonged. They can no longer claim to be passive bystanders--if they allow this to continue, they are just as complicit as Republicans of aiding and abetting the crimes of the administration. If the 2020 election comes and goes without Trump or any of his administration ever finding justice, the most basic aspect of the coup will have succeeded--the president will be above the law and his administration may commit any unethical and illegal acts it wishes.
Instead of backpedaling, Pelosi has continued to amp up her rhetoric. After two years, she is now willing to state the obvious that the president is engaging in a coverup.
"We do believe that it is important to follow the facts, we believe that no one is above the law, including the president of the United States, and we believe the president of the United States is engaged in a cover-up, in a cover-up." -Nancy Pelosi, May 22, 2019
(Every day Pelosi stalls impeachment she is aiding in this coverup.)
In response, Trump said he won't work with Democrats in Congress until they stop investigating him... And, with support from Republicans in Congress, the coup takes another step forward.
In an insult to the American people, Pelosi responded by saying that the White House is "crying out for impeachment" by its increasingly unhinged actions. So, why won't Pelosi uphold her Constitutional duty to impeach already, if the Trump administration is doing everything short of explicitly asking for it? Is a treasonous Senate refusing to indict Trump once impeachment proceedings begin really worse than losing the 2020 election by refusing to begin impeachment in the first place??? If the Senate refuses to convict Trump for obstructing justice, violating the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, and subverting our nation by giving aid and comfort to our enemies, then their actions will forever be on the record and impeachments and legal proceedings against them can move forward. By refusing to do anything, responsibility for Trump's continued tyranny rests squarely on House Majority Leader Pelosi's shoulders, as impeachment begins in the House...
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In spite of Pelosi's stonewalling, an increasing number of Democrats (and even Republicans) are beginning to call for impeachment. Nadler, head of the Judiciary Committee, has been privately urging Pelosi to move forward with impeachment, as he believes it is finally time, it was revealed on May 25. So far, 59 Representatives have publicly come out supporting an impeachment inquiry (a number which has nearly doubled since Mueller gave a press conference reiterating that "If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so.")
Among those Congressmen are long-serving member and chairman of the Financial Services Committee Maxine Waters, the exemplary Rashida Tlaib (who has been urging for impeachment since her very first day in Congress, in addition to being the only member of Congress brave enough to promote the one-state-solution as a bare minimum anti-Zionist policy), high-energy Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Ilhan Omar (the only member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee who has undivided loyalty to America).
To hammer home Pelosi's ineptitude, these Congressmen are merely calling for an "impeachment inquiry". This means committees within the House of Representatives will begin investigating the grounds for impeachment, gathering evidence, and determining precisely which charges to bring against him. If the committee agrees that high crimes and misdemeanors have been committed, and therefore that impeachment is warranted, they will introduce the articles of impeachment to the full House to vote on (this vote is the actual impeachment).
By beginning the impeachment inquiry, Congress gains more leverage to obtain documents and other evidence they may desire to build a case against the president. Some excuses Trump has been using to sabotage investigations are that he has executive privilege and that the evidence being requested by Congress is not necessary for them to see in order to do their duties.
Impeachment is a Constitutional power of Congress and therefore Trump can't use the excuse that handing over evidence is not necessary for Congress to exercise oversight. As for the weak excuse of executive privilege (which Trump has already waived), the Supreme Court case United States v. Nixon already ruled that the president does not have unlimited ability to claim executive privilege to obstruct an investigation. Pelosi keeps talking about how she wants to have investigations and hearings to shape public opinion--well, an impeachment inquiry investigation is the only real tool Congress has left to gain the upper hand on Trump before the clock runs out.
With Mueller's press conference on May 29, Nadler stated the obvious that it is now up to Congress to move forward and that the president should not be above the law. Before Mueller gave this conference 70% of Democrat voters supported impeachment. In the wake of Mueller's conference, even countless mainstream media organizations are running massive headlines that it is time to impeach.
Pelosi continues to twiddle her thumbs and be unwilling to do her job as a LEADER and LEAD the House towards supporting impeachment. Worse, her weak and cynical position that Republicans in the Senate will clear the president of any charges arising from impeachment has become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
For example, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman and professional bootlicker Lindsey Graham recently said "I think it would be disposed of very quickly." Senate Judiciary Committee member John Cornyn, taking full advantage of the House's wimpiness, said "It would be defeated. That’s why all they want to do is talk about it. They know what the outcome would be."
It is easy for these Senators to grandstand when they don't actually have to vote on whether to charge the president with his crimes. They might not be so cocky if they were actually faced with having to remain forever on the record as acquitting the most criminal president we have ever seen. But as long as Pelosi maintains a weak posture, these Senators will never be taken to task and forced to make good on their word. Instead, Pelosi will appear to be the one who has acquitted Trump via never beginning impeachment proceedings, "vindicating" Trump just the same in the eyes of Republicans...
And, with this Republican insistence that they will clear the president should impeachment move forward, the coup moves one step forward.
***
Al Green is absolutely correct, Democrats will lose in 2020 if they do not impeach. On the right, Trump will appear vindicated. On the left, no one is going to bother to show up to vote for a party who can't do their bare minimum duty to impeach the most corrupt and unethical president this nation has ever seen... Over 76% of Democrat voters support impeachment. 218 votes in the House are needed for impeachment and Democrats hold 235 seats. Thus far, 59 Representatives have publicly spoken in favor of impeachment--in other words, the House is nearly 30% of the way there in spite of Pelosi telling her party to stop talking about impeachment every chance she gets!!! And, of course, a majority of Democrats in the House would likely support it overnight if Pelosi just had the courage to approve of it.
As for anyone who thinks Pelosi is just publicly appearing to oppose impeachment while having a behind-the-scenes master plan to slowly order other politicians to come out in favor for it as public pressure mounts...well, on May 22 Pelosi had closed-door meetings where she, again, urged Democrats not to move forward with impeachment. Then, on May 23, repeated the defeatist talking point that they shouldn't even bother with impeachment since the Republican-majority Senate won't convict him for his crimes.
This isn't a superhero movie. There is no guarantee that someone is going to swoop in at the last moment and save the world and have us all live happily ever after. Anyone who urges us to keep waiting and unconditionally trust that Pelosi is a movie superhero with an infallible master plan is trying to lull you into complacency.
This is the same complacency that lost the 2016 election when we were so sure the supervillain couldn't win, and the same complacency that led to letdown and apathy when the Mueller report was released (as people had been saying for years that Mueller had a grand master plan and contingencies for every possible situation thrown at him) and yet Trump was not indicted for obstructing justice up to a dozen times.
In order to actually fix our country, we need to keep the pressure up on Pelosi, Trump, and all others who are trying to subvert our nation. We will not wait any longer for justice. We shouldn't have had to wait this long in the first place. Impeachment must begin NOW. Democrats took control of the House of Representatives on January, 3, 2019. The redacted version of the Mueller report was released on April 18. These were both prime opportunities to impeach, and by squandering these pivotal moments Pelosi is aiding and abetting Trump by denying the American people justice. Instead of being a leader and leading the American people towards justice, her actions have been suppressing grassroots support for impeachment among the public and she has tried to nip impeachment talk in the bud every time Congressmen bring it up!
"We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was 'well timed'... For years now I have heard the word 'Wait!' ... This 'Wait' has almost always meant 'Never.' We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that 'justice too long delayed is justice denied.'" -Martin Luther King, Letter from a Birmingham Jail
But, in a rare glimmer of hope, members of the House of Representatives are moving forward. In the wake of Mueller's press conference, the House Judiciary Committee is beginning to hold hearings related to the Mueller report. But, these hearings will fall flat and all this momentum will be squandered if these 'regular' hearings do not turn into IMPEACHMENT HEARINGS. Will Democrats blow their third, and likely last, opportunity to begin impeachment?
***
***
If the Democratic Party and a Democratic president had even contemplated 1/100th of what Trump and the Republicans have already done and are currently doing, Republicans would have declared their actions tantamount to a coup attempt and pursued ruthless legal action to stop them.
Now, Trump himself has admitted it: we are in the midst of a coup. Republican Party leader in the House Kevin McCarthy has also admitted it. Democratic Party leadership has admitted it as well: the actions being taken by Trump and the Republican Party make it plausible they will not concede power if they lose the 2020 election, and we have entered into an ongoing Constitutional crisis.
Say it out loud to yourself: we are in the midst of a coup. This is no longer bloggers and news article commenters making tentative connections and editorialized claims. The president himself is using these words, completely unprompted, to control the narrative and normalize and justify his past, present, and--god-forbid--future actions; and reaction by the leadership of the Democratic Party has validated that a coup in the executive branch is a genuine threat.
Although we have a tendency to think things like this can't happen in the 21st century, recall that just a few years ago Turkey went through what many considered an engineered coup in order for the ruling party to consolidate control. It's not that unthinkable. Afterall, throughout the entire Obama presidency and most of the Bush presidency, millions of people found it believable enough that the US was on the verge of the president declaring martial law and entering into a dystopia. Such a doomsday prophecy never materialized (unless you consider the erosion of personal liberties in the wake of 9/11 as a manifestation of this), but neither of the past two presidents conspired with and were heavily compromised by our nation's most powerful adversary, nor did they casually talk about the US being in the midst of a coup...
Instead of the mysterious so-called "deep state" subverting the government, the very politicians peddling this conspiracy have been the ones subverting our nation in front of our eyes. (Although I suppose career-conniver William Barr's attempted coverup of the Mueller report and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin's illegal refusal to allow Congress to examine the president's tax returns qualifies them as members of the corrupt "deep state".)
***
Now, before anyone accuses me of sensationalism, I believe it is unlikely that Trump will one day declare martial law and announce himself leader for life, or some worst-case apocalyptic scenario similar to that (I probably wouldn't have even used the word "coup" if Trump wasn't so insistent on injecting it into the discourse). Historically, this was never necessary for tyranny to entrench itself in the US (e.g. see: slavery, Jim Crow laws, tyranny by corrupt police forces, the "drug war," the post-9/11 'security state', and on-going attempts to "Make America Great Again" by reviving Jim Crow cultural attitudes). Nor has this been necessary in other present-day democracies which have had far-right parties ascend to the government. (I already mentioned Hungary, but the entire V4 in the EU has similar tendencies. This is not even mentioning what Trump's role model, Putin, has been doing or how Israel--"the only democracy in the Middle East"--has been a Western-approved apartheid state for its 70-year existence).
Besides, Trump did not need to give himself dictatorial powers to already do unspeakable damage to our nation, which started before he was even elected and continued from the very second when he took office. So far under his administration Republican policies and attitudes have caused a surge in Islamophobia, began an ethnic cleansing of Latino immigrants (and ruthless intimidation of US citizens of Latino heritage), increased police tyrannization of communities targeted by the "war on drugs", and normalized open white supremacy (recall Trump's remark calling Neo-Nazis and White Nationalists in Charlottesville "fine people"), just to scratch the surface. All of this is completely legal and ostensibly Constitutional (as was slavery, I will remind you). Such tribalism, however, is fundamentally anti-American.
Further, the government itself is not the only source tyranny. Trump's rhetoric supporting division and praising white supremacy has emboldened individuals to take unlawful action to further white supremacist goals. For example, the far-right militia leader in New Mexico who detained migrants, the White Supremacist who murdered Heather Heyer with his car in Charlottesville (and wounded 35 more), and countless others too small to make headlines. Russians and Republicans don't need to conduct brazen regime change or change in form of government to further the culture war and "overthrow" American values and ethics (such as anti-tribalism, etc.) and replace them with un-American values (such as white supremacy, sexism, Islamophobia, Zionism, etc.). Indeed, domestic right-wing terrorists have been considered the greatest threat to the US for some time.
And when you consider the increasing organization of far-right ideological and paramilitary groups, as well as the ever-increasing popularity of obsessive, cult-like right-wing conspiracies like "Pizzagate" and QAnon, and the belief among White Supremacists that the point of no return for the demise of the "white race" is only years away, the "culture war" could very well turn in to something more than a mere metaphor. QAnon followers fantasize that what is essentially a Soviet-style purge of all liberal-leaning politicians, businessmen, and intellectuals is imminent. Trump is claiming, in essence, that the simple existence of opponents and individuals within his own party (Mueller, Rosenstein, Comey, and others are Republicans, mind you) who dare to run investigations and hold him accountable is a coup. How long before Trump directs a "will no one rid me of this turbulent priest" sentiment to his followers? Afterall, he already asked Russia to hack his opponents if they were listening.
This isn't just a few insane individuals who believe in this stuff, but millions of people, many of whom possess wealth and influential positions in business, police forces, and politics. On a more basic level, no social media or news website is able to escape from propagandists pushing these beliefs in comment sections. We have all seen them or even interacted with them in person, and it will be to our own peril if we continue to trivialize the danger brewing in our society.
***
Even in the event that Trump is impeached or loses the 2020 election and concedes without a fuss, Americans will have to deal with a Republican Party that is not merely "compromised" but actively acting in the interests of a hostile foreign nation without any reservations and willing to subvert our laws and government to further their party's political goals. In other words, if the Republican coup does not move into the next stage in the executive branch of our government, it is already in operation--and succeeding--in the legislative and judicial branches. (Not to mention succeeding on a cultural/societal level). At this point, it appears the leaders of the Democratic Party (such as Nancy Pelosi) are content to allow this to happen, so they are complicit in the coup as well.
And, as always, I would like to take time to remind everyone that tyranny of the majority is what has enabled all of this to occur. When a majority of individuals are willing to actively support or passively enable bigotry, tribalism, and tyranny, the Constitution can do nothing to stop it. When a majority of politicians and citizens are willing to actively support or passively enable disregarding all the hypothetical "checks and balances" written into the Constitution to stop bigotry, tribalism, and tyranny, democracy merely reaps what it sows.
May God help us.
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." -John F. Kennedy, address to the Canadian Parliament (1961).
