I haven't seen much of this, but any sighting of a "hey, wouldn't it be great if the generals and admirals launch a coup" MUST be met with opposition and a bit of reality.
The reality is that when militaries seize power:
a) they govern poorly since they have no expertise.
b) they don't always relinquish power that readily. They come in and then they may not give power back that readily.
c) who would they give power to? Holding an election run by a military often leads to pretty bad results.
d) even if they return power to the civilians and we get a new democracy, the taboo has been broken, and future coups become that much more imaginable and likely. The biggest correlation or factor associated with coups is a history of coups.
e) a coup might not be that peaceful. Since the US military has no practice and since there are other federal agencies that would be opposed (ICE in particular), you might see violence between the military and other feds.
f) the military itself might fracture, leading to a civil war.
I have too much other stuff to do today to find the citations for all of this, but while there is often much disagreement among scholars, most of what I listed above is pretty much the consensus. Do not ask for a coup--you have no idea what you would be summoning. There is no unringing that bell. Yes, Trump autocracy is awful, but a military regime would not save democracy, but it might condemn the US to perpetual instability. Getting rid of Trump and Trumpism is going to be hard, and a coup is not an "easy solution." It will be up to protestors, voters, and, yes, elected officials and judges.
No comments:
Post a Comment