|
Your question is too abstract. You need to at least have some idea what kind of circumstances have arisen that could create even the slightest prospect of such a scenario. In the last century there are arguably two times when a coup was even remotely conceivable, and they were both such extreme scenarios that they should give you a good idea of how unlikely such an event is. The Cuban missile crisis and the end-game of Nixon's impeachment. So that's roughly the kind of situation you'd have to be looking for: Trump is engaged in a military standoff with another nuclear armed power and a significant part of the military beleives his actions are creating an existential threat. Or Trump is facing impeachment but refuses to resign and is possibly even exploring options to hold onto power through the military (there have been some claims that Nixon may have briefly considered this). Since this thread is already deep into tinfoil hat territory it's worth pointing out that some of Nixon's aids have argued, not without a certain plausibility, that Watergate was an invisible coup against Nixon. Given that the CIA and FBI were implicated in both the break-in and the leaks that destroyed Nixon it's not a bad model to look at. A direct coup against a President would generate a catastrophic blow-back, not just domestically but internationally as well. But debilitating an administration from within through leaks and investigations from the internal security forces might achieve similar results without the massive risk of destabilizing the country.
|
#
¿
Dec 13, 2016 01:02
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 10, 2024 19:30 |
|
|
I think the real danger of a Trump presidency is not that he has entered government with a blueprint for establishing a fascist dictatorship, but rather the question of how he might react to a severe crisis. We're all trained by movies and comic books and other media to think that government takeovers happen when an evil genius takes power and enacts a brilliant master-plan they've been crafting for many years. The much more plausible and frightening scenario is that the goobers Trump surrounds himself with have a series of improvised reactions to some unanticipated crisis which have the side-effect of seriously damaging America's already frayed democratic institutions. The most sinister thing that the Republicans have probably entered office planning to do is to appoint justices, change finance laws, and enable voter suppression measures that will help their party hold onto power for longer without expanding beyond its shrinking base of white support. Again, chances are this is less of a master-plan and more a series of improvised or reactive responses to a deteriorating situation. This might become even more urgent if their policy agenda blows up in their face, as it's likely to do. The result wouldn't be a coup or takeover, it'd just be a severe weakening of already existing institutions and maybe the creation of some new anti-democratic institutions. This kind of death by a thousand cuts scenario seems far more likely than a violent seizure of power.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 13, 2016 20:01
|
|
|
drilldo squirt posted:I think enjoying the state suppressing people's rights is incredibly un-American and a betrayal of everything the founding fathers stood for. I know we all just pretend slavery wasn't a thing for the purpose of conversations like this, but even ignoring that particular omission, do you know anything about the conditions that lead to the drafting of the current American constitution?
|
|
#
¿
Dec 14, 2016 23:11
|
|