Liberal Coup Dreams Are a Nightmare Scenario
End the Trump Presidency at the Ballot Box, Not by Military Fiat
End the Trump Presidency at the Ballot Box, Not by Military Fiat
A friend says in a comment that she “live(s) for the day some four star general gets on stage, grabs T***p firmly by the arm, and leads him away. ‘Sir, your time here is over.’” Another person posts on a friends timeline that he trusts the military more than Trump. Others on social media and in the traditional media have overtly called for the military leadership to overrule the commander-in-chief, not just by refusing an illegal or immoral order, but by then removing him from office.
These are thoughtful, intelligent people. These are democrats — small “d” believers in our system — and yet they are talking of the most undemocratic of means in existence, a military coup, as if it would be some kind of saving grace.
This is just another way in which the presidency of Donald J. Trump, reality star turned politician, has damaged not only American norms but the system itself. it is not about the lies, not about the anti-intellectualism, the self-dealing, or the cult of personality that surrounds him, but about all of it together, and so much more. It is not about the incompetence, but the incompetence is a factor. And we pine for a moment in time when he is removed from office, by any means necessary, not admitting to ourselves that there are means that should be beyond the pale, that inviting the military to act in this way would irreparably damage us as a nation.
As Yeshiva Law Professor Deborah Pearlstein wrote in The Atlantic in December, after Trump pardoned three soldiers convicted of war crimes by the military, “hoping that a president will defer to the judgment of the professional military is a sign that something has gone very wrong in America’s constitutional infrastructure.”
The American republic was, after all, founded on the complaint that the king had “affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.” The Constitution’s Framers abhorred the British army, as much or more for its treatment of colonists in the years leading up to the war as during it. As Alexander Hamilton put it with characteristic clarity in “Federalist No. 26”: “The people of America may be said to have derived an hereditary impression of danger to liberty from standing armies in time of peace.”
The argument, she continues, that the nation’s top generals should step in or even be encouraged to step in and remove the president is one that flips on its head one of the primary rationales for civilian control — the notion that the military must be regulated by the people in the person of their duly elected leaders in order to prevent the rise of. “the inspiring ‘man on horseback’ — the charismatic military hero who could use his outsize popularity to thwart the initiatives of politically elected civilians.”
The military currently is the most respected institution in the United States (See Gallup). The president and Congress, however, are among the least respected — though most people seem to like their own elected officials. This dynamic has existed during times of crisis and times of relative calm, even as military leaders and their underlings have engaged in immoral acts like torture and extrajudicial killings in Iraq and Afghanistan. Despite claims from apologists for the military, these were not rogue operators, but actions endorsed at the highest level of our armed services, with support from multiple presidents of both parties.
That. well-documented abuses like these dating back to at least Vietnam have done little to chip away at public confidence could allow for a perfect storm. We are now witnessing something unlike anything we’ve dealt with in our lifetimes, and we are watching the president flail about in ways that are making the Coronoavirus crisis worse. While a majority are saying they think he is handling the crisis well — because there is a tendency to rally around a president in a time of crisis and because the true impact of the virus has been mostly been felt in a handful of states — his overall approval ratings remain low, and the fear has been growing daily.
At some point soon, I suspect, his crisis-approval numbers are going to crater, which in turn could turn what has been a liberal parlor game and pipe dream into something more real. In a nation that lacks confidence in its elected leaders but views the military as exceptionally competent, it would not surprise me if there were calls for a temporary takeover. That should be a. terrifying proposition for anyone who says they value basic liberal principles. Dreaming that a four-star general might someday step up behind Trump while he is on stage, tap his shoulder and say, “your time is up, come with me,” may feel good at the moment, but it would mean the end of the republic as we know it.