GOP, Trump coup nearly succeeded

By Tom Maertens

Dec 31, 2020

America just survived a coup attempt by Donald Trump and two-thirds of the Republican Party. Trump advocated a violent overthrow of the electoral process and clearly would stay in power if he could.

Per 18 USC §2385 governing Treason, Sedition, and Subversive activities, anyone advocating overthrow of the government shall be fined or imprisoned for not more than 20 years, or both.

One hundred twenty-six Republican members of Congress and 18 state attorneys general supported the coup attempt.

As former Republican speech writer Michael Gerson wrote, “These Republicans have allowed conspiratorial lies to take root that will encourage extremists for decades and cement the GOP’s image as the party of seditious crackpots.”

Similarly, John Harwood, CNN, labeled Trump a kook and noted that he had surrounded himself with kooks.

Trump’s claims of vote fraud have been rejected by former Attorney General Bill Barr and at least 86 judges in more than 60 court cases, including the U.S. Supreme Court, for lack of evidence.

Trump’s lunatic ideas to steal the election included declaring martial law and deploying troops to rerun the elections; invoking the Insurrection Act to somehow take control of the country to “restore order;” seizing voting machines from the states to prove they were rigged; appointing a special counsel to investigate voter fraud; and challenging the Jan. 6 vote tabulation.

The coup failed principally because officials in several states, many of them Republicans, resisted Trump’s demands they break the law. He pressured some to appoint fake electors who would vote for him in the Electoral College, and others to throw out millions of Democratic votes.

The military publicly rejected the suggestion that it deploy to rerun the elections, saying it had no role in determining the outcome of elections. That may have been decisive.

Among the traitors to the republic are Minnesota congressmen Jim Hagedorn, Tom Emmer, and Pete Stauber, who endorsed the coup attempt in violation of their oath to protect and defend the Constitution. Strangely, they are claiming fraud on the very ballots that elected them.

Congressman Bill Pascrell, chair of the Committee on House Administration, has written that “The text of the 14th Amendment expressly forbids Members of Congress from engaging in rebellion against the United States. Trying to overturn a democratic election and install a dictator seems like a clear example of that.”

Because of this seditious pool of crackpots, Trump’s coup attempt came closer than it should have to succeeding — the greatest threat to our democracy since the Civil War.

They should be denied seats in the new Congress.

The veterans’ organization VoteVets labeled Trump the number one traitor in the country last summer.

Trump recently pardoned three people who cooperated with Russian intelligence, former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, and advisors Roger Stone and George Papadopolous, the first time this has ever occurred.

Clint Watts, former FBI agent and Russia information warfare specialist, noted:“Never has there been a president who worked so hard to provide cover for Russia.” In fact, the most consistent feature of Trump’s foreign policy is deference to Putin and Russia.

The recent Russian cyberattack on our security systems is among the greatest intelligence failures in modern times (New York Times). Barr, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Trump’s former homeland security advisor, Thomas Bossert, agreed Russia did it; Trump once again rushed in to defend Russia by blaming China.

Not surprisingly, several Russian state media commentators have projected that Trump would seek asylum in Russia to escape prosecution in the United States.

Trump claims he is going to run again in 2024, but his ego couldn’t take another humiliating loss. This is a scam to raise money from the real “losers and suckers” who don’t understand that the first $5,000 of every donation goes into Trump’s slush fund, called a “Leadership PAC.”

Trump has collected hundreds of millions already, and Forbes reported that he has transferred millions in campaign donations into his businesses.

Trump’s ability to bamboozle the rubes is unparalleled, however.

As George Packer wrote in The Atlantic, “America under Trump became less free, less equal, more divided, more alone, deeper in debt, swampier, dirtier, meaner, sicker, and deader.”

Tom Maertens served as a White House National Security Council director during the presidencies of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.