Here’s the part where we assume Trump loses the election but then refuses to leave office:
slate.com/news-and-politics/202 … -coup.html
[b]'Two retired Army officers have written an open letter to Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, basically urging him to mount a military coup if President Donald Trump loses the upcoming election but tries to remain in power on Jan. 20.
‘“If Donald Trump refuses to leave office at the expiration of his constitutional term,” they write for Defense One, a widely read national security site, “the United States military must remove him by force, and you must give that order.”’[/b]
To wit: we can discuss “philosophically” as, say, “political scientists” how nations like America are run “socially, politically and economically”. But the bottom line historically always revolves finally around who has the actual military and police power to enforce any particular interpretation of any particular context.
Sure, that’s become buried deep in the background in our modern industrial world. A world where “democracy and the rule of law” seem so deeply entrenched that nothing could possibly upend them.
But let a “crisis” [or crises] be deep enough and prolonged enough, coupled with an authoritarian leader chummy with national security factions of the MIC and, well, who the hell really knows?
Still, let’s be optimistic:
[b]'The fear that Trump will refuse to leave office, even if he loses the election, has been circulating for over a year now. I addressed the fear in a June 1 Slate column, arguing that Trump may want to lock himself in the Oval Office, but “he wouldn’t get away with it.” At 12 p.m. on Jan. 20, 2021, wherever Trump may choose to plant himself, all but a small retinue of security guards will abandon him, the nuclear launch codes will change, his Cabinet secretaries and ambassadors will lose all authority, and the entire U.S. military establishment will pivot away from ex-President Donald Trump to salute President Joe Biden. “The principle of civilian control is hammered into American officers from the time they’re cadets,” I wrote, “and the 20th Amendment of the Constitution states, ‘The terms of the President and Vice President end at noon on the 20th day of January’—no ifs, ands, or buts.”
‘The Secret Service will escort Mr. Trump out of the office. If a mob of Trump’s favorite sheriffs and militias block the doors and circle the White House—if, in short, a few tanks need to roll down Pennsylvania Avenue to restore order, then it will be Biden, the duly elected and sworn-in commander in chief, who gives the order.’[/b]
Stay tuned…