Listen Closely to the Sounds
Of An Oncoming Coup
A not so quiet coup is growing in the U.S. and there may be little time to act.
The parallels between the time of trump and the rise to power of Adolf Hitler are spectacularly chilling. In January 1933, the German journalist, Theodor Wolff, published in his newspaper, the Frankfurter Zeitung, that “It is a hopeless misjudgement to think that one could force a dictatorial regime upon the German nation. The diversity of the German people calls for democracy.”
Similar sentiment in the U.S. was violently blunted with the Jan. 6 rebellion at the Capitol.
In March 1933, Hitler was given powers to temporarily act without parliamentary consent and without constitutional limitations. There were few fears in Germany that Hitler could establish a dictatorship as conservatives were convinced they could control Hitler and “tame” the Nazi Party. Likewise, particularly in the earlier days of trump’s rule, Republicans often claimed that trump could be controlled and that his comments, though incendiary, were just political polemics meant to win his base of support.
In 1933, German newspapers wrote that it would be impossible to establish a dictatorship in Germany because there was “a barrier, over which violence cannot proceed” and because of the German nation being proud of “the freedom of speech and thought.” The same tradition of freedom of speech and thought is at the very basis of the American Democratic system and the general belief was that the tradition is so strong as to be able to withstand any violence. Those words ring hollow after the Jan. 6 rebellion.
After the fall of France to the Nazis on June 22, 1940, the authorities rejected Wolff’s request to emigrate to the U.S. He was later arrested and taken to Sachsenhausen concentration camp and he died three days later. Today, GOP members of congress who voted against trump’s wishes find themselves victims of death threats.
A not so quiet coup is growing in the U.S. and there may be little time to act. The claims of the far right, led by trump, that he lost the 2020 election because of widespread voter fraud, continues to gain traction among many Republicans. Calls are growing for “forensic” audits of election results in numerous states while many states have enacted legislation that is thinly disguised to further disenfranchise many people of color.
Most recently, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., has led Wisconsin Republicans in an effort to eliminate a Wisconsin bipartisan elections agency. Johnson is a rabid anti-vaxxer who has supported trump’s claims of voter fraud. The Republican effort takes direct aim at the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission, an agency Republicans created five years ago that has been under attack since Biden won Wisconsin by 20,682 votes out of 3.3 million cast, and Republicans began making claims of fraudulent votes cast from nursing homes across the state, though there has been no evidence of fraud.
Trump’s allegations of a stolen election have lost in the courts and election officials from every state have reported no evidence of fraud. But Republicans continue to spread conspiracy theories including 147 House Republicans who voted against certifying the election. Trump’s refusal to acknowledge defeat came to a fiery peak when he addressed thousands of supporters on Jan. 6, and many later violently stormed the Capitol, reflecting the startling images of rampaging Nazis in search of Jews.
The relentless push by trump loyalists is not slowing down and instead is gaining steam, because, to paraphrase Theodore Wolff, Americans are making a “hopeless misjudgement” to think that a dictator could not take power because the American people demand democracy.
A nightmare scenario would be for the Republicans to win back the majority in the House in the 2022 midterm elections and then name trump as Speaker of the House, the second in line of presidential succession in event the president dies or is killed or is incapacitated or is impeached and convicted by the Senate. The House Speaker has broad powers as leader of the party and could force impeachment proceedings, something that I believe trump might find mildly interesting, given that he was terribly victimized twice for minor infractions from trying to politically influence Ukraine to smear Biden to fomenting the Jan. 6 attempt at rebellion. And anyone who believes that trump’s power may be falling need only see how any Republican lawmaker’s knees quake if he or she thinks he or she has made trump unhappy.
If it sounds like outlandish fiction, think again. There has been growing support among some Republicans to name trump as the second most powerful person in the country. The speaker of the House need not be a member of the House, just elected by the body. Technically, a lawmaker can nominate whoever they want for the role during the roll call at the start of each session of Congress. However, the role has so far never been filled by an outsider, though some have gotten votes, including Colin Powell, Stacey Abrams, Sen. Rand Paul. R-Kent. and Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill. And there has never been a violent coup attempted until Jan. 6.
In July, after Trump expressed interest in the idea he could be speaker, Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., introduce a resolution amending the rules to state that the role could only go to a member of the House. No action has yet been taken on it.
Today, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows suggested at a news conference that if Republicans win control of the House next year, the party should install trump as its next speaker. Meadows also said in a podcast hosted by trumper Steve Bannon that he “would love to see the gavel go from (House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi to Donald Trump.”
In July, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., told a crowd of Trump supporters at a rally in Sarasota that he will nominate trump to be the next Speaker of the House.
“After the next election cycle when we take back the House of Representatives, when we send [current Speaker] Nancy Pelosi back to the filth of San Francisco, my commitment to you is that my vote for Speaker of the US House of Representatives will go to Donald J. Trump,” said Gaetz.
Gaetz is under federal investigation for violating federal sex trafficking laws while convicted sex trafficker and former Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg had provided evidence against Gaetz, who denies any and all allegations.
Gaetz also said he might offer a job as congressional intern to Kyle Rittenhouse, who was found not guilty today of murder after he fatally shooting two people during last summer’s protests in Wisconsin.
“Kyle Rittenhouse would probably make a pretty good congressional intern,” Gaetz said. “We may reach out to him and see if he’d be interested in helping the country in additional ways.”
But it could never happen here.
In October, Liz Harrington, a trump spokesperson, told NPR, “We know a lot of people are talking about it. A lot of people like the idea, but it’s nothing Mr. Trump is thinking about.”
Trump didn’t deny or confirm whether he would seek to be House Speaker during an interview on Real America’s Voice when he said, “Well, I’ve heard the talk and it’s getting more and more, but it’s not something that I would have considered. But it is — certainly there’s a lot of talk about it.”
Asked about the idea by conservative talk show host Wayne Allyn Root, trump said, “You know, it’s very interesting. That’s so interesting.”
In October, Liz Harrington, a trump spokesperson, told NPR, “We know a lot of people are talking about it. A lot of people like the idea, but it’s nothing Mr. Trump is thinking about.”
Trump didn’t deny or confirm whether he would seek to be House Speaker during an interview on Real America’s Voice when he said, “Well, I’ve heard the talk and it’s getting more and more, but it’s not something that I would have considered. But it is — certainly there’s a lot of talk about it.”
Asked about the idea by conservative talk show host Wayne Allyn Root, trump said, “You know, it’s very interesting. That’s so interesting.”
Even though trump might be turned off by the necessary to actually work as House Speaker, he could not possibly turn away from the possibility of getting revenge and influencing Congress to impeach Biden. And how could the man with the most inflated ego ever to inhabit a human being avoid getting such a stage to flail from? The answer, is he probably couldn’t.
And how sweet it would be in trump’s tiny mind to stand behind Biden when he gives his State of the Union address and to jeer at Biden the way that Pelosi, did when she smirked while clapping her hands after trump gave his State of the Union two years ago.