The Half-assed Coup

December 14 came and went, the electoral college voted as they should, and GOP politicians are backing down from supporting the coup. I feel safe in concluding that the coup has failed. Let’s review why it did.

Did it fail because our democratic institutions were impervious to the attacks by MAGA fascists? No. In fact, it became clear that the Trump regime had many viable and even “technically legal” avenues to completing the coup. The “deep state” turned out to be easily bent to the destructive and evil whims of Trump’s co-conspirators.

Did it fail because liberals turned out with such bold actions of material resistance that implementation of fascism was literally not possible? It’s a laughable question, but the serious answer is no. Liberals were in fact constantly trying to convince people to be more compliant as if this would somehow create a sympathetic magic that would bewitch the MAGAs into following our nation’s rules and norms.

When leftists attempted to provide that material resistance, liberals scolded instead of supporting, even going so far as to pursue legal barriers to that kind of resistance which would then be implemented by the very MAGAs the liberals were supposed to be against. For our part in it, our club — having broken no laws — was turned in to law enforcement at least three times by liberals and was booted off of Facebook just for being vaguely scary (again having broken no rules).

Did the coup fail because GOP politicians were good people deep down and refused to go along with the Trump regime’s program of fascism. No, those politicians folded as soon as Trump won the nomination and continued to support him until it was clear he had lost power. Below: Mitch McConnell is the personification of the fictional Pale Man from Pan’s Labyrinth, a monster that represents institutional evil that preys on the helpless.

Here it is: The one and only reason why the Trump regime failed in completely subverting US democracy is because Trump failed as a leader. He is a coward, and because he is a coward, he failed to provide the leadership that would have resulted in the completion of MAGA’s dream of ending liberal democracy. Part of this cowardice was that when he would become frustrated, he would attack the competent co-conspirators surrounding him instead of attacking his real enemies (who might be able to fight back). There were many examples of this, but I’d point to the firing of Steve Bannon as the most significant example of his cowardly mismanagement. Bannon was the primary architect of Trump’s initial victory and had a coherent vision for how to complete the construction of a fascist state.

The cowardice is of course related to Trump’s obvious fragile narcissism. He’s not only afraid of a coup failing (because he could potentially end up at the end of a rope that’s too short) but he’s also afraid of failure at every turn because failure proves the thing he’s most afraid off — that he isn’t as superior as he thinks. He might even be a dumbass.

The fact that Trump himself was the reason for the coup’s failure should not be comforting to you. This just means that the next fascist — coming in 2023 — will be more competent. Just a little competence could easily be the difference between the failure of this fascist coup and the success of the next one. And let’s not kid ourselves — just because the ultimate goal of MAGA was not reached does not mean that the Trump regime was a total failure. They had many successes that will be difficult to correct and others — like the destruction of thousands of immigrant families — that can never be undone.