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I've seen enough. This is a genuine coup attempt now. We should absolutely use that language and it should appear in coup datasets, etc. We're much closer to a full democratic breakdown than a lot of people realize. /1 https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/11/19/us/joe-biden-trump-updates/trump-tries-to-subvert-the-election-inviting-michigan-gop-lawmakers-to-the-white-house
I've seen arguments, such as from @esdebruin, that "coup" is the wrong language because the military isn't involved and this is about an executive keeping power rather than taking it. But plenty of coups are not instigated first by the military. /2 https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/11/11/coup-trump-election-concede-military/?outputType=amp
Further, this *is* about taking power, namely from @JoeBiden starting on Jan 20. We've already seen democratic erosion happen for four years. This is something fundamentally different: an attempt to violate electoral law & illegitimately install a president. That's a coup. /end
Just to be clear, since this is getting attention, @esdebruin does fantastic work & you should check out her new book on coup prevention. My only disagreement, afaik, is on the technical question of what counts as a "coup." We seem to agree on the gravity of this for democracy.
