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The fact that Trump's coup attempt (or "autocoup," if you're the kind of person whose favorite word about words is "Actually...") is failing shouldn't blind us to the fact that it's a coup attempt. One doesn't overlook attempted murder just because the killing didn't succeed.
Some uncontroversial conclusions follow recognition of the fact that Trump attempted (& is still attempting, however ineptly) a coup. The first, obviously, is: A sitting president attempted a coup. That's kinda huge. That happened. It will always have happened now.
Another way of putting that is: The U.S. will never again be a country that can say it has always maintained peaceful transition of power. The U.S. will never again be a country that can say "coups are things that happen in other countries."
Once an anti-gay terrorist I knew, who'd shot out an eye of a gay activist, threatened my sending me a "cute" picture of dead kittens. It was gross but not very scary. I didn't say, "Well, this doesn't matter because it's ridiculous."
I've been reporting on rightwing movements for 20 years. Majority of the diehards have been comical, absurd, inept--and they've hurt people, too. Real villains aren't like movie villains. They're not Heath Ledger's Joker. They tend to be fools. But they hurt people.
I'm not writing this because I think Trump's idiot coup attempt will succeed. I don't think it will. I'm writing this because I think it matters, a lot, that he tried, and it matters, a lot, that so many of us are trying to tell ourselves it doesn't matter now.
I should add: I really don't think Trump's idiot coup attempt will succeed. But he's still trying, & surprises can still occur. It'll be over when he's out. Not before. & even then: Our gov't will still include many powerful people who for a variety of reasons supported a coup.
Think of Trump's bumbling, nosediving, ongoing coup attempt as like a hitman who gets the address wrong, goes to an empty house, trips over the dog, & shoots his own foot. What a fool! But there's still an idiot w/ a gun, hobbling around, crazed w/ pain. That's not good.
This @zeynep piece on quibbles over the term "coup" is excellent: "Punditry can tend to focus too much on decorum and terminology, like the overachieving students so many of us once were, conflating the ridiculous with the unserious." https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/12/trumps-farcical-inept-and-deadly-serious-coup-attempt/617309/?scrolla=5eb6d68b7fedc32c19ef33b4
