The Worst Possible Way to End the Trump Era: One of my many cataloged memories of the Trump era is from the run-up to the 2016 election, when one of my colleagues related to me what one of his sources in Brazil, fretful about Donald Trump’s rise, told him. “It’s OK for the world for Brazil to occasionally be a basket case nation,” he said. “But the thought of the U.S. becoming one is really disturbing.” This week, Trump addressed the U.N. General Assembly, cast in the role we once reserved for people like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Muammar Qaddafi: the batshit egomaniac dictator (only this time, with nukes). It seems to me that we’ve well and truly failed the basket case test. But a new poll has given me some fresh worries on this front—and a concern that maybe too many of us have developed a little taste for misrule.
The survey was published this week by Liberal Currents and it sought to catch the mood of the Democratic electorate as Election Day looms. Much of what the poll found was downright anodyne: A plurality of respondents favor Kamala Harris as the presidential nominee in 2028; “economy, inflation & cost of living” wins as the respondents’ biggest issue they want a future Democratic president to tackle. But one result made me do a double take. Under the section, “Feelings about Trump leaving office,” respondents were asked, “If you woke up tomorrow morning and saw the following news headlines, how would you feel?”
One of the choices, “To ‘safeguard the Constitution,’ a group of U.S. military leaders have removed President Donald Trump from power and assumed control of the United States” earned a net approval of 31 percent, with 59 percent approving and 28 percent saying no. That’s not good! Now the reason I’m not completely disassociating is because the ways respondents answered the other choices were more rational: Impeachment was by far the favored choice of removing the president, at 80 percent net sentiment, followed by removal via the Twenty-Fifth Amendment at 77 percent, and “dying peacefully in his sleep” at 40 percent. Assassination—by far the most immoral and dangerous way… https://newrepublic.com/post/215852/oust-donald-trump-military-coup