Good article on the coup-ability of the US under Trump.
Reminds that Trump's early testing of the military willing to bend rules and follow Trump was at the southern border, when the military went where sent but avowed they'd just take a backup role, wouldn't do any law enforcement (as traditionally prescribed) and weren't going to be Trump's plaything.
Aside from motivation, one can question Mr. Trump’s personal capacity for such a program [a coup]. By all accounts, he truly is as mercurial a person as he appears to be. His strengths are his audacity, deft operation of celebrity, and self-confidence.
But there is some merit in the opposing view that Trump also has learned to use his erratic inclinations to advantage. Reinhart Bendix once observed, in his classic Kings or People, “Arbitrariness is an instrument of rule, for it provides the ruler with an effective test of instant obedience by large numbers of subordinates, even if it fails to accomplish any other end.” Through this mechanism, Mr. Trump has repeatedly found, and bound to himself, more long-range thinkers who are competent in navigating systems and people. Roger Stone, Michael Cohen, Steven Miller, Steve Bannon, and William Barr are past and current examples.
Dictators often shift gears quickly on policy and make erratic maneuvers just to test loyalty -- see who will go along and who will resist. Sycophants rewarded and resistance punished. Sort of a recipe for incompetence, but also for leadership safety. Hell, that was basically the Cultural Revolution in a nutshell. A decade of loyalty testing and insanity.
Speaking of, referencing the rather aged Israeli ex-space agency head who talked about aliens among us and basically sounded like he watched Men in Black too often, an article I saw slipped in the quip "to insanity and beyond" -- which made me smile.
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