By March of 2024, it was obvious to everyone that Trump was going to lose. The man on golf cart’s screams about the GOP establishment rigging the primaries against the popular will were becoming more and more shrill. While he was careful not to say it in so many words, the message was clear–the day for electoral politics had come to an end. The good people of real America were going to have to take matters into their own hands and destroy the deep state by force. There was no other way.
The message was heard. Trump had burned his bridges with the militias by his equivocations after January 6, but a motley group of present and former military men, law enforcement officials, disgruntled small business owners, and extremist politicians hatched a plot to overthrow the government. The plot included plans to take control of the White House, the Capitol, and the Pentagon. The hope was that the armed forces would respond favorably and throw their support to the plotters once it was clear that the ice had been broken.
It all sounded a bit like John Brown’s attack on Harper’s Ferry, and it failed just as ingloriously. Still, there were casualties, and the system was in real danger. Trump, as usual, denied involvement. The mainstream of the GOP condemned the plotters, but refused to draw the obvious conclusions about Trump’s culpability for fear of alienating the base and dividing the party. Nothing had changed, and nothing ever would, until the GOP dealt with the dilemma caused by the extremists.
(Inspired by the news of an abortive right-wing plot in Germany. If it could happen there, it jolly well could happen here.)