On Thu, Oct 15, 2020 at 08:06 AM, Louis Proyect wrote:

No need for a coup when you can retain power "legally".

The thing "we" (whoever that may be) have to fear from a Trump seizure of power isn't a powerful dictatorship  but an anarchy.  I'm thinking of what English historians called "the Anarchy of Stephen" or simply "the Anarchy"--the reign of King Stephen in England from 1135 to 1153, where the King (and his queen) had sufficient forces based on the castle system of the time to maintain the throne, but not enough power or legitimacy to carry out the functions of governance, which were in any case apparently in flux at the time.  The result was an inconclusive civil war that resulted in a compromise whereby Henry II succeeded Stephen on the throne of England, thus founding the Plantagenet dynasty that eventually resulted in England's formation as a national state and colonial power.  

This isn't an anarchy in the sense of anarchism, but (at least in our time) rather rule by someone, like Trump who actively dismantles the institutions of governance while using both force, subterfuge, and illusion to expand and promote his own interests and those of a powerful clique.  

The analogy with Stephen is weak and of admittedly limited application, but the point about controlled chaos is not.  We are IMO barking up the wrong tree if we expect Trump to rule like Salazar, maintaining uncontested political and social control for a lifetime. This is also unlikely to happen.

The so-called Anarchy was a civil war that was eventually resolved  by a leap forward toward a more modern conception of the nation state.  The Anarchy of Donald, if it happens, will be a step toward the decadence and collapse of the USA without any succeeding more advanced form of civilization.  Perhaps the rich will retreat to their own mega-ranches and rule the rest of us like feudal barons from their castles.

No need for a coup when you can retain power "legally".

https://newrepublic.com/article/159755/republican-voter-suppression-2020-election