43% of Republicans could imagine supporting a military coup in the United States

[n2doc]

A law professor at West Point was forced to hastily resign after it emerged that he had authored a number of controversial articles. In one he suggested that legal scholars defending the rights of suspected terrorists could be considered legitimate military targets, while in another he examined a potential military coup in the United States, arguing that officers may have a duty to sieze control of the federal government if the federal government acted against the interest of the country. The United States military has long embraced the idea of civilian control of national affairs, and apart from certain rare moments the American officer corps has faithfully followed the orders of their civilian superiors.

YouGov's latest research shows, however, that officers in the military are held in much greater esteem than their civilian superiors, and that they are widely viewed as having the best interests of the country in mind instead of their own selfish concerns. 70% of Americans believe that military officers generally want what is best for the country. When it comes to Congressmen, however, 71% of Americans believe that they want what is best for themselves, along with 59% for local politicians.

29% of Americans could imagine a situation in which they would support the military seizing control of the federal government, while 41% could not imagine such a situation.

Republicans (43%) are more than twice as likely as Democrats (20%) to say that they could conceive of a situation in which they would support a military coup in the United States. Independents tend to say that they could not (38%) rather than could (29%) imagine supporting a coup.



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https://today.yougov.com/news/2015/09/09/could-coup-happen-in-united-states/

20% of dems?

[onecaliberal]

1. Just, wow...

[yardwork]

2. I'm not surprised. Most people don't have a clue.

[ladjf]

3. Welcome to "LaLa Land". nt

[Art_from_Ark]

4. No, no, a thousand times NO

Military dictatorships totally suck!

[Initech]

17. +10000000000000000000000

Fuck that shit.

[Rex]

5. The GOP is 100% authoritarian. They side with Russia's anti-gay agenda.

They LOVE them some dictatorships, when they are an advantage to the GOP pocketbook. There is NOTHING democratic or fair about the GOP.

Seriously, 20% of dems? SMH.

[Kenjie]

6. I think these numbers in support are somewhat high

in all categories because of the way that the question is worded. It only asks if people can conceive of any scenario in which they would support a military coup. They didn't even ask of people thought if the situation they envision was likely or existed at any time past or present. If the question were more specific my guess is that the support would be lower because it would leave less to the imagination.

[Shandris]

19. Yeah, that's what I was thinking.

I don't want to know anyone who isn't capable of imagining a scenario in which they would support such a thing. Not necessarily a realistic or likely scenario, but ANY? Of course I can.

[world wide wally]

7. This is exactly why we should be teaching civics in schools

[renegade000]

8. a stupid question

If I were to answer literally, the answer would be "yes." Like what if Congress and the civilian leadership of the Executive Branch suddenly went mad and decided they wanted to start WW3, and the military refused.

The problem is that this hypothetical scenario is so unlikely as to be pretty much irrelevant to anything other than a pedantic philosophical discussion. So practically speaking, the answer is "no." I do not suppose a military subversion of our constitutional government in any remotely realistic scenario.

[Fred Sanders]

14. Stupid poll questions are made intentially stupid so folks can have stupid conversations in America.

[renegade000]

18. indeed

There are too many controversial issues in which people just are talking past each other. Often both sides have valid concerns and
interpretations, but usually only one side is more relevant to the real-world in which we are currently residing.

Torture is another one that drives me up the wall. There are lots of hypothetical scenarios in which I think torture is ethically permissible, but the problem is that none of them strike me as being at all realistic (usually because the causal connection between the torture and the saving of lives is way, way too certain and clear-cut comparable to what we would actually experience in real life). There are just too many alternative ways to get information and too much epistemic uncertainty as to whether or not the answer is truthful/helpful/etc in the real world as to justify the moral violation of torture.

[whatthehey]

9. It's easy to imagine such a scenario. They are just massively improbable ones

If you cannot imagine such a scenario you have a very restricted imagination.

Just to pick one at random from among several that occurred to me in the first 30 seconds of reading this: A large corporation develops a remote mind control capacity and has been shown to have implemented this technology on the President, cabinet and a majority of Congress and the Supreme Court. Military units which were stationed outside the US are the only large governmental units not compromised by this sabotage.

Likelihood? Somewher in the billions to one, but it's a scenario. Plagues, zombie uprisings, alien pod people. All scenarios, all stupid ones, but all where the military may need to be involved in temporary coups.

[B Calm]

10. They are Nazi fascists.

[KamaAina]

11. 43% of Republicans are traitors

There. I shortened it for you.

[packman]

12. Military coup = Republican rule

The majority of the officers in the military are Republican and , IMHO, are religiously oriented. It does not surprise me that Republicans would support a Republican take-over of the government.

“The officers by and large are more conservative,” says an Army sergeant just back from Afghanistan. “But the enlisted tend to be more liberal.” Of course, with fewer than one in five of those in uniform an officer, there’s a lot more enlisted voters.

But the U.S. military plainly tilts toward the GOP. That’s largely because today’s military is an all-volunteer force increasingly drawn from the Sunbelt, where the Pentagon has focused its recruiting efforts since the draft ended 40 years ago. And traits the military prizes — like aggressiveness and respect for authority — tend to be more pronounced in conservatives."


http://swampland.time.com/2012/11/05/does-the-military-vote-really-lean-republican/

[KamaAina]

13. After Reagan was shot, French TV was reporting a military coup in the U.S.

because someone heard Gen. Al Haig say "I'm in charge here" and ran with it.

[WinkyDink]

16. I'm sure the Bushes, friends of the Hinckleys, were mightily taken aback by that day's outcomes.

[procon]

15. That's very disheartening.

Seems like the US Govt 101 that I learned in high school isn't being taught today. How do people even think that a military coup isn't a treasonous act that defies the Constitution.

[Initech]

20. This should have 0% for both parties.

The fact that even above 1% should be alarming to anyone, but 40% of Republicans support a military coup? Are they that fucking insane???? I thought this was the land of the free. Guess I am wrong?

[joeybee12]

21. Seems low...

Seriously...all you get is irrational sh*t from the Repuke leaders and their minions are eating it up.

[Matrosov]

22. They want to take the country "back"

Not just "back" under permanent Republican rule, but apparently also "back" in time.. Most conservatives who dream of overthrowing the government believe the country lost its way some time in the past. Some point toward the 60s, the time of the counter culture, the civil rights movement, and their perceived war on Christianity. Others point toward the 30s, when we had the New Deal and sweeping government changes.

They see themselves as the victims. Government has been out of control since one of those two decades. They believe Presidents Clinton and Obama are blatantly violating and ignoring the Constitution, as is the so-called activist Supreme Court. Apparently Reagan and the Bush family were stalwarts of liberty, and I guess the Supreme Court is only an activist court when it rules against the interests of the cancer that is conservatism.

One interesting thing is that in the conversations about taking the country "back" that I've witnessed, nobody ever proposes to fire the first shot. They always believe their dream will turn into reality once the government uses the police and/or military to move against American citizens on a widespread basis. General gun confiscation or having conservatives declared as domestic terrorists and then thrown into jail or reeducation camps seem to be the most popular theories.

There was also Jade Helm, which started two months ago, and which some conservatives thought would finally be the beginning of their dream, but apparently someone forgot to tell President Obama that he is supposed to order the Special Forces training in Texas that their real mission is to put the entire state under martial law

[pampango]

23. Republicans have long preferred dictators in other countries (law-and-order, you know).

Apparently that has started to spread to their acceptance of a military coup in the US.

I suppose they were ne er big fans of the whole 'experiment' of people actually governing themselves. Bringing back kings, queens and dictators seems their logical conclusion.

[spanone]

24. once the half black President leaves office this number will probably drop