# Is there any real risk of a right wing coup de etat? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 22, 2010, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-real-risk-of-a-right-wing-coup-de-etat/533408 "2010-03-22T23:15:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-real-risk-of-a-right-wing-coup-de-etat/533408/121 "2010-03-24T04:27:33Z")
I am shocked by the number of my right-wing friends who over the past couple of days have mumbled darkly about “liberty or death”, noting the historical timing of the health care bill, starting another revolution, with oblique references to violence. It is frightening how many people, when reflecting on the American Revolution, draw no distinction between the outrage of losing an election vs. the outrage of having no elections at all. Democracy means sometimes you lose. It isn’t like Obama was declared president by a Supreme Court ruling or anything. Not that I’m advocating Bush-era triumphalism by any means, but seriously, living in a civil society means that when you lose an election you love it or leave it, not foment an armed revolution. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-real-risk-of-a-right-wing-coup-de-etat/533408/122 "2010-03-24T05:11:18Z")
> [@Cosmic Relief](#): > > living in a civil society means that when you lose an election you love it or leave it, not foment an armed revolution. Leave it? Where would the wing-nuts go? Where is the nation that is further right than the USA and also has Happy-Meals, NASCAR, Fox News, and country music? ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-real-risk-of-a-right-wing-coup-de-etat/533408/123 "2010-03-24T05:14:40Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > Leave it? Where would the wing-nuts go? Where is the nation that is further right than the USA and also has Happy-Meals, NASCAR, Fox News, and country music? Alright, I’m not trying to mock people here, I’m just alluding to the fact that in the Bush years many of us threatened to leave, whereas here we’ve got people apparently trying to goad each other into growing the balls to start the second American Revolution. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-real-risk-of-a-right-wing-coup-de-etat/533408/124 "2010-03-24T05:25:41Z")
As soon as ACORN gets done with the “census” and we know where all the guns are, from there on its pretty easy. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-real-risk-of-a-right-wing-coup-de-etat/533408/125 "2010-03-24T13:05:26Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > I wonder if you’d be so kind as to point me to an example of a Democrat politician who has approved of ELF or violent protests at the WTO or G8. Just two days ago a GOP Congressman yelled “Baby Killer!” on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. For many years now, right-wingers have defended right-wing lies and malice on the grounds that “the other side does it too.” Anyone still making such a claim is too far out-of-touch for words. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-real-risk-of-a-right-wing-coup-de-etat/533408/126 "2010-03-24T13:14:51Z")
> [@](#): > > Not sure if this is tongue in cheek or not My post was indeed meant to be tongue in cheek. I was pointing out that some conservatives are making claims that are not only ridiculous in themselves but contradict other claims made by the same people. There are no secret Democrat plans to kill old people. I think everyone knows that - even Sarah Palin. The question then is why does she say it? ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-real-risk-of-a-right-wing-coup-de-etat/533408/127 "2010-03-24T13:49:18Z")
Palin, et al., make outrageous statements **because** they are outrageous. I am reminded of the Two Minute Hate. > [@](#): > > In George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, the Two Minutes Hate is a daily period in which Party members of the society of Oceania must watch a film depicting The Party’s enemies (notably Emmanuel Goldstein and his followers) and express their hatred for them and the principles of democracy. — Wikipedia article ‘Two Minute Hate’ ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-real-risk-of-a-right-wing-coup-de-etat/533408/128 "2010-03-24T14:15:42Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > My post was indeed meant to be tongue in cheek. I was pointing out that some conservatives are making claims that are not only ridiculous in themselves but contradict other claims made by the same people. > > There are no secret Democrat plans to kill old people. I think everyone knows that - even Sarah Palin. The question then is why does she say it? Because she has contempt for conservatives, and is secure in her belief that they are too stupid to see that. I think better of the American public and think that they will soon grow tired of all the Chicken Littleism. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-real-risk-of-a-right-wing-coup-de-etat/533408/129 "2010-03-24T14:25:01Z")
> [@xtisme](#): > > That’s the reality of ‘death panels’…it just shifts from some corporations bottom line (or how much care a person can afford or get support for) to some bureaucrats ledger sheet. Death Panels referred to a provision of the original bill that authorized doctors to charge insurance companies for counseling patients on how to specify, in advance, how they want end-of-life care to be handled. Everything about it was a lie: it was not a panel and it had nothing to do with how care would be allocated. Not only that, it was the same wording as was found in earlier Republican backed legislation. Using the term now to refer to how decisions will be made on what sorts of things are covered, obscures the fact that it was all lies. Let me repeat, all lies. Complete bullshit made up by the candidate for Vice President of a once major party. One of the most reprehensible and cynical things I have ever seen in politics. No one who repeated this lie should ever again be taken seriuosly in any debate or be re-elected to political office. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-real-risk-of-a-right-wing-coup-de-etat/533408/130 "2010-03-24T14:27:37Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > Like I said in a previous post on this thread, for all their blustering most of these baggers are just giant pussies. Any hopes they may have of staging a civil war will disappear as soon as they find out that getting shot at hurts and, more importantly, that liberals in fact do know how to defend themselves. We are, however, going to have to improve our aim if we have any chance of hitting brains the size of a pea. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-real-risk-of-a-right-wing-coup-de-etat/533408/131 "2010-03-24T22:33:43Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > I wouldn’t at all be surprised if we saw a few isolated instances of violence related to this bill. There are nut-jobs aplenty. > > But a coup? Not a chance. That is my view. Isolated incidents of violence and intimidation, but nothing organized that truly destabalizes the government. However like BrainGlutton said, if we have another and bigger economic meltdown, I don’t know what could happen. ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-real-risk-of-a-right-wing-coup-de-etat/533408/132 "2010-03-24T23:01:04Z")
Today’s tally so far: 1. Tea party moron Max Troxel tries to post the home address of Rep Tom Perriello with the hopes that his neighbors would drop by and say hi and thank him for his vote for healthcare. Troxel fails at teh internet though because he screws up and posts the home address of Periello’s _brother_, Bo, who lives there with his wife and four young children. At some point today, a vandal cut the hose from the propane tank to grill. The FBI is looking into it. They say there’s no immediate danger. (I say - well, there isn’t _anymore._) I hope the feds get the creep and can make something stick. [cite](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/24/tom-perriello-tea-party_n_511874.html) 1a. Bonus lulz: When told about his mistake, Troxel initially insisted he had the right address: > [@Politico](#): > > Troxel, a 2005 graduate of Liberty University, added “I was a journalism major in college, so I have every reason to believe my research is accurate.” [Cite](http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/34843.html#ixzz0j8ZafCDv) 2. Ten congress persons have been granted increased security because of the threats they’ve received in the last couple days. The FBI is involved in this too. It’s mentioned in the cite above but here’s more it, and the assorted brick throwings today: [Cite](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20100324/us-health-care-threats/) 1. Ever tone-deaf, Palin’s SarahPAC released a map on Facebook today of the US with gun-sights over the districts of Democrats who voted for the bill. [cite, with a screen-grab of the map](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/24/sarah-palins-pac-puts-gun_n_511433.html) Just some data points. I don’t think there will be a successful coup d’etat but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the right wing conservatives committed a few assassinations. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-real-risk-of-a-right-wing-coup-de-etat/533408/133 "2010-03-24T23:15:17Z")
> [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](#): > > None. Zero. You won’t see any increase in any attacks whatsoever. I suppose that depends on what you mean by attacks. The Turner Diaries envisaged a series of individually relatively minor acts of terrorism - bombings, bank robberies, and so on - leading up to a guerilla war. Do I think that’s going to happen? Hardly, but the recent rash of vandalism attempts against Democratic Party offices could be seen as the start of the same sort of campaign. It’s certainly not beyond the realm of possibility that a lone nut (or a couple of nuts) could do a lot of damage. [It’s](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Order_(group)) [happened](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_bombing) before. ---
**Author:** ![42fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/b487fb/32.png) [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-real-risk-of-a-right-wing-coup-de-etat/533408/134 "2010-03-25T03:03:37Z")
> [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](#): > > The words **honestly** and **death panels** do not belong in the same sentence. Nonsense. For example, “Honestly, death panels?!” would be a perfectly cromulent sentence to use in reaction to Sarah Palin’s blatherings. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-real-risk-of-a-right-wing-coup-de-etat/533408/135 "2010-03-25T03:05:59Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > I suppose that depends on what you mean by attacks. The Turner Diaries envisaged a series of individually relatively minor acts of terrorism - bombings, bank robberies, and so on - leading up to a guerilla war. > > Do I think that’s going to happen? Hardly, but the recent rash of vandalism attempts against Democratic Party offices could be seen as the start of the same sort of campaign. It could also be seen as the normal turning of the political cycle. A few years ago, partisan Republicans [were](http://www.clifto.com/goodguys.html) [complaining](http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2007/05/frivolous-vs-magnanimous-political-game.html) abut the rash of violence against Republican offices, and about such things as a liberal newspaper [publishing](http://www.moonbattery.com/archives/2008/10/progressive_pap.html) the home addresses of Republican activists. [This](http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/?p=621) guy (again, obviously a partisan) collected a list of protest signs calling for Bush’s death, burnings in effigy, “Kill Bush” t-shirts, etc. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-real-risk-of-a-right-wing-coup-de-etat/533408/136 "2010-03-25T03:07:24Z")
> [@Merneith](#): > > Today’s tally so far: > > 1. Tea party moron Max Troxel tries to post the home address of Rep Tom Perriello with the hopes that his neighbors would drop by and say hi and thank him for his vote for healthcare. Troxel fails at teh internet though because he screws up and posts the home address of Periello’s _brother_, Bo, who lives there with his wife and four young children. > > At some point today, a vandal cut the hose from the propane tank to grill. The FBI is looking into it. They say there’s no immediate danger. (I say - well, there isn’t _anymore._) I hope the feds get the creep and can make something stick. [cite](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/24/tom-perriello-tea-party_n_511874.html) > > 1a. Bonus lulz: When told about his mistake, Troxel initially insisted he had the right address: [Cite](http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/34843.html#ixzz0j8ZafCDv) It’s numbskulls like this that give me faith that teabaggers have neither the balls nor the intellectual prowess to pull off a coup. Shit, I’d be surprised if any of these morons could find their own asses with two hands, a flashlight and a roadmap. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-real-risk-of-a-right-wing-coup-de-etat/533408/137 "2010-03-25T04:16:11Z")
Let’s hope the teabaggers get serious about making bombs. That way they will blow themselves up and we can go on with life. Think of it as evolution in action. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-real-risk-of-a-right-wing-coup-de-etat/533408/138 "2010-03-25T05:10:36Z")
[QUOTE=silenus] Think of it as evolution in action. [/QUOTE] Sadly, not unless they were too young (or stupid) to breed already… -XT ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-real-risk-of-a-right-wing-coup-de-etat/533408/139 "2010-03-25T10:02:49Z")
Update: 1. Someone left a voicemail threat refering to “snipers” on Louise Slaughter’s phone. Slaughter (D-NY) is the chair of the House Rules committee. 2. Someone left a coffin on the lawn of Russ Carnahan (D-MO) [url=http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/34953.html]cite FBI & capitol police are investigating, and, I hope, increasingly pissed off. The bill is going back to the House on the order of the Senate Parliamentarian regarding a couple small errors the Republicans found. Hopefully the Dems will stand up to these ongoing attempts at Republican intimidation. [cite](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/25/byrd-rule-sends-health-care-back-to-house_n_512609.html) More interesting is that with the bill going back anyway, the Senate could add amendments, like, oh I don’t know, a public option, and only need 50 votes to pass it. Not going to happen, but interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-real-risk-of-a-right-wing-coup-de-etat/533408/140 "2010-03-25T15:01:32Z")
> [@Merneith](#): > > The bill is going back to the House on the order of the Senate Parliamentarian regarding a couple small errors the Republicans found. Hopefully the Dems will stand up to these ongoing attempts at Republican intimidation. [cite](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/25/byrd-rule-sends-health-care-back-to-house_n_512609.html) I’m in favor of the bill, but your wording here is misleading. Sending the bill back because of mistakes in the reconciliation rules is not intimidation, it’s politics. This has nothing to do with the whack jobs making threats to the Democrats. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-real-risk-of-a-right-wing-coup-de-etat/533408.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-real-risk-of-a-right-wing-coup-de-etat/533408.md?page=8)