# 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:** 17\ **Page:** 9
**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 29, 2010, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-real-risk-of-a-right-wing-coup-de-etat/533408/161 "2010-03-29T16:52:18Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Well, I was wrong. Eh. Not sure that qualifies - your own quote says the plot dates to 2008, so presumably they’d have done it regardless of who was in office. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-real-risk-of-a-right-wing-coup-de-etat/533408/162 "2010-03-29T17:50:19Z")
With the news that people are getting arrested and charges are being filed, I’m not as sure as I was, that this is all just a few crackpot individuals - especially when weapons are being found, such as grenade launchers. The Hutarees, Dyer from the Oath Keepers, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Burton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Burton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Burton)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-real-risk-of-a-right-wing-coup-de-etat/533408/163 "2010-03-30T15:50:00Z")
No we’re going to have a revolution, like yesterday. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-real-risk-of-a-right-wing-coup-de-etat/533408/164 "2010-03-30T16:19:08Z")
They had a funny bit about this last night on the Daily Show. Check out Wyatt Cenac at about 5:55: > **[Jon Stewart Returns And Rips Conservatives For Violent Health Care Fallout...](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jon-stewart-returns-and-r_n_518216)** > > Jon Stewart Returns And Rips Conservatives For Violent Health Care Fallout (VIDEO) “Bring it on, let’s just fucking do this…We have guns too.” So, if you want revolution, just do it. Stop talking and get on with it. Just let us know how that shootey, insurrectioney stuff works out for ya. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-real-risk-of-a-right-wing-coup-de-etat/533408/165 "2010-03-30T17:36:00Z")
Isn’t it obvious? First, the Obamessiah provokes patriots with ramming, cramming, stuffing socialism down America’s throat. When the patriots respond with reasonable and carefully considered acts of targeted “violence”, they move in and crush them. And then they say “Well, we can’t have this sort of thing going on, we’ll have to take all the guns!” Wake up, America! Wake up! ---
**Author:** ![rivulus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@rivulus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rivulus)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-real-risk-of-a-right-wing-coup-de-etat/533408/166 "2010-03-30T18:17:04Z")
> [@Merneith](#): > > _Eventually?_ It’s been Republican SOP for the last decade. And as I said, nobody ‘rammed’ anything down their throats. It’s their own fault they thought that holding their breathe until they turned blue was a viable negotiating position. Huh. Kind of reminds me of trying to negotiate getting out the door with my two-year-old this morning. Do you want to wear the blue shirt or the green shirt? No! Do you want cereal or oatmeal? No! Do you want to take this book or that truck to play with in the car? NO!! At some point, an adult (whether momma, Nancy, Barak, or Harry) just has to stop negotiating and act like a grownup. Because you can’t expect a toddler – or someone acting like a recalcitrant toddler – to get out the door fully clothed, fed, and with a clean diaper – much less get reasonable health reform out of congress. Time to put some people in the naughty chair. ---
**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 30, 2010, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-real-risk-of-a-right-wing-coup-de-etat/533408/167 "2010-03-30T23:29:13Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > They had a funny bit about this last night on the Daily Show. Check out Wyatt Cenac at about 5:55: > [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/30/jon-stewart-returns-and-r\_n\_518216.html](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/30/jon-stewart-returns-and-r_n_518216.html) > > “Bring it on, let’s just fucking do this…We have guns too.” > > So, if you want revolution, just do it. Stop talking and get on with it. Just let us know how that shootey, insurrectioney stuff works out for ya. I’ve seen this meme going around lately, happy liberals and stern soldiers pointing out that any revolutionaries would summarily get the shit kicked out of them. 2 thoughts on this: 1: I like the fact that we’re stronger but I really prefer the argument “we’re righter”. 2: Let’s not get too smug about our big shiny military, mkay? Surely nobody has missed the lessons of Fallujah, Kandahar, Tel Aviv, etc. It only takes a couple of dickheads to upset the entire apple cart. ---
**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 31, 2010, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-real-risk-of-a-right-wing-coup-de-etat/533408/168 "2010-03-31T02:51:49Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Isn’t it obvious? First, the Obamessiah provokes patriots with ramming, cramming, stuffing socialism down America’s throat. When the patriots respond with reasonable and carefully considered acts of targeted “violence”, they move in and crush them. And then they say “Well, we can’t have this sort of thing going on, we’ll have to take all the guns!” > > Wake up, America! Wake up! And after the guns are taken away how will the militia patriots stop the illuminati from using their control over the federal reserve, council of foreign relations, trilateral commission and united nations to turn America into the North American Union, under the jurisdiction of the UN flag and the one world government? It will happen. Amero here we come. ---
**Author:** ![elelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@elelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elelle)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-real-risk-of-a-right-wing-coup-de-etat/533408/169 "2010-03-31T03:27:52Z")
Won’t somebody Please Think of the testosterone poisoned??? ---
**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 31, 2010, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-real-risk-of-a-right-wing-coup-de-etat/533408/170 "2010-03-31T14:34:49Z")
> [@](#): > > Let’s not get too smug about our big shiny military, mkay? Surely nobody has missed the lessons of Fallujah, Kandahar, Tel Aviv, etc. It only takes a couple of dickheads to upset the entire apple cart. I thought the lesson was that it only takes a couple of dickheads to annoy the apples into shooting back with bigger guns. ---
**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 31, 2010, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-real-risk-of-a-right-wing-coup-de-etat/533408/171 "2010-03-31T15:55:24Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I thought the lesson was that it only takes a couple of dickheads to annoy the apples into shooting back with bigger guns. If you’re highlighting the fact that the dickheads are underestimating the hurt they will bring down on themselves, cool. The point I’m trying to make here is that using a big technologically advanced military to defeat a determined insurgency does not appear to be a slam-dunk proposition by the looks of things in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. Here in the US it all depends on whether these guys are blustery chickenhawks or they’re prepared to do suicide missions (I’m betting much more on the former than the latter but one never knows). ---
**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 31, 2010, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-real-risk-of-a-right-wing-coup-de-etat/533408/172 "2010-03-31T18:17:53Z")
> [@](#): > > The point I’m trying to make here is that using a big technologically advanced military to defeat a determined insurgency does not appear to be a slam-dunk proposition by the looks of things in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. Eliminating them? Maybe not. But defeating them? These guys were already defeated before they even started fighting. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-real-risk-of-a-right-wing-coup-de-etat/533408/173 "2010-03-31T18:52:46Z")
Exactly. Insurgencies, in the larger scheme of things, are little more than ankle biters. ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-real-risk-of-a-right-wing-coup-de-etat/533408/174 "2010-03-31T18:55:17Z")
A bottom up revolution by right wing weekend militias is incredibly unlikely due to the power of entrenched institutions. It just wouldn’t be good business. However, such a threat would most definitely grow given continued economic downturns. But at that point we would be looking at a potential breakup of the United States. The threat of a top down coup is always present in any society. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2010, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-real-risk-of-a-right-wing-coup-de-etat/533408/175 "2010-04-01T15:49:29Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Unlikely at this point, but hardly as crazy as you make it out to be with the military packed with right wingers and constantly bombarded with right wing propaganda. “It can’t happen here” isn’t much of an argument; America is not magically immune to such things. America has been sliding towards a right wing dictatorship for much of my life; if Bush had been more competent and more focused on domestic policy he could have pulled it off and set himself up as President For Life. Oh, for pity’s sake. Here: [Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie](http://zapatopi.net/afdb/) ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2010, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-real-risk-of-a-right-wing-coup-de-etat/533408/176 "2010-04-01T16:29:35Z")
As everyone with a grain of sense knows, if the foil is not folded parallel to true magnetic north, it is useless against ACORN’s mind rays. ---
**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:** [April 1, 2010, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-real-risk-of-a-right-wing-coup-de-etat/533408/177 "2010-04-01T16:46:40Z")
**Clothahump** and **DT**. If we could just get one of them to believe in God they’d be the perfect balanced sample. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-real-risk-of-a-right-wing-coup-de-etat/533408.md?page=8)