See, if any of this sounds familiar to your American ears:
Myanmar’s military has seized power after detaining Aung San Suu Kyi and other democratically elected leaders…
…The army alleges the recent landslide election win by Ms Suu Kyi’s party was marred by fraud…
…The military takeover follows weeks of tensions between the armed forces and the government following parliamentary elections lost by the army-backed opposition.
The opposition had demanded a re-run of the election, raising allegations of widespread fraud that were not backed by the electoral commission…
…The timing of this coup is also easily explained. This week the first session of parliament since the election was due to start, which would have enshrined the election result by approving the next government. That will no longer happen.
Maybe it’s a little clearer now why I opposed granting a waiver to Gen. James Mattis to serve in the civilian role of Secretary of Defense, and why I also did not support a waiver for Gen. Lloyd Austin to serve in that capacity in the Biden administration. It’s not personal to those two gentlemen. It’s just a bad idea to put generals in political positions.
Notice that a huge part of the problem in Myanmar is that there was an “the army-backed opposition.” When that opposition lost, the military pulled a Trump and claimed fraud, demanded a do-over, and then intervened before the new parliament could legitimize the results.
Trump failed because he didn’t have the support of the military, and that’s the only reason he failed. We’re a lot closer to being Myanmar that people want to admit.
Eh, I’m not so sure I buy the Austin Mattis line. Austin is far superior to Rumsfeld. Character of the person matters much more than whether they previously served IMO.
Anyhow, the truth is that Republicans don’t need the military to stage the coup. They just need the courts. They almost got it in wisconsin by a vote of 4-3 in the supreme court there. If one justice had been flipped and if the WI electoral votes has mattered to the outcome of the election, we’d have lost democracy in this country, and this is without any military involvement.
If the Courts had flipped Wisconsin, Biden still wins
If WI had flipped the results, it’s possible that other states would have been less-opposed to flipping their results if they had a reasonable chance to get away with it like WI. Or GA. Or PA. Etc., it’s why the states were targeted.
If WI had flipped their results, January 6th might not have been just a couple hundred morons.
If WI and GA had flipped their results, January 6th might have gotten martial law declared, which is a dictator’s best friend.
If WI, GA and AZ flipped their results, Trump would be on his second term “legitimately” by election through the House.
Everyone who thinks that the guardrails “held” are ignoring that the guardrails need to be rebuilt stronger than before, because next time it won’t be a clown-car, it’ll be an armored vehicle.
Strength of institutions matter. They’re boring, but they matter.
The US military has never involved itself in politics. It was not going to start for Trump. Myanmar is an entirely different situation, and we are not “closer to being Myanmar than people want to admit.” We are emphatically just the opposite.