31 Percent for a Coup - How Far Desperation Among Democratic Voters Has Gone

Some ideas sound like salvation and mean the abyss. This week Trump spoke before the UN General Assembly, in a role once left to men like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Muammar al-Gaddafi, the megalomaniacal autocrat, this time with nuclear weapons. The country has failed the test of not becoming one of the world's problem cases. Worse still, too many have developed a taste for bad government, while a large part of society is still counting on being rescued without contributing anything themselves. Somebody will surely step into the front row and take care of it.

A poll last week tried to capture the mood among Democratic voters ahead of Election Day, and much of it is harmless. A majority sees Kamala Harris as the candidate for 2028, the biggest concern is “the economy, inflation and the cost of living.” But one result makes you stop. On the question of how people would feel about Trump leaving office, one sentence was offered as a possible scenario. Military leaders have removed the president “to safeguard the Constitution” and taken control. 31 percent net approval. 59 percent think that is good, 28 percent do not. 31 percent is not an accident, it is a warning. Nearly 6 out of 10 of these voters nod along when uniforms suspend the Constitution in the name of the Constitution. When a country starts calling for its generals, faith in its own rules is already halfway gone. The poll was conducted on September 21, 2026, by the Center for Strategic Politics for Liberal Currents.

The other answers were more reasonable. Impeachment came out on top with 80 percent, followed by the 25th Amendment with 77 percent. A peaceful death in his sleep came in at 40 percent. Only one option got a negative rating, murder, the cruelest and most dangerous of them all, and that is exactly how it should be. At least the moral compass still moves when it reaches the worst answer. Even so, the number for a coup is far too high. You do not want a military coup in the United States under any circumstances, for any supposedly good reason. No result is worth the price a country pays for breaking that first barrier.

The desire for the generals grows out of desperation. After years of watching the rules get bent, some people begin to play with the idea of breaking them themselves for a good cause. That is exactly where the trap lies. Once a democracy expects to be rescued by uniforms, it is already speaking the language of its enemies. Maybe the idea has some pull because the country only recently got a taste of it. Around January 6, 2021, and for roughly 2 weeks afterward, a strange trio effectively held sway. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence held the reins, with General Mark Milley alongside them. Trump was noticeably constrained in his powers, and the trio stepped in at crucial moments. Back then, he was restrained less by the law than by people nobody had elected to do that. You can say it was for the best, and after that came the Biden administration with its relative normalcy. Even so, many people did not find it reassuring. A state of exception that ends well is still no recommendation to repeat it.

Before the 2016 election, a source in Brazil offered one sentence to take along: “The world can handle Brazil being a problem case once in a while. The thought of the United States becoming one is truly disturbing.” The country makes a useful case study. Once these kinds of interventions begin, they rarely stop again. Historian James N. Green counts 9 attempts by the armed forces since 1889, when the army overthrew Emperor Pedro II and proclaimed the republic, 5 of them successful. What begins as an emergency measure settles in and makes itself at home over the years. No general willingly gives back what fear among the public has handed him. The last intervention in 1964 happened with explicit support from the U.S. government and led to a 21-year military dictatorship. 21 years, that is an entire youth spent under military rule.

A military-forced removal of Trump would tear the political landscape apart and trigger an upheaval that would be almost impossible to contain. The MAGA movement is deeply rooted in conspiracy thinking and clings to him with the devotion of a sect. Turning him into a martyr would be a serious mistake. The man who is overthrown comes back as a victim, bigger than before. Prison does not make a saint, a forced removal does. A coup would reignite the passions of January 6 and give new momentum to those who, as journalist Matt Ford notes, claim an alleged right under the Second Amendment to kill officials and murder elected representatives.

Another path is sitting right there, without violence. If Republicans lose the midterms badly, the incentive grows to push Trump toward an early exit and pass the torch to Vice President JD Vance, who could then spend 2 years effectively running as the incumbent. If that is how it happens, then so be it. Trump himself has good reasons to stay, because once he is a private citizen again, his legal battles immediately catch up with him.

The constitutional paths preferred by most Democrats are the better ones. Party leadership waves off impeachment, a 3rd one is considered impractical, even though people say 3rd time is the charm. Republican senators had 2 chances to end a presidency that had failed in its duty, one of them immediately after he had sent a mob after them. They failed and left him in office and untouched for future office. That is why impeachment belongs in this fall's Senate elections. All the misery of today is the bill for the fact that back then, not enough senators truly loved their country.

If Trump's rule ends early, it will not be easy, even if it happens through legal means. The country will go through a period of unrest. The convenient exit through the barracks is no exit at all, it only pushes the problem into a more dangerous future. The tanks that come for one man today come for another tomorrow. Ending tyranny by breaking the constitutional order means burying the order along with it. Instead of dreaming about a coup, everyone is left with a more sober duty, to support the civic foundation and be a good steward of a nation of laws. Maybe Trump's fall is already within sight. All the more reason to make sure it does not become the model for the next one.