No, they aren't doing a coup

Republicans are not "doing a coup" today. They are just setting the premise for the next four years of obstructionist behavior.  The ceremonial hooting, hollering, marching, and LARP counter-programming going on in D.C. while Congress receives the electoral votes from the states, is the opening bit in the opposition party strategy.  Even as they technically cede office, they are saying that they don't actually have to recognize the legitimacy of the incoming government.  Materially, that is as bad for you and me as if they were in fact doing a coup which of course is why they don't have to do one.  They don't have to do anything at all, really, besides be rude and raise money for two years before they take the Congress back. This morning, Democrats are already celebrating their victories in Georgia by talking about the things they aren't even going to try to do in the meantime.  In other words, the strategy works. Nothing will fundamentally change.

It's also important to say that this is the exact same strategy Republicans always employ whenever it is their team's turn to be out of power for a while. To believe any of it is new one would have to have no memory of the conspiracy stuff Rush Limbaugh's listeners regularly wallowed in during the Clinton years. And, supposing, some are too young and precious for that, surely they can reference the rolling boil of  birtherism and "secret Muslim" theory and whatever the hell was on Glenn Beck's dry erase board throughout the Obama years, right?  Right?  Like that just happened. Does anyone remember any single thing that ever happens?

Maybe it doesn't matter. All that matters is what can hold attention right now. And we can make that whatever we like as long as there is money to be made from pushing it out there. Cable news is going to wring the "coup" story line for all it is worth. It's great sensational #content. It keeps the folks watching and worrying and arguing about nonsense.  Nothing makes advertisers happier than that; perfectly alienated and insecure consumers at full attention.  But it distorts the reality of what is happening in unhelpful ways. And that sucks because, again, what is happening is actually very bad. 

We're not getting anything out of this deal.  What we want. What we need the Democrats to do for us during this fleeting moment when they hold a little bit of power is, at the very least, address the emergency seriously.  We need them to distribute the vaccine with some competence. We need them to pass a new stimulus that bails out the bankrupt municipal and state governments before everything collapses.  We need them to cancel rent.  We need them to pay people to stay home and be safe until the pandemic is over. 

But we aren't getting any of that.  Instead we are getting... "a new era of bipartisanship"

Of course he did:

Sen. JOE MANCHIN (https://t.co/cGSSO03KHm.) called for the results to usher in a “new era of bipartisanship.”

— Doug Henwood (@DougHenwood) January 6, 2021

Which, looking at D.C. today, we can count on to mean, Republicans refusing to participate in anything constructive on the grounds that  "*wink wink* the government is illegitimate" while the governing party refuses to even try to do anything without them. All of this bodes ill. But it's not a coup that poses the danger.  It's the same continuity of government for and by the ruling classes we've been experiencing forever.