Figures from Glenn Greenwald to Tucker Carlson have raised the recent posting by University of Chicago Professor Brian Leiter saying that military leaders should “depose” President Donald Trump and jail him. The posting was either a poor attempt at a coup or comedy. The real problem is that in today’s environment it was unclear and, worse yet, unremarkable. On Reddit, readers were directed to “Brian Leiter (UoC professor) calls for a military coup: “Trump should be deposed and jailed” Leiter removed the statement and blamed the lack of a sense of humor on those who objected. He was not calling for a coup d’état, just musing about the possibility of a coup d’état.
On his site, Leiter discussed the criticism of Trump by General Mattis and stated that Mattis now “needs to encourage his military colleagues who share his respect for American democracy and the rule of law to do what he should have done while in office: Trump should be deposed and jailed.”
Leiter later removed the statement with an addendum reading:
“I’ve removed my little joke about a military coup in favor of VP Pence. I have, it appears, more faith in the U.S. military, and its commitment to the rule of law, than most readers.”
The incident however raises a more concerning problem. Many could not tell. It is now routine for academics to make sweeping and irresponsible statements about how to deal with Trump and his Administration. This is not a reference to the distortion of the criminal code to declare a host of criminal acts that are unsupportable under controlling case law. It is superheated rhetoric of professors denouncing the Trump Administration as a fascist regime and even endorsing violent protests as a form of speech.
Harvard Professor Lawrence Tribe retweeted a comparison of Trump to Hitler engaging in similar gestures and calling it “horrifying,” He later took done the tweet and said “I’m not saying Trump is becoming Hitler, so don’t bother tweeting the distinctions.” Many are still making the comparison. Indeed, I have had other professors make the same comparison in conversations.
A professor who said that he teaches a course on fascism insisted that the comparison to fascism is apt and that violence is warranted, including the attack on journalist Andy Ngo: “I don’t have a problem with it. There are children dying of lack of medication in concentration camps in the U.S. If one fascist gets a milkshake thrown at him… And beaten up. I don’t have a problem with it.”
This is why people do not get the joke because many academics are not joking. Indeed, we have discussed cases where faculty have been physically attacked and intimidated.
The irony is that many of these same academics (rightfully) chastise Trump for his often inflammatory and reckless rhetoric.
I am entirely convinced that Leiter honestly meant this as a joke and that he is committed to the rule of law. I do not want to pile on him for a simple mistaken posting. However, this controversy is occurring as such rhetoric is on the rise among academics who call Trump a Hitler-like figure and his supporters fascists. While some say afterwards “I was just joking,” the intent is to suggest that such comparisons or counteractions to fascism are warranted.
The point is only that there remains little self-evaluation in the academic over superheated rhetoric. Even a statement calling for a military coup is not particularly notable whether as a joke or a serious suggestion in this environment. The effect is chilling for many Republican and conservative academics and students. I am neither a Republican nor conservative but the level of open hostility and intolerance that I have seen in the academy is shocking and chilling. Such outrageous statements are now treated as a virtual type of article of faith among academics. The result is a type of socially reinforced orthodoxy among academics against those who may agree with the Administration on legal interpretations or policy choices. This is what is not funny in the slightest.
These people are just toxic loons. It’s an election year; Leiter and Tribe are lawyers; haven’t they ever heard of voting? TDS is almost as bad as the corona
I’ve met Leiter a few times; I like him; and have maintained a periodic e-mail correspondence with him. I very much admire his insights into Nietzsche. He is a liberal who clearly dislikes Trump, but also finds the PC culture to be childish and irritating. In other words, a liberal, not a leftist. I have found that on occasions he dismisses other intellectuals without knowing very much about them. On his blog, several times, he’s made savage denunciations of Jordan Peterson in ways that make it clear he’s made no effort to familiarize himself with Peterson’s basic ideas. Once, several years ago, i mentioned to him something in Turley’s blog, and he said he never read Turley’s blog, finding him “vacant,” a criticism I found to be condescending and inaccurate.
“A professor who said that he teaches a course on fascism insisted that the comparison to fascism is apt and that violence is warranted, including the attack on journalist Andy Ngo: “I don’t have a problem with it. There are children dying of lack of medication in concentration camps in the U.S. If one fascist gets a milkshake thrown at him… And beaten up. I don’t have a problem with it.””
This professor sounds disturbingly fascistic himself.
I think trump’s approval might be over 50% if he could just edit himself a bit more. What makes Trump Trump and what I actually have come to admire about him is his pugnacious, fighting spirit, and the fact that no matter how outrageous some of his tweets may be, he never, ever apologizes.
I hope he will not apologize for this tweet; I also wish he had not posted it.
If I am correct that Mattis, or a close aide, is the anonymous author of A Warning and the nytimes oped, then his observations bear little relation to what actually happens in the Trump White House and he betrays no training in scholarship. This is shown in my forthcoming book http://yourehiredtrump.com
Stupid is as stupid does and the uneducated are often found in such places being more stuid than usual. Military Coup? He hasn’t read The Constitution. Our active duty brothers and sisters and we retired and former military who support them are more likely to continue our present counter revolution and put people like him in handcuffs in front of tribunal.
We vote as citizens 80% of the combat arms against his kind.
We uphold our oath of office unlike his kind.
We helped form the Constitutional Centrist Coalition and came up with the various supporters 40% of the legitimate votes in the legal election and consider his kind to be nothing more than political targets of opportunity.
But as I said in the beginning. Stupid is as Stupid does and Leiter does not add up to leader but loser.
I see no reason to accept Leiter’s claim that it was a joke. He is staunchly anti-Trump. It does *sound* like a joke. There is nothing in it to tip one off that is a joke.
I really have not been editing my brief posts adequately lately. I meant to write: “It does not *sound* like a joke.” I hate sloppy posting, and I have been too guilty of it recently (here and elsewhere).
I am entirely convinced that Leiter honestly meant this as a joke and that he is committed to the rule of law.
Say what? Your entirely convinced? How many people committed to the rule of law, especially one that is a Professor of Jurisprudence, Director of the Center for Law, Philosophy, and Human Values at the University of Chicago, will jokingly call for a military coup? This is not only reckless, but highly irresponsible given his standing among academia.
I reread your post because of your long-standing concerns over the erosion of free speech. You stated: The incident however raises a more concerning problem. So of course the next line from you would be concern that the professor was forced to remove his ill-thought joke. But you made no mention of the 1st amendment. Instead, you state: The point is only that there remains little self-evaluation in the academic over superheated rhetoric. Even a statement calling for a military coup is not particularly notable whether as a joke or a serious suggestion in this environment.
Certainly notable enough for the professor to delete it without a hint from you that it was an anti-free speech move.
Go figure.
Oh that Brian Leiter is such a card! An obvious joke about coups after a nationwide series of deadly riots by Leftist anarchists seeking just that — but alas, to our aging procurator of legal knowledge, failing miserably. And the object of his scorn! What a kneeslapper — the President he despises as a charter member of the Deep State Academy he is. Coincidence, of course!!
Hey let’s all play! Here’s hoping Professor Leiter is graciously shown and perpetually consigned to, what Candide surely would call, “remarkably cool apartments, where the glare of the sun is never bothersome.”
Hahahahaha! Get it? Get it?
It’s interesting that while JT recognizes it as a joke, he still frames it as if some taboo was broken.
Tucker Carlson himself engaged in the same kind of rhetoric implying BLM was going after white if they didn’t follow the narrative.
Then again JT should have pointed out that their free speech is still protected.
Comrade:
“It’s interesting that while JT recognizes it as a joke, he still frames it as if some taboo was broken.”
*********************************
‘Cause he knows it’s not a joke as does the author who turtled-shelled it as soon as it caught the least flak and then castigated those who saw it for what it was.
Trump is a wannabe dictator. This is clear from the rhetoric he uses; the threats he makes about jailing his political opponents; his demonizing of the press as the enemy of the people (when it is really he who is the enemy of the people); his expressed desire to deploy the military in our streets. Whether he is a Stalin, Putin, Mao, Hitler, Pol Pot, Mussolini type or some other is matter of individual opinion. Given the opportunity, Trump would gladly choose to be any one of these tyrants, or any of the others on this list of dictators: https://www.ranker.com/list/list-of-famous-dictators/reference
Poltroon Randy:
Trump is not even close.
we should however study the lives of these strong leaders to see how order can be restored to chaos.
I have found some unexpected nuggets of wisdom in the works of Mao Zedong. This comes from my own personal “diversity studies.”
And more— I even see some logic behind Saloth Sar too, aka, Pol Pot. He fired the social parasite useless academics from their cozy berths in the ivory tower, and made them grow their own food in the countryside. Maybe that fate awaits other useless social parasite academics like the “critical studies” troublemakers who advance human knowledge not one iota and only stir up trouble.
I think the “gender studies” “professors” should be retrained in gardening, that’s my idea of a jobs program.
Back to the age old wisdom: “he who does not work, does not eat.” This was the rule in early colonial American settlements and the rule in certain Buddhist monasteries, too.
How do you know what Trump wants? How does anyone? Does Trump even know what Trump wants? To the degree that he speaks coherently doesn’t he mostly say that he wants to make the country “great”, or “tremendous” or some other murky superlative thing? Is that clear? Or is that part foggy, and the other parts clear? Is the use of “law and order” the rhetoric which “clearly” indicates his desire for dictatorship? Trump is not the first president to use the phrase. Did Nixon want to be a dictator? Does Joe Biden? Does every politician who uses that rhetorical formulation betray their dictatorial impulse? Or only some? How is one to tell the difference?
It’s hard enough to discern one’s own motivations in the murky complexity of even the most ordinary life. Do you disagree? Or do you think it’s actually easier to understand other people’s motivations since they themselves are blinded by ego, prejudice and the like which is perhaps obvious to others? When you write “this is clear” you don’t say to whom it’s clear. Is it clear to the 60 million people who voted for him? If that’s the case then is it also the case that 60 million people voted to overthrow the constitutional order of our nation? Or did they “place their bets” on the ability of our institutions to contain a dictator’s ascent? Are their motivations clear? Are anybody’s?
The incident however raises a more concerning problem.
‘Concerning’ is bad usage.
What you’re not acknowledging is that we’re not talking about some random crank at a northern California community college. These two are exceedingly prominent academics and one was generally considered to be on Walter Mondale’s short-list for a Supreme Court appointment. What it is evidence of is that our academic gentry is populated with hysterical children. That comes as no surprise to any of us, but it’s a reality you won’t acknowledge.
And were I Brian Leiter, I’d be wary of any breakdown in law and order. All the evidence suggests he’s a repulsive person. He calls to mind the retort of the bolshie stock clerk on the British comedy Are You Being Served?, who looks at the tiresome sales supervisor and says to him, “You realize when we take over, you’ll be the first one shot”.
Trump was frustrating to the Pentagon from the start. They hated his miniscule attention span, his tendency to go out and step all over established policy without consulting them in a even a minimal way…, they definitely hate his overall weakness, incompetence, ineptitude and corruption. They hate he rerouted military budget for his border fence…
He’s just too iconsistent for them in every respect. I have no doubt the removal of Trump has been discussed ad infinitum. Hell, when he admitted to taking hcq I thought damn, he’s giving you the shot boys. Jack him up with an adrenaline shot, take him out when he’s in the middle of a fevered twitter rant, blame it on the hcq and emotions of the times…
Pentagon restraint with Trump will be the take home history lesson from these times…
So by and large I’m not any more concerned with Trump coup talk as I was when all y’all were frothing at the mouth about doing it to Obama.
Wish you guys would buck up and stop being such snowflakes about dear leader.
You should read ‘Seven Days in May’. And, learn a bit about how federal appropriations are actually managed. Funds are reprogrammed all the time.
True enough. And notice i didn’t say that didn’t happen in the least bit. Just said he did it and the Pentagon hates him for it. Also true enough.
I never advocated an illegal coup against Obama. I have no idea what Hellvis is talking about.
Assume for sake of argument Trump is a bad president.
Nonetheless,, Trump is the elected civilian leader. Do you really want generals to mutiny? For the first time in like 240 or so years of continuous civilian leadership? and if you want him removed. well, LOL, you may not find what comes after to be very much to your liking either.
I am sure a lot of Chinese thought that Jiang Jieshi aka Chiang Kai Shek was a bad guy. Until the CCP consolidated power. Well, then, it was out of the frying pan, into the fire.
Suggest you bring your vote in November and leave it at that. I can accept the outcome of a fair election even if a Democrat wins, no problem. Even a little bit of foreign meddling or vote fraud is not a big deal.
What’s a big deal is sabotaging the result of an election for 3 years and what would be a disastrously bad thing would be that you folks are too impatient to wait a few months and throwing the baby out with the bathwater by supporting a coup in the meantime.
And who’s to say that your coup leaders will do what you like? Of course they will do as they please.
And that’s all assuming arguendo Trump is such a bad President, and of course I would disagree.
Assumed that Trump is a bad president. He’s awful. In the running for worst of all time.
And you just verbalized the reluctance the Pentagon has with just taking Trump out from Jan. 17 forward. Which would lead them to captilize on an opportunity with plausible deniability. Hence his idiot venture into his hcq habit. Hell, they could’ve added just a little something to his adderol/hcq/statin cocktail…easy peasy.
Democrats try to set America on fire so they can blame the fire on Trump, day in, day out. Will they get exhausted before they exhaust the public?
Who has borrowed tactics from Adolf?
Anyone who gives anything back to the “common man” is the dirty word “populist” ie Hitler; like the 5000 miles of fishing rights back to American fisherman a few days ago in Maine.
Don’t look now, but Pelosi and Schumer just signaled that they would like to see Reichstag burned.
What a sense of humor. He should leave the university and start doing stand up.
Didn’t Trump, or was it Putin that made it against the law to criticize the Dear Leader. It’s hard to tell anymore which is which.
Right..just look at what Trump was doing in Minneapolis before the death of George Loyd exposed him..oh, wait, that was the Democrat machine that let their cops run roughshod over their peeps.
Name one person who’s been prosecuted for ‘criticizing’ any President, let alone Trump.
How about two persons. James Callender and Matthew Lyon under John Adams administration. Now if you wish to be eristic and insist that they were jailed for criticizing his administration, have at it. Nearly 900 people were convicted and jailed under the 1918 Sedition Act, which was pressed for by Woodrow Wilson, so you could include them. Of course you can’t include Lincoln, who bypassed the courts and just had people jailed. Other than that, no, I can’t name anybody.
The military will act if Trump refuses the results of the G.O.P. bonfire in November. The Marines dragging him out of the White House will not be a good look…
If people wonder why Trump’s supporters stick with him through thick and thin it is in large part because of the over the top nature of the opposition to everything he says. My first reaction is to not believe anything reported by the NY Times, WA Post or any news outlet. Even though this is an opinion site, I get more honest reporting here than from sites purporting to be news.
True..they might find it unbelievable that Trump is the lesser of two evils..that’s because they have no mirror.
People really need to study the Spanish civil war of the 1930’s. Communism vs fascism. Both bad. Both really the same. This where we are headed. We really need a convention of states so that those who want to leave the USA can. bye!! Enjoy your police less existence. Let us no how that goes for you.
I just don’t see real fascism in the Republican party or in Trump. Whatever authoritarian gestures that these academic leftists claim to see in Trump, I don’t see real authoritarianism in him. The Republican party is generally, but not exclusively libertarian, and is committed to small government, free speech, and the second amendment. These are not the instincts of fascists, who tend to prefer increasing the power of the state. To the extent there has been any anti-semitism among Republicans, they tend to banish it quickly. The only anti-semites with any actual political power in the US are all democrats.
I don’t see the humor, but it is free speech.