The Jefferson Option

West Point Instructor Calls for Military Overthrow of US Govt, 30% of Americans Agree A recent YouGov survey of 1000 people posed the question: “Is there any situation in which you could imagine yourself supporting the U.S. military taking over the powers of [the] federal government?” Nearly one-third of the respondents – thirty percent – answered in the affirmative, with 43 percent of Republicans (as opposed to twenty percent of Democrats) endorsing undisguised military rule. “What if the American people were to elect a president who want[s] to destroy the nation and works to create division among the people, encourage a culture of ridicule for basic morality and the principles that made and sustained the country, undermine the financial stability of the nation, and weaken and destroy the military?” Bradford writes. “What remedies, if any, did the Framers commend to us in the event a tyrant should every assume the presidency? Do the people have the right to resist a tyrant, and does that really hold any prospect of success without the support of the military? Does the U.S. military have the right or even the duty to intervene in the domestic politics of the United States as constitutional and political savior when the times require it, and who makes that determination?… Is such a duty incumbent upon the U.S. Armed Forces at present?” [FULL] A former West Point instructor who has called for American critics of the “war on terror” to be imprisoned or executed as traitors suggests that the U.S. military would be hailed as the “constitutional and political savior” of the country if it overthrew the civilian government – and a surprisingly large number of Americans may agree with him. Legal scholar William C. Bradford, who was forced to resign from his position as an instructor of law at West Point in August, has privately circulated a draft of an unpublished law review article entitled “Alea Iacta Est: The U.S. Coup of 2017.” An abstract of that essay posted to Bradford’s LinkedIn page adumbrates a scenario in which a U.S. president – presumably, Barack Obama – becomes an undisguised “tyrant” who must be replaced by a military junta. Don't think for a minute that this scenario isn't part of Obama's governing calculus.