Democrats favor Trump impeachment over a coup, but 59% still back

Read the polling question again. Just under half of Democrats say they'd be pleased if the military overthrew President Trump and took over the government. Not impeached him. Not voted him out. A military coup. The kind of thing we've spent decades telling the rest of the world not to do. And there it is, accepted by a near-majority of the party that calls itself the defender of democracy.

That doesn't mean every Democrat wants tanks in the street. But it means there's a large, comfortable faction that would cheer the end of constitutional rule if it removed one man. The same people who lectured us about norms and institutions are now giving a shrug to the most un-American act imaginable. If the party's base is this unhinged, the leadership's fake horror at "insurrection" is just another slogan.

To be fair, the poll says Democrats prefer impeachment to a coup. Good for them. But the fact that they have to be asked to choose between a lawful process and a barracks takeover should tell us everything. A healthy democracy doesn't have a contingent of voters open to military rule.