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The violent, anti-democratic attack on the Capitol doesn’t fit the technical definition of a coup even though the president incited and encouraged it. That matters, experts say, because different actions are required to prevent this type of attack from harming democracy. A coup is an illegal attempt to take power through force or the threat of force, usually involving at least a faction of the military or formal security forces, though sometimes they are backed by paramilitaries or other armed groups. That’s not what happened in Washington yesterday. URL: 

The Trailer: What's next for the Republican Party David Weigel In this edition: The GOP's 2022 comeback, the final polls of the Trump presidency and the first special election of the year gets underway. Filing late to our editors to make sure it's the final newsletter of the Trump era: This is The Trailer. © David Crigger/AP Members of the Southwest Virginia Tea Party gathered in Abingdon, Va., on Jan. 6 to show their support for President Trump. (David Crigger/Bristol Herald Courier via AP) Ryan Costello could be part of the next Republican comeback. The former Pen...

Sociology of the Siege January 20, 2021 Since the January 6 Assault on Capitol Hill, scholars, reporters, and politicians have tried to make sense of the violent insurrection. Many draw from fundamental sociological lessons to make sense of violence, place it in historical context, and help readers navigate the ongoing political turmoil. (A collection of posts from recent years on Contexts captures this potential.)  Sociology offers theories and methodologies that are useful in analyzing violent political events like the Trump insurrection. The following paragraphs draw on classi...

Subject: The Review: Fascism and a Chat With Samuel Moyn “Go home. We love you. You’re very special.” President Trump’s message to the rioters who stormed the Capitol building on January 6 might double as a particularly pathetic bit of motivational self-talk. Previously inflamed by Trump, the perpetrators of the riot (Insurrection? Coup attempt?) didn’t listen, though by that evening the Capitol had been secured. As of this writing, Trump has still not gone home (Mar-a-Lago?), but there’s no indication that Biden won’t peacefully assume the presidency on the 20th. Clearly this ...

Illustration by Adrià Fruitós. There is a story that Washington policy-makers like to tell about America’s relationship with China, a narrative of the betrayal of naive hopes that is closer to a fairy tale than a sober analysis of history. The fable goes something like this: Once upon a time, there was a hermit kingdom called China, poor, angry, and isolated. Two visionary statesmen, Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, visited this unhappy land and opened it up to the world. With diplomacy and trade, successive American leaders helped build up China, with the dream that, as it grew richer...