Darkness At Noon: Deep State Executing Coup d' Etat

From Powerline:

Reading the news stories that have created the consuming controversies of the past few days, this is what I see. Hostile officials inside the executive branch of the government seek the removal of Donald Trump from office. They are powerful. They lack any qualms about abusing their positions. And they are determined. 

With malicious intent, “current officials” inside the intelligence agencies with access to top secret information, for example, have passed it on under the cloak of anonymity to their friends in the mainstream media. Even “former officials” — i.e., former Obama administration officials — have gotten in on the act. (The source of their information is neither revealed nor apparent.) The adage to the contrary notwithstanding, there is something new under the sun after all. 

The reporters working the Trump takedown are accomplices in violations of the Espionage Act together with the perpetrators among those “current officials,” but the Espionage Act has long since lost its deterrent effect on senior officers of the intelligence community performing extracurricular missions. It is more honored in the breach than in the observance.

From Ace of Spades:

The "Elites" of #TheResistance are winning in their bid for a coup, and Trump hasn't been able to thwart them. I realize this is something that causes a lot of controversy to say, but it's true. 

Maybe no one could stand up to this onslaught. Maybe Trump's bobbles and stumbles are just background noise in relation to the quasar-level signal the #Resistance is pumping out. 

But so far, he's losing. 

They do intend for a coup. 

I don't believe they've planned out the aftermath of a coup.It will be... messy. 

Once you've formally announced to the public that their decisions simply do not matter, and that a niche subculture of the country gets to exercise an extra-constitutional veto on any decision they don't approve of -- once you've made it plain that America is a government with a nation, not a nation with a government -- what exactly is it that binds the people to a government that cannot in any way be described as "their" government? 

The old bromide was that we have to respect the will of the people when we lose, if for no other reason that we count on others respecting the will of the people when they lose. 

But now that that social contract has been entirely disavowed by a large minority of the country -- now that they've made it plain that they will have no government except one they control at the expense of their enemies -- what possible reason could they suggest to citizens why they must respect the next president, or the one after that?