I feel ultimately the power is a physical power. The president could collude with few generals with promises of forever riches then arrests the entire congress and all governors.
I'm not super expert on govt. So what would happen or not happen? Why?
why won't generals join president for greener pastures?
If a few generals who sided with the president, they would face a lot of resignations all the way down the command change.
In Germany in the 1940s, Hilter got control by literally assassinating the generals who opposed his takeover to take control. But even that would have likely failed without the massive economic crisis caused by the punitive settlement of WW I and without the unusual characteristics of German society. (no, Trump is not Hilter and the US in 2020 is not Germany in the 1930/40s.)
We have tested it a couple of things in the US. Truman recalled MacArthur for attempting to publicly influence political opinion. I forget about the others.
So... the mostly likely thing if it is close is that it takes a while but the political establishment throws it to Biden, Trump sulks into the sunset (maybe even prison eventually), and the Republicans don't care because they have just got a 6-3 on the Court for a generation.
But also it has never been tested in the US..so we're just talking about speculation....
All of this makes society quite stable because if you try to change anything you'll discover that you kicked up not just a hornet's nest but a high complexity hornet's nest -- that is you are not fighting one opponent but rather an ever-changing network of organizations with different motivations and fighting styles.
A movement might start out "raw" (protesting in the streets, occupying a factory, etc.) but if you engage with the "system" you will (over time) grow old and less bold, understand something about how other people see the situation, get some wins, feel like you have something to lose, someday tell young people they'll have to wait their turn, etc.
The "system" will exhaust the energy of attacks from below, above, or the side. That "Avocado Association" would keep its head low when the shooting starts, but could become the nexus of a major conflict a few years down that line because of accidents that accumulate over time -- simply because it wants things and could have wants that get in the way of what the state wants.
The peace of our society depends on the state practicing radical liberalism that doesn't perceive the "Avocado Association" as a threat.
The prosperity of our society depends on all of the above as that anyone succeeds at a goal through civil society and everything from avocados to finance, high technology, salvation and a clean environment and depends on those groups.
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As for the military.
Generals in our military are part of a strong culture acted out through a long career. Today they are at the top of a highly respected organization that taps a few percent of a tremendously productive economy.
Donald Trump has thrown many of his greatest supporters (eg. Jeff Sessions) under the bus when it was convenient for him.
Generals who rallied behind Trump would throw away the good will the military has worked to build, leave them tapping a few percent of a drastically smaller economy, to probably find themselves discarded in a few months or not weeks.
What would you do in that situation?