The phrase “counting coup” is obviously not of Native American origin, but rather one first applied by French-speaking traders (“compte de coup“) to describe the Plains Indian tradition of a warrior coming close enough to an enemy to strike him with a stick rather than simply killing him, which was considered a display of courage and a way of humiliating the enemy, leading to great prestige for those who “counted coup.”
The word “coup” itself is French, and means “a blow.” It shows up in various other phrases such as “coup de foudre” (a thunderbolt, often used to describe love at first sight) and “coup de grace” (used to describe a final, mortal blow).
The best-known of these is probably “coup d’etat“, which means “blow to the state” and refers to an illegal attempt by a small group to overthrow a country’s lawful leadership, whether that leader is a monarch, a president, parliament, or other government entity. Wikipedia offers an extensive chronological list of coups d’etat (often shortened today to “coups”).
There are several different types of coups: the soft coup, which involves the seizure of power without the use of violence, the self-coup, which involves the legally-selected leadership attempting to illegally stay in power, the constitutional coup, which involves the seizure of power through the exploitation of a country’s constitution, and several others. Researchers Marsteintredet and Malamud provide an excellent discussion of the emerging phenomenon of “coups with adjectives,” showing how difficult it can be to distinguish among these.
The Cline Center has defined the January 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol as a self-coup; the current January/February assault on the U.S. Constitution is being defined as a constitutional coup (though not by the major U.S. media, which, interestingly, have no problem in labeling similar efforts as such when reporting on political events in other countries. Al-Jazeera America, however, has no problem in calling what it is in its reporting on U.S. politics. Side note: this media outlet is largely funded by the royal family of Qatar, so their reporting biases obviously also impact their coverage of various topics.)
Even noted journalist Dan Rather now believes that mainstream media in the United States are no longer key to preserving a vital public sphere, as they have become far too few, too large, and too dependent on their corporate owners; independent media have become a more trustworthy source of information. I am sorry to have to agree with him, especially since it makes the librarian’s mission of promoting information literacy (and, specifically, media literacy) that much harder. (And I’m also sorry to agree with historian Timothy Rybacker that reading itself is no assurance that the reader will continue to value a vital public sphere.)
So, my various sources indicate that this is not some kind of “constitutional crisis”; it’s Trump’s second attempt at a coup, this time with the richest man in the world to help him. As reported in The New York Times, the most recent announcement from the White House confirms that the coup is well under way:
Only Trump and the Attorney General Can Interpret Laws for Government Agencies
Keywords In and Out of Context 