Lately, it's been convenient — and self-serving to some — to call what is going on with the Trump administration a coup. It's a "soft coup" or a "silent coup" or a wish-it-were-a-coup.

Let's take a look at what that means. According to all definitions I can find, a coup is a sudden, often violent overthrow of a government. Every time I look up the definition of a coup, I get something like this from Merriam-Webster: "a sudden decisive exercise of force in politics." But there is nothing sudden about this.

Have you ever thought, "What would a modern civil war look like?" Tanks rolling down the streets of Washington, D.C.? Missiles targeting the Congress? Armed forces storming the White House or Capitol Building? None of these would accomplish anything. So what would a modern-day civil war look like?

At least since the 1960s, a faction of people have been looking for a chance to make our government conform to what they think it should be. This faction has identified itself in many ways, and its members always embrace Marxist ideals with a top-down government run by a few. A "law-based" government, on the other hand, would have a constitution to protect the rights of the minority from the "tyranny" of the majority. That is what the United States of America is: a law-based government founded on the belief that those working in government are employees of the people, and not that the people are subservient to them. And all decisions are to be based on our agreement to form such a government — that is, as spelled out in our Constitution.

When a group, no matter how large or small, decides it wants to step beyond the constitutional means for changing the government and change it to fit their own ideals of government, and superimpose those ideals on everybody else, we have a true conflict. If that conflict cannot be resolved to their satisfaction through the instrumentalities of the provisions to do so, and so they decide to overthrow it and replace it with their own views or ideas, we have a war. We have those circumstances playing out before our eyes (and ears).

We can define a civil war as a conflict or competition between political factions or regions within the same country to take over the reins of governance without due process. A careful look at what some call the "Deep State" would tell us we have that here in the USA. Further, we have had that state of conflict for many years.

As evidenced by the statements of many current players behind the scenes who have been actively trying to fundamentally transform America, it would seem that in the 20th century, it was determined by those committed to this transformation that the people of the USA would never willfully throw away their own freedoms and embrace some form of Marxian socialism. Therefore, in order to effect this change, there needed to be an internal use of the system itself to subvert it through legislation and regulations to become a de facto state of Marxian socialism without ever calling it such, nor voting for such.

Ever since, there have been bureaucrats and presidents who have worked against the will of the majority in order to "overthrow" the duly elected government and replace it with their own view of what the USA government "should" look like. It is a war, not a coup. They are relentless. Indefatigable. They will never stop. What we are seeing with Mr. Trump is an "Antietam" or a "Gettysburg — a bloody battlefield, but just another battlefield.

It isn't a coup. Not soft. Not silent. And if we don't see it as a war, we lose. Why? Because we then think it's about Mr. Trump or his administration. It isn't.

Any conservative or any Republican who embraces the ideals of small government, personal freedom of choice, personal property rights, and the ability to defend our ownership of what we've created or accumulated will be the next target. A relative handful of people would superimpose their views as a minority onto the will of the majority because they believe themselves to be smarter, better, and more correct.

Note that the purpose of the Constitution is to limit the power of government and the tyranny of the majority. But it also makes us a nation of laws, not votes alone. A majority cannot vote to expel all people who are from a certain nation or of a certain religion. Majority alone does not rule. A majority must first conform to the rule of law. These civil warriors seek to negate that premise and foist upon us their own view, whether we like it or not.

Tyrants, dictators, and their minions are very clever when it comes to using the rules you agree to play with against those playing by the rules. This is war. When Trump leaves office, the war shall continue.

This is about who will run our government. Will it be those duly elected by the people and states, or will it be by the fiat and caprice of those who see themselves as smarter and more relevant than the rest of us?

Again, think of what a modern civil war would look like. There is no way a modern civil war would ever be fought against the most powerful military force in the history of mankind. No, it will come from within. As Khrushchev said, our nation will fall from within ("Your own working class will bury you," 1963), and communists will prevail as a result. That is what we are witnessing: a civil war, not a coup.

Image: Donkey Hotey via Flickr.