the Coup d'état Happened four years ago, they are just making sure there is no counter coup.
It happened much earlier than that, but slowly, incrementally. You're right about their strategy to prevent a counter-coup. Most of the disaster can be blamed on the Stupid Party itself.
As David Limbaugh put it recently: "If we can't figure out how to win elections when the majority of the electorate actually agrees with us, demographics and the rest [of the excuses for losing] are academic anyway."
no counter coup
This was what the Admirals, Generals axes and Petreaus smear was all about. Betcha that little exercise just genned em up.