I want to ask why throughout US history there has been no record of coup aiming to overthrow (at least temporarily) the elected government on the promise of "justice, liberty, equality, efficiency, making the country great again" etc. This seems to be happening very often in other democracies throughout the world, but even though Pentagon has a paramount role in US politics, I have never seen this happening.
Further, in US history it is well known that the president, the congress, and the supreme court is not always functioning efficiently or even cooperating. In the case of a political deadlock situation, it seems likely that a powerful populist leader or representative of powerful organization would be able to control the government via force, power and propaganda. However, aside from novel characters I have never seen this happening either. I imagine that people would have high motivation to do so.
Here the assumption is the majority of US population is educated but can be manipulated. If someone set up a situation that indicates the current government is not only dysfunctional, corrupt, but also utterly evil(for example, the president is a tyrant and the congress are full of puppets), then there will be calls for civil movements against the government. Suppose in some hypothetical situation there is strong conflict between certain government agency and the protesters, and the army is called to restore order, then the army commandor would have a strong incentive to overthrow the government, at least temporarily. But historically such examples, while rampant in other countries, is absent in US. And I am curious why.
(Update: The question no longer applies after Jan 6th's event)
the president is a tyrant and the congress are his/her puppets
, it'll be a bad situation, but unless the elections four years later don't happen or are rigged, the courts would have no reason to step in.