When I hear about the coup attempt in Germany & the desire of these violent extremists to insert Prince Heinrich XIII of Reuss as the leader after a planned execution of the German chancellor, it sounds ludicrous, laughable. But that's the thing: These people are deadly serious.

Because the plots of these anti-democratic extremists often seem so ludicrous, they can succeed because the public--& too many leaders--don't take them seriously enough. This tendency is how Trump got as far as he did.