So stop saying it.

The impeachment proceedings may be ill-advised, and end up being a political windfall for the Republicans. Time will tell. But it's not a coup.

The Democrats have certainly demonstrated that they want to remove this president from office; this has seemed to be their intent, one way or another, essentially from Day One. But this is not a coup.

The chance is strong that the House will, almost completely along party lines, vote to convict the President. But this is not a coup.

The Senate will likely not vote to remove him from office, though one writer has written about one surprisingly easy way to see Trump removed from office. I don't expect to see that happen, but even if it did, it's not a coup.

And those who claim that it is, following the lead of some talking head somewhere on talk radio most likely, discredit and embarrass themselves. A coup is defined as "a sudden, violent, and illegal seizure of power from a government". This is none of those things:

• It's not sudden. The lead-up to this has taken some time; we've known about these allegations for awhile.
• It's not violent. You might not like the tactics being employed by Adam Schiff, et al, and that's fine, but this is not violent in any way, shape, or form.
• It's not illegal. The Constitution itself provides for exactly the situation at hand; it prescribes this particular method for investigating a sitting president and, if appropriate, removing him from power.
• It's not even, in the meaning of the term, the 'seizure of power from a government'. In the event the president is removed from power, the Democrats do not replace Trump with Nancy Pelosi; instead, we have President Mike Pence, who ideologically, at least, is much further removed from Democrat positions than is President Trump.So complain about the process; dispute the manner; interpret the evidence or lack thereof as you might see fit. But for goodness' sake, do us all a favor and quit saying that this is a coup. Because whatever it might be, it is categorically and certainly not.