When I see the worsening degeneracy in our politicians, our media, our educators, and our intelligentsia, I can’t help wondering if the day may yet come when the only thing that can save this country is a military coup. ~Thomas Sowell

Notice that Sowell does not distinguish between different parties or branches of government.  He talks generally about the entire political, media and intellectual elite (had he included talk about bankers and profiteers, he might as well be a communist), which means that he apparently sees President Bush (a politician), National Review (part of the media) and himself (who might be fairly described as a member of the “media,” an “educator” and a member of the “intelligentsia”) as part of the general worsening degeneracy. 

It puzzles me why anyone thinks that the military can work some kind of magic on a society that is badly corrupted.  There are times when he thinks that only a coup could “save the country,” he says, but save it from what?  If we are speaking of a degeneracy in standards of conduct, the quality of thought, competence, moral responsibility and the like, no army can save a country from these things.  It rests with citizens themselves to reform themselves and their country.  Otherwise, some military regime would be like having a cancer patient train for the marathon–it would probably hasten his death rather than restore his health.  Even if you take the view that the people serving in the military are more disciplined, moral and patriotic than everyone else, which at least sounds plausible, they could only seize control of the government and enforce order.  Expecting a military coup to undo the “worsening degeneracy” in a society is an expression of pure desperation.