The General US Politics Thread

That is scary in line with how the Kremlin wants to discredit democracy in Russia and abroad, and push people towards more Russia-friendly authoritarian regimes.

edited 3rd Mar '18 5:40:05 PM by megaeliz

Do you guys really think the military would go along with it when most of them dislike Trump? Also, "for life" wouldn't be very long since the guy is in his 70's, constantly eats junkfood, has to take cholesterol medicine and is borderline obese. Honestly, the fearmongering here is getting out of hand...

edited 3rd Mar '18 5:46:49 PM by Wariolander

Apparently CNN has tapes of him saying that

Specifically "[Xi]'s now president for life. President for life. No, he's great," Trump said. "And look, he was able to do that. I think it's great. Maybe we'll have to give that a shot some day."

Of course, he's not explicitly saying he wants to rule for life. But if you came up to him and said it would solve all his our problems, well...

edited 3rd Mar '18 5:57:06 PM by Eschaton

You guys keep on forgetting how old he is. I'd be surprised if he survived 10 more years.

especially with all of the stress he's under.

Which is why the real concern isn't a King Donald I, but the consequences that will proceed from an American president that endorses autocracy and says it could be appropriate in America.

The more likely threat is a slower, subtler consolidation of power and wealth that may outlive him, but there will still be people like him, who will acquire more and more mechanisms to secure and abuse their control of the country.

edited 3rd Mar '18 6:08:38 PM by Eschaton

And because nothing would be complete without adding more North Korea fears to 45's increasingly-unhinged and out-of-control mindset: Lindsey Graham: War with North Korea would be 'worth it' in the long run.

I'm with Mr. Vietor (Obama's National Security adviser quoted in the article): Graham has lost his mind. And this from a guy who, most of the time, was a reasonable Republican. Was he always this bad and just hid it well? Is this due to Russian kompromat? I really don't get it, but there needs to be more pushback against this, fast.

On the quietness of the Democrats regarding the tariffs, I am thinking of that one quote about when your enemies are destroying themselves, let them keep speaking. I'm sure if things start looking more seriously like this could actually happen, they'll speak out against it.

I keep telling you that he's going to sabotage the transition period if he loses in 2020.

They're going to go scorched Earth.

""I'm telling you, it's a rigged system folks," Trump said. "I've been saying that for a long time. It's a rigged system."

How can it be a rigged system if YOU WON?! You can't claim it's rigged against you if Hillary is not in the White House! Jeesh! You won, GET OVER IT!

edited 3rd Mar '18 6:20:44 PM by speedyboris

Ever since he found out how much work the job actually is, he's been getting pissy about it.

Trump pretty much made it universally clear that all of our laws and norms are basically just gentlemen's agreements.

And Trump is about as far from a gentleman as one can get.

edited 3rd Mar '18 7:35:44 PM by M84

I think the main problem with Trump declaring himself ruler for life isn't King Donald the 1st, it's King Donald Jr the 2nd, and King Donald the 3rd.

To be fair, Trump going scorched earth when it comes to the transition period wouldn't be all that big of a problem. The entire administration is such a colossal dumpster fire whoever comes next would have an easier time starting over from scratch anyway.

I don't think you realize just how crucial that period is. Especially when it comes to national security and intelligence briefings. A spiteful President Trump could LEGALLY withhold classified information from the President-elect and the incoming administration could be blindsided by just about anything on their first day with no time to prepare. Not to mention, the State Department could leave, and resign, without updating any incoming cabinet members, etc.

Serious question: are there no partisan structures in place to prevent him from doing that? Because that's a little disturbing.

So much in America depends on social conventions, not written law. Because who'd be stupid enough to burn the lifeboat while they're in it?

If we get out of this Democracy mostly intact, we must make these norms and customs into law.

They are only norms of everyone has an implicit understanding of them and are obligated by Social Contract to do so, and have no weight when up against trump's blundering idiocy and malicious incompetence.

edited 3rd Mar '18 8:51:38 PM by megaeliz

x2+x3 So long as there's a Democrat Majority in either the House or Senate, I'm sure Trump can't do too much damage to the next Administration (though, don't get me wrong, he can still do some damage).

Absolutely.

edited 3rd Mar '18 8:47:58 PM by DingoWalley1

We took far too much for granted. We never bothered to make so many things into law because we assumed we'd never have to. Well, guess what? We have to.

edited 3rd Mar '18 8:55:27 PM by kkhohoho

I think we also need to enshrine Maubury v. Madison into the Constitution; the power of the Courts to interpret the law based on the Constitution, and to declare laws null and void if they violate it. That's another thing we all take for granted, if it wasn't so deeply ingrained into our collective consciousness (and Trump wasn't a complete failure), it could be completely destroyed.

Donesn't law work by precidince though, so since it has already been stated to be so, it cant be not so, unike social convention?

Uh.... not really? I mean, most laws tend to be made in reaction to situations that got out of hand in the first place. Also, precedence IS something that must be created at some point. You don't always have previous examples you can point to for something like this.

It's like the anti-nepotism rules that keep the president from giving official positions to family members. They made that a rule after JFK appointed Bobby Kennedy to the post of Attorney General or something. (And he was reportedly good at that job, but that wasn't the point the lawmakers were concerned with at the time.)

(Also Trump gets around that by giving his daughter and son in law some kind of unofficial positions or something I think, which means the anti-nepotism laws may need some reviewing to strengthen them.)

Doesn't matter. The power of the courts is ultimately subject to the willingness of Congress and the Executive to abide by them. Trump and the Republicans could not give less of a shit what the law or the Constitution says. That's kind of an inherent problem with populist authoritarians - the countermeasure has to be that the people, including government officials in general and the military in particular, have a strong respect for the rule of law and refuse to go along with illegal measures

Which, in America, we do, so we'll weather Trump, and while Trump himself will never face justice, a lotta people below him are gonna get Fisked off to federal prison. Russia will never face justice because they have a bunch of very large missiles and we have no way to shut down said deterrent, but we can damn well upgrade our own cyberdefenses and snoops for dealing with Russian botnets, and our next President (if they be a Democratic one) will be in a position to go to Europe, hat in hand, and ask for help in sanctioning Russia.

edited 3rd Mar '18 9:41:14 PM by Ramidel