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Trump doesn't have the ability to defy the 22nd Amendment, regardless of what he says.
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It's Official: Donald Trump Has Been Elected The 47th President Of The United States
- Thread starter Frank Underwood
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Maybe he's not thinking about the 22nd Amendment but has his eyes on the midterms.
You know your country's constitution better than me so I may have got this wrong but Trump could create chaos in several states, like what he's currently doing in California but across the country. Then call in the national guard and take control of law and order, declare a national emergency and use that as an excuse to suspend the midterm elections which would extend Republican control of the House and Senate.
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The only VP who has directly succeeded their boss in recent times in Bush I, and that's because Reagan was still popular enough that it was tantamount to giving him a third term. If Trump continues to be on the outs in '28, Vance will not be able to ride his coattails and separating himself from his predecessor may be impossible - hence my comparison with Harris.
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It would create immense civil unrest if he pulled a stunt like that. The rioting taking place in LA is a glimpse of what would be happening across the entire country.
One would hope impeachment would be swift if Trump went that far off the rails. Republicans may be loyal to Trump, but they have to know the country wouldn't survive that.
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The two term limit thing happened in order to prevent another four-term presidency like FDR's... If they changed the law then to prevent a constructive presidency from going on too long, they could potentially change the law back to permit a negative one being extended.
Not that I believe that that will happen -- it probably won't. But it's not beyond the realm of possibility.
Not that I believe that that will happen -- it probably won't. But it's not beyond the realm of possibility.
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Possible, yes, but the process is complex.
It would require a two-thirds vote in both houses of Congress to propose an amendment, and three-fourths of state legislatures or conventions would need to ratify it.
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It was an "amendment" to the Constitution. The threshold may be high to make an amendment but Republicans are in control of all branches of your government and the vast majority of them don't have any spines or morals right now.
Plus, Trump and his peeps are filling lower courts with Trump loyalists judges and prosecutors. Do you truly believe they'd be honest if votes and declared winners are contested??
You're in unchartered waters now and Trump is being given free reign to break every guard rail you've had to keep your democracy. Don't sit back and watch it slip away because you don't think Trump could possibly get away with something. He has, he is and he will continue to destroy your country's pillars of democracy.
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True. But the Democrats (and I'm a lifelong Democrat) had already been doing that. Despite the mainstream corporate media's narrative.
As is says in Corinthians 2, "Buth suck."
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Trump may usher in the fall of the American empire sooner rather than later, but our government hasn't been responsive to the needs of its people for a while. Our way of life is not sustainable as long as politicians on both sides of the aisle cater to wealthy elites and the military industrial complex. What sets Trump apart from other politicians is that he doesn't bother with the pretense of caring about democracy, free and fair elections, the rule of law, etc. Trump is belligerent and chaotic, which gives him the attention he desperately craves. In contrast, the political establishment on the left and the right try to placate the public by pontificating about democracy and societal norms as they drive us over a cliff. In any thriving democracy, a guy like Trump could never get elected in the first place. Sadly, the US is an oligarchy in which demagogues can easily rise to power.
I don't want to sit back and watch our democracy slip away, but I feel we're powerless to stop it. Truth be told, our democracy's been slipping away for decades.
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Joe Rogan and Tim Dillon had an interesting discussion about the end of the American empire, and two particular quotes stuck out to me:
"People who are thriving in this system and using it to their ends don't want it changed, and people hating each other helps them." - Tim Dillon
"We're living in a time now where we all know everything's fu*ked, but we're mostly powerless to change it. And that's when societies start to decay past a point, and everybody just kind of sits back and watches it like a show. And it just descends into, eventually, something that becomes more and more unmanageable. And then either a strong man dictator type comes in, or there's some massive war that resets things, or there's some natural disaster, but it feels like we're kind of at that point, you know? That's why I'm glad we lived in the era that we lived. We really should just be happy. We should go 'it's nice that we got the run we did because it's not getting better.'" - Tim Dillon
"People who are thriving in this system and using it to their ends don't want it changed, and people hating each other helps them." - Tim Dillon
"We're living in a time now where we all know everything's fu*ked, but we're mostly powerless to change it. And that's when societies start to decay past a point, and everybody just kind of sits back and watches it like a show. And it just descends into, eventually, something that becomes more and more unmanageable. And then either a strong man dictator type comes in, or there's some massive war that resets things, or there's some natural disaster, but it feels like we're kind of at that point, you know? That's why I'm glad we lived in the era that we lived. We really should just be happy. We should go 'it's nice that we got the run we did because it's not getting better.'" - Tim Dillon
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I don't think that whataboutism is productive though.
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Our ancestors had to travel overseas, step off boats while being shot at relentlessly from the shore and lived in cold, wet trenches (most of whom were practically teenagers), to fight for democracy and rid the world of a dictator.
Don't concede so easily. It can be fixed.
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How?
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I don't know about productive, but I certainly find it enlightening.
If we had at least one party that was responsive to the needs of the poor and the working class, Trump probably wouldn't be president right now.
I appreciate your optimism, but I'm just not sure how one would go about saving our democracy today.
Getting rid of Trump is only a start, but you'd still have to pull the government out of the hands of the corporations and the military industrial complex.
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As the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu said "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step". I would suggest the first step is to push back against the current government's over-reach, lies and abuse of power.
Unlike the UK, the USA has a strong constitution that protects your democracy but people are being allowed to ignore it.
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There are protests known as "No Kings" planned across the country on Saturday for that very reason. I'm sure they'll be up against a strong police presence, though.
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This is good and protestors shouldn't allow the police nor the government to intimidate them.
I've been on pro-Palestinian protests in London recently and the police presence and tactics have been totally disproportionate to the risk of things getting out of hand. They were peace marches and the crowds were always well behaved and good humoured. However, here in the UK, the previous Conservative government brought in laws to severely restrict our right to protest and the police have the right to stop or control protests as they feel is appropriate.
At a recent march MPs Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell were arrested and detained. Ultimately the police decided not to take any further action. John McDonnell later said "If marching in a peaceful protest has now become even considered potentially to be a crime in our country we have entered a truly worrying political moment". He is right. In the USA, your constitution protects your right to protest so people should value and exercise that right and not let the strong police presence intimidate or deter them.
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As to whether or not the 22nd Amendment can be repealed so that Trump can serve a third term, the answer is probably not.
Unfortunately, it doesn't need to be repealed.
Our Supreme Court has ruled that Presidents cannot be held accountable for breaking the law (or violating the Constitution) if he is acting in his "official" capacity as President. So, if Trump chooses to retain power and suspend elections, what exactly is the mechanism for removing him?
A court order? He have already seen him openly defy those.
Our military is siding with him. He gets his grand birthday parade as the US Army let him appropriate its 250th birthday for his own glory. Last week, Army officials curated troops to make sure only those who are politically loyal to Trump attended his speech at Fort Bragg. Marines are in the streets in LA.
This is a worst case scenario slowly coming to fruition before our eyes.
And no one seems to have the guts to stop it.
Unfortunately, it doesn't need to be repealed.
Our Supreme Court has ruled that Presidents cannot be held accountable for breaking the law (or violating the Constitution) if he is acting in his "official" capacity as President. So, if Trump chooses to retain power and suspend elections, what exactly is the mechanism for removing him?
A court order? He have already seen him openly defy those.
Our military is siding with him. He gets his grand birthday parade as the US Army let him appropriate its 250th birthday for his own glory. Last week, Army officials curated troops to make sure only those who are politically loyal to Trump attended his speech at Fort Bragg. Marines are in the streets in LA.
This is a worst case scenario slowly coming to fruition before our eyes.
And no one seems to have the guts to stop it.
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We, the people.
When we concede, feel hopeless and think those in power will only do whatever they want; no matter what...we lose.
Large corporations are at the mercy of the majority. They cower when sales of their products slump or online blacklisting gains momentum. Stock markets too can crash at the will of the majority and that taxes the billionaires to the brink.
Dictators and oligarchs are generally nothing more than narcissistic cowards so when they feel threatened; even by the people they surround themselves with, they're powerless.
Peaceful protests are a good start but they need to be partnered with large scale, mobilized, targeted blacklisting of big brands (preferably those that fund big media and military production) and even using alternatives to the big social media platforms that support the dictator. It can be done, should be done, needs to be done....the majority just needs the intestinal fortitude to follow through with it. It's way easier than hails of gunfire and mortars in our faces that generations before us endured (sadly many in the world like Gazans still facing) so we have no excuses.
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