Nowhere GirlPeople tell you to "vote!" because they don't know what to do either about the man who controls the entire federal government and its military, who immunizes himself and his allies for committing crimes, who has a supermajority on the corrupt high court to back him up, and whose party is trying to make it impossible to vote against them.
If rules and norms were going to save us, it would have happened by now.
There was so much pearl clutching over Trump telling federal courts to go fuck themselves but none of these people adjusted their strategy for how to deal with him because of it.
"You have to have faith in the system!"
Why? o.O
I don't think I've ever seen it put so straightforwardly but:
Even if Democrats somehow manage to take over Congress or the White House in the future, they are going to have to break the law in order to ensure Trump and Republicans don't get away with it and aren't able to do it again.
Presidential pardons are going to have to be treated as worthless. Corrupt SCOTUS rulings ignored. You have to uproot all of it and throw it away.
Or this will just happen again.
Are Democrats going to do that?
No. So? What's the point?
The constitutional crisis isn't in the future. It came and went a while ago.
We're in full breach of contract.
The VBNMW people in particular are saying we should elect Biden 2.0 so they personally can have a few years reprieve of "boring" centrist governance before the Nazis bounce back stronger than ever.
And if some of us get thrown under the bus in the process, so be it.
Which is all Biden 1.0 was about, too.
UnlikelyLass@gwynnion it started during his first time when he violated the emoluments clause and the US establishment collectively shrugged. He's just been pushing the boundaries ever since.
Kalshann
The Witch of Crow Briar
Kevin
DavidP@gwynnion From outside the USA, the answer seems to be that the President needs to be much less powerful - no ability to pardon *anyone*, no ability to force the DoJ to investigate *anyone*. Otherwise, when you get mafia Don in charge, the wheels fall off the whole system.
@davidP The president (and the courts) are as powerful as they are because Congress largely abdicated its responsibilities.
And because it's easier to win the White House than it is majorities in Congress and one person in control of the federal bureaucracy, with nonexistent Congressional oversight and no legal guardrails, can do virtually whatever they want with the US government.
The system is an abomination.
Michael Maguire 🇨🇦 🇬🇧🇨🇭🇮🇹@davidP @gwynnion I feel the Westminster-derived democracies effectively happened upon this solution by keeping the concept of a monarch but over time reducing their role to being mostly ceremonial. Instead the House of Commons ("congress" if you like) grew in power. Not perfect but still I think better than just electing an all-powerful king every 4 years.
@michaelmaguire @gwynnion interesting, isn't it? In the UK we have had some absolutely god-awful prime ministers, but the amount of damage they could do was limited by the system (with the exception of stuffing their mates into the House of Lords). Imagine if they could prosecute or pardon at will!
@michaelmaguire @gwynnion also, linked to that: I'm not a fan of a hereditary monarchy either. In an ideal world, I'd like an elected head of state, but with robust checks and balances. How you prevent that from being misused when the House of * is also broken, I don't know
Becca@davidP so.. theres a DOJ and JD.
Justice Department is the actual judicial branch
DOJ is just the name for the lawyers of the executive branch. They are a legal fiction as an extension of the President's person
The problem is that Congress, the Legislative, the final leg, passed a law in 1870 moving the prosecution of all federal crimes to it.. and hence to the Executive from the Judicial
so now the executive is legally supposed to police itself.. a king
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Justice
Jacqueline@gwynnion I have more faith in the CPSU than the US government. And the CPSU doesn't even exist anymore
Michal Bryxí@gwynnion You can have faith in the (election) system as long as it’s not based on #FPTP voting system. That one is IMO always one step away from not being a democracy at all: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-past-the-post_voting (and is barely a mimic (see D&D mimics) of a democracy in the first place)
Androcat
an actual bus@gwynnion doesn't mean you shouldn't vote though. Hungary got orban out, y'all can get trump out.
There's no guarantee of success, but not voting is giving up.
Manannán mac Lir 🇺🇦 🇵🇸Have you considered the utility of the Second Amendment?