You’d think a hegemony with a 100-years tradition of upkeeping democracy against major non-democratic players, would have some mechanism that would prevent itself from throwing down it’s key ideology.
Is it really that the president is all that decides about the future of democracy itself? Is 53 out of 100 senate seats really enough to make country fall into authoritarian regime? Is the army really not constitutionally obliged to step in and save the day?
I’d never think that, of all places, American democracy would be the most volatile.
Depends how you define “instruments”. For example, there was a recent survey that we have something like 500 million, uh, instruments.
100 years? We very nearly reached 250.
Op is referring to 100 years of “upkeeping democracy”. I guess he was able to pick 100 from 250.
40% of the time it’s democracy 100% of the time
- with a 100-year* tradition
- throwing down its* key ideology
- Are* 53 out of 100 senate seats
- make the* country fall
The mechanism is the three branches of power providing checks and balances and voting. But when the people elect them to all three branches. It kinda defeats the purpose
Also Benjamin Franklin said that he believed constitution should torn up and redone every 30 years. We shouldn’t even be using it 200 years later.
Are you ready for some tearing up and redoing of constitution now?
Sure, you’d end up with at least two countries because many states would just refuse to join the new republic.
No, I’m ready for something else though are you?
I’m flattered, but I’m not in the mood right now. I’ll be in my corner worrying about constitution redoings…
Let’s go crowd sourced, a la Iceland. That truly opened my eyes to the political possibilities in the Internet age… If only big corps didn’t make all the decisions.
Do you really want to do that now knowing who would put an autograph there?
Exactly, that was my point.
I know about Jefferson and his 20 year automatic sunset phase for laws at all levels, except for Constitutions, charters, and other founding documents that can be amended. Hadn’t heard that Franklin wanted to sunset the Constitution itself as well. Not sure that we would have lasted this long if Franklin had gotten his way there. I do think that Jefferson and Madison were on the right track with the federal, state, and local laws though. Tyranny of the dead and all that.
Trump has admitted he rigged the election
Where did you hear that?
This is insane… But also his discourse is so incoherent that one could argue he was being sarcastic or something.
Don’t join the felon’s defenders. We’re in this deep in part because people dismiss what they don’t want to believe from him as jokes.
The insurrectionist is telling us his crimes. Bragging about them even. He’s proud of them.
Trump has said that Elon “knows those computers better than anybody … And we ended up winning Pennsylvania like in a landslide”.
First of all, we know that to be false because we know Elon doesn’t know shit about computers. But, aside from that, there are multiple possible interpretations of what he meant, anything from “Elon rigged the election” to “Elon ensured the integrity of the election”.
My policy is “Don’t believe anything Trump says about anything”. I don’t change that policy when he says something that I want to believe is true.
Wanna see a letter from several computer science PhDs to Kamala Harris presenting plausible evidence that MAGA hacked the voting machines?
https://freespeechforpeople.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/letter-to-vp-harris-111324.pdf
That’s not what that letter says. It says that operatives may have gained access to the software used to count votes, and if that happened they may have been able to probe that software for weaknesses.
What it doesn’t say is that there was a subsequent, second breach of the voting machines in which doctored software was then installed.
It’s like someone gaining access to blueprints for a bank vault. Yes, that theoretically lowers the security of the vault, but it doesn’t prove that a bank heist has taken place, just that a heist is more likely to be possible now.
Okay so what do you do when the mob gets the blueprints for the bank vault, and then a few weeks later the Don brags about all the money he stole?
The Don who lies constantly about everything? Who didn’t even say “we stole the money” but more, “Elmo is good with bank stuff, and we have lots of money”? The same guy who wouldn’t know how to read a blueprint, and would probably just post a picture of the blueprint on social media to generate controversy and traffic? The Don who, if he actually had broken into the bank, wouldn’t be able to shut up about it, and would be bragging about it non-stop, probably by doing live-streams from within the bank vault?
You don’t assume that he hit the bank. You follow your normal security procedures, and check that what you expect to see in the vault is what you actually see in the vault. Then you just ignore the blowhard.
But the people in charge didn’t check. Harris was told to ask for a recount, and she didn’t.
If the people responsible for security won’t do their due diligence, drag is going to play it safe and assume they fucked up.
Really because the rest of us have been watching you be wildly volatile for years now.
But who will wield these instruments? It’d be more relevant if he made an effort to hide his nature before the election.
Right now the majority voted fascism with open eyes.
The army or the police should immediately jump in and arrest Elon after the second salute, when it became obvious the guy knew what he was doing. And yet he saluted 3 times and half the country is extremely enthusiastic about that.
America doesn’t have a law forbidding the Nazi salute. It’d be against the first amendment.
The right to free speech is faulty if there are no repercussions from breaking the law.
Again, the first amendment protects the right to free speech and association; as far as American law is concerned, Elon didn’t break any laws.
Sure, but that’s not what I’m saying. You said that forbidding a Nazi salute would be against the first amendment. I’m only saying that IF Nazi symbols were to be outlawed then the freedom of speech should not equal to freedom from breaking the law.
IF Nazi symbols were to be outlawed then the freedom of speech should not equal to freedom from breaking the law.
It does, though, because such a law would be struck down as unconstitutional. The First Amendment doesn’t just protect lawful speech; it protects all speech and the American government just barely carved out an exception for inciting violence. These amendments are part of the constitution, which stands above and restricts the rest of American law. If you made a law saying that Nazi symbols were illegal, your law would (at least theoretically) be illegal and struck down in court and people would retain the freedom to use Nazi symbols. You might take issue with that, but if only legal speech was allowed then… the government could just make any speech it doesn’t like illegal.
You talk about amendments as if they couldn’t be amended.
You’re calling for military generals to have the power to remove the government? Effectively a military dictatorship?
That seems unwise.
Elon isn’t a government official, there would be nothing unwise about arresting him for things most people would get arrested or at least questioned by the police for.
This isn’t Germany where they can just arrest nazis. First amendment (unfortunately) also apply to hate speech. 🤷♂️
I thought it was twice? I mean, that doesn’t detract from your point, and I don’t even disagree. I just want to make sure the details are set straight.
I saw a full clip on reddit. First time was just as bad, because he did it spontaneously, with no “throwing hearts”. He just heiled out of nowhere.
… and half the country is extremely enthusiastic about that.
There’s the reason nothing is done about it. It’s probably not actually half, but enough people didn’t speak up early enough, and so this has become the loudest voice in the room. Unless, and until that changes, the whole world is in for a rough ride.
It’s not illegal to be a nazi in the USA BUT it’s worth noting that Trump is more garden variety fascist than Nazi. He’s not looking to create the ubwrmensch.
Yet
Trump is the dancing monkey who will sign whatever they put in front of him. Plenty of people in his sphere are itching to kill.
None of which makes them nazis.
Smells like bitch in here
Nah Im just educated enough to know what the Nazis believed vs Italian or Spanish fascists. That’s high school level stuff. Why don’t you know it?
What do you mean by “nazi”
You need the other half of the electorate to agree
Let’s just say the amendments are sorted by importance.
Not that it would be used, but the 25th Amendment is another avenue to removal of a President.
Yeaaa… thats pointless when President and Vice President are elected together, so they are almost always the same ideology.
The premise was removing your mask after the election, so in that case the 25th would be the appropriate solution. But that’s only for extreme cases because you need most of the cabinet to agree.
2A
this is why giving too much power to a single position within gov is not a great idea
When a population give a party control of the senate, congress and the presidency that’s the public disabling a lot of checks and balances…
Second amendment
