582
submitted 11 months ago by PoseidonsWake@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

Donald Trump has said that he will not become a dictator if he becomes US president again except "on day one", after warnings from Democrats and some Republicans that the US was in danger of becoming an autocracy if he wins the 2024 election. Fuck, well at least he's honest on this statement

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Pat_Riot@lemmy.today 9 points 11 months ago

This is exactly what the Second is intended to take care of, but no part of the constitution will have any meaning if Trump installs himself as a dictator. Unfortunately the average right winger doesn't seem to understand that. This is literally the moment they have claimed to be waiting for but they're on the enemy's side. He's going to cancel their gun rights and they're going to cheer for it.

[-] TheRealKuni@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

This is exactly what the Second is intended to take care of

Not it isn’t. The idea that the 2a is supposed to prevent government overreach is revisionist history.

The intention of the 2a was to make a standing federal army unnecessary. Madison didn’t want a federal army, but knew the nation would need some form of military, so he wrote militias into the constitution.

(He changed his tune when the War of 1812 showed him how necessary a true military was.)

It’s laughable to think that people in power wanted others to be able to overthrow them with guns. In fact, rebellions were attempted with guns in the years after the revolutionary war. And they were put down. Never did George Washington say, “Ah, these men with guns seem to think we are being tyrannical. We should reconsider.” No, he said, “Pay your fucking taxes.”

[-] Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 3 points 11 months ago

It's a bit of both. In the 18th century, it was abundantly obvious a country needed to be able to defend itself against both foreign powers and internal threats. But it was also very clear that if you paid a group of people to be professional soldiers, you basically always lived under the threat of those people going "That's a nice country/state you have there" and launching a coup.

Hence the well-regulated militia, because then you don't need a proffesional military, and there's nobody to launch a coup, and also no way for the federal government to take over individual states. So in a way, it WAS to prevent government overreach, but not in the wat it's usually said.

[-] TechyDad@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

And, in any case, it's laughable to think that a group of armed Americans could stand up to the US military if an American dictator ordered them to attack US citizens and they obeyed such an order.

The citizens would be charging in with guns blazing, but the military would send in a few drones and wipe them out. The whole "guns would let us stand against a dictatorship wielding the might of the US military" idea is a fantasy.

The fact that the right is that one that parrots this line while supporting someone who is actively saying he'll be a dictator and send the military against US citizens blows past ironic and lands in Downright Scary territory.

this post was submitted on 06 Dec 2023
582 points (97.7% liked)

News

23397 readers
3546 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS