view the rest of the comments
politics
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! 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.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
It's insane how we've relied far too long on a sort of gentleman's agreement around presidents and congress and all. I don't think the founding fathers could have EVER anticipated the amount of corruption that could occur.
If the orange turd did one thing, it's to lay bare how truly exploitable and corruptible the ruling class can be. I mean, we all know it was bad but he truly showed by bad (and open) it could get. And how nothing whatsoever would be done about it...
Well, they did think of this. George Washington himself wrote about being weary of factions becoming too strong so that exactly this could happen. Madison also wrote about it and so did Jefferson. He actually suggested that this is the entire reason the judiciary needed to not be factionalized.
I think ultimately their interpretation boils down to that the mechanics needed to take over should have the bar as high as possible for the time. And then as time went on, these protections were eroded. The democracy has in fact been able to reign in really bad presidents before and quiet down large factions. So relying on good will and good duty is a recent thing.
Things have only gone off the rails entirely in the last 50 or so years. But I’d argue that George Bush did a ton to result in this. Keep in mind, executive orders were not meant to be used this way. They’re currently being abused to hell and that’s a loophole the same way that pardoning yourself as president is a loophole.
These loopholes are intentional because it’s sort’ve a “if you can’t keep these powers in check as a populace, it’s your fault” type of mechanism.
Exactly!
At the end of World War 2, we gave a free pass to almost any Nazi who had any kind of scientific or tactical expertise because we knew the soviets were doing the same and needed the tactical advantage and knowledge to start ahead in the pending Cold War. Many of those same Nazi scientists went on to hold positions of power in our military, intelligence, and corporations.
Did you know there's no law that says a dog can't be president? You'd have to get it to 35, but technically we could have an Air Bud POTUS.
The Constitution lists only three qualifications for the Presidency — the President must be at least 35 years of age, be a natural born citizen, and must have lived in the United States for at least 14 years. https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/our-government/the-executive-branch/#:~:text=The%20Constitution%20lists%20only%20three,for%20at%20least%2014%20years.
Natural born citizen may be a bit problematic, but there's precedent with at least one district court recognizing animals as legal persons as of 2021.
On the dystopian side, perhaps this also means a corporation could become POTUS.
As Musk is not natural born US citizen, making X.com president could be his workaround.
Oh I fully expect us to go Full Robocop if the revolution doesn't come.
It's like this in many countries. In the UK we've never had to deal with people being held in contempt of parliament, but in recent years we've seen corruption and a blatant disregard for "rules" that would have made politicians sick a decade ago. It's at a point where the UK has considered a constitution to ensure that anyone caught being openly corrupt or breaking the rules can be arrested.
Many right-wing politicians have shown that the rules have been lax for a very long time, and IMO it's a sign that perhaps we as a society need to seriously look at how we stop the right (and perhaps even the left) from abusing their power without consequence.
One day Conservatism will be remembered for being as backwards as Eugenics and Reagonomics as absurd as the divine right of kings.
"I believe farther that this is likely to be well administred for a Course of Years and can only end in Despotism as other Forms have done before it, when the People shall become so corrupted as to need Despotic Government, being incapable of any other."
Benjamin Franklin.
Comrade, the USA was founded by rich businessmen, and organized primarily to defend the class interests of that group.
The nation-state has at various points hunted down runaway slaves (Fugitive Slave Act of 1850), used the national guard to put down strikes (the Ludlow Massacre, the Lattimer massacre, the breaking of the Homestead Strike, the West Virginia Coal Wars...), fought violently against peaceful protesters (Kent State shootings, pretty much every protest of the Civil Rights Movement, the DNC protests of 1968, various incidents during the Floyd protests...), arrested and murdered people for ideology rather than proof of actually committing a crime (Sacco and Vanzetti, the Haymarket Martyrs...), drugged and murdered Fred Hampton as he slept next to his pregnant fiance, funded dozens of coups against democratically elected leaders because they were left-leaning, and done countless other things. This is aided by the permanent death grip that capital has on the country.
Even if the process of getting elected was completely untied to wealth (hahaha) and lobbying didn't exist (lol), at the end of the day the economy is controlled by the capitalists and they can bring a country to its knees if it doesn't obey. Capital strikes and the threat of disinvestments and layoffs are powerful.
It's not a bug. It is a feature.