4mo ago

The Moment of Truth | The reelection of Donald Trump would mark the end of George Washington’s vision for the presidency—and the United States.

The reelection of Donald Trump would mark the end of George Washington’s vision for the presidency—and the United States.

Forty-four men have succeeded Washington so far. Some became titans; others finished their terms without distinction; a few ended their service to the nation in ignominy. But each of them knew that the day would come when it would be their duty and honor to return the presidency to the people.
All but one, that is.

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36 comments

the fact that trump happened in the first place, that the GOP stole the supreme court, that NO ONE is doing anything about the blatant broad daylight corruption of the supreme court, that election boards are allowed to be overtaken by blatantly partisan GOP operatives--it all shows how fragile this country always was, held together by some nebulous nowhere-defined "honor system"
which trump threw out the window forever
even if trump loses this november, some other bloviating GOP gasbag will take his place, and it's going to be the same story every election, until there are no more elections. this has been in the works for many years
- Gods I hate that I agree with you. I had no idea how thin the threads were that held this republic together, or how readily my fellow citizens would throw the entire American experiment away just for the sake of spite. Trump is the first despot, but he certainly won't be the last.
  
  how readily my fellow citizens would throw
  deliberately enshittify the lives of the have-nots, through wage inequality, castrating education, and yes, nonstop propaganda convincing the masses to vote against their own best interests because jeeeeeeeezuzzz
  proceed to blame everyone's ensuing shitty life on mexicans, gays, women, black people, and anyone who didn't vote R for any reason
  repeat until plutocracy
  repeat until dictator
- The problem with the Supreme Court is that you need the Senate to be on board with any kind of action. Two approaches:
  Add additional justices to make the Republicans there a minority. None of the Republicans is willing to vote for this, and nor are Manchin and Sinema, which would leave no more than 49/100 votes in favor of adding new ones. So you can't do it
  Remove the crooks. This requires 67/100 votes. None of the Republicans is willing to vote for this, so you can't do it.
  Making something meaningful happen here requires actually electing enough Democrats to the Senate to act.
  
  I've always wondered why, if democrats could and did "pack the court," Republicans wouldn't do the same? The supreme court would end up bigger than the senate, and its composition would then always reflect the party in power. Seems like a pretty short-sighted solution. If you've got the senate numbers to pack the court, you've got the senate numbers to appoint a partisan nomination.
  
  The Republicans might, but would have a much harder time being in a position to do so, since the Democrats would:
  add PR and DC as states
  Enable every American to vote every time
  End state-level gerrymandering nationally
  
  🤣 ok
- how fragile this country always was
  i don't think that the system and country was that fragile, it did required decades of propaganda from the far right to get to the point it is now
  
  decades of propaganda from the far right to get to the point it is now
  thanks, once again, to the boomers
  
  Don't discount the other generations culpability in this though. Conservatives aren't a problem we can simply wait out. Newer generations are doing slightly better but even among GenZ there are many who would agree with the current system if it were more in their favor instead of the boomers. Education and propaganda are getting worse, GenZ identifies more religious than Millenials, disinformation keeps getting more and more widespread in a social media ecosystem that has - for younger generations - for better, but also for worse, largely replaced the news.
- All of civilization ultimately relies on the honors system, and nobody's ever been able to change it.
- I always saw him like an anomaly, an unexpected improbable blip in history that may have an effect over decades but the disruptions it brought will go away... eventually.
  When he came into power I immediately thought of something in the Foundation series (I try to avoid spoiling it because even if the books have been around for some time people are discovering it through the Apple TV series).
  So yeah it'll get better but perhaps not in our lifetime...
  
  That's exactly the problem: he's an anomaly, he's a one off, he's a foreign ploy, he's unique and we just have to get rid of him, and everything will be fine again, he's certainly not an outgrown of a movement thats been gaining steam for decades and points to deep systematic problems with the American politics and polity, no sir, everything else is fine, it's just him and him alone.
  
  I get your sarcasm. My comment wasn't meant to be that deep and yes I can see that his success is a symptom of a deeper problem. I just thought that him being almost comically corrupt, detestable and yet successful is a one off.
  
  ...I typed out an answer in agreement, but then I remembered the folks around him, and I'm not even sure that's a safe bet anymore.
- The US has been on track for Trump since WWII ended and the crazy christian sects got an ear in the government. It's even surprising it didn't happen earlier.
- This is why people need to get out and vote. Nearly every election where Dems had over 60% turnout they have won. Reps never have changes in turnout and I think they have around 65-70% usually? All people need to do is get out and vote and these people lose their edge
  
  Even if it is impossible with the current math, it’d be nice to hear some politicians loudly calling for expanding the court or impeachment. Seems to me if we want to get a strong majority, we need some leadership that actually promises some things people really want. Aside from AOC, nobody seems to want to talk about real ways to fix the court. They seem to be content to just ride it out and hope at some vague point it gets better.
  
  and this is why the GOP has been working nonstop for over 10 years to undermine public confidence in the vote
  if harris wins: it was rigged
  if harris wins by a landslide: it was definitely rigged
  if trump wins: it was still rigged but that just shows how godemperor trump is jesus 2.0

36 comments