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Checks and balances work on a societal level and our judicial system is deliberate and slow (as it should be). While legal challenges are resolved, literally mi

Checks and balances work on a societal level and our judicial system is deliberate and slow (as it should be). While legal challenges are resolved, literally millions of people can be caught in the crossfire between ideologies, causing unimaginable harm to them and our society. I'm happy none of this has impacted you yet, but many of us know how this slippery slope goes after watching first hand how it happens in other countries. Many of us have friends and relatives who we are afraid won't be able to return to the lives they've built here. Many of us are scared that we're next. If you don't panic when the very ideals of your democracy face an existential threat, it won't be around much longer.

AnimalMuppet 10y ago
If you do panic when the very ideals of your democracy face an existential threat, it may not be around much longer. "Protecting democracy" is a perfect cloak for a tyrant-in-the-making.
- akiselev 10y ago
  That is usually at the bottom of the list of concerns when a tyrant-already-made is in power. That's why the word tyrant carries all those negative connotations. We need to be careful that our solution doesn't make the situation even worse but we need to take one problem at a time or we'll never stand a chance.
  - AnimalMuppet 10y ago
    He's in power... but he's not in total power. The panic creates the chaos that gives him the mechanism to take total power "to restore order" or "to save democracy" or whatever. Don't give him that opportunity. Look, oppose him. Oppose him every single time he tries to act like a tyrant instead of a president. Do so through the existing mechanisms of political and legal power. (And thank whatever powers you think there are that the founders gave nobody power that somebody else couldn't block.) But don't oppose him in panic. Determination, yes, but not panic.
    - akiselev 10y ago
      I'm in full agreement with you and I believe we're just working from different connotations of the word "panic." I don't mean we should behave like a chicken with its head cut off every time the president signs an executive order or tweets. I'm talking about realizing that we face a slippery slope to a worst case scenario and decisive action is needed. Panic can mean chaos but it can also mean that we put aside relatively minor grievances and act to preserve the integrity of the Constitution. I'm using panic to describe urgency, not disorganization.
      - AnimalMuppet 10y ago
        Fair enough. Yes, I think we are in agreement.

AnimalMuppet 10y ago

If you do panic when the very ideals of your democracy face an existential threat, it may not be around much longer. "Protecting democracy" is a perfect cloak for a tyrant-in-the-making.

akiselev 10y ago
That is usually at the bottom of the list of concerns when a tyrant-already-made is in power. That's why the word tyrant carries all those negative connotations. We need to be careful that our solution doesn't make the situation even worse but we need to take one problem at a time or we'll never stand a chance.
- AnimalMuppet 10y ago
  He's in power... but he's not in total power. The panic creates the chaos that gives him the mechanism to take total power "to restore order" or "to save democracy" or whatever. Don't give him that opportunity. Look, oppose him. Oppose him every single time he tries to act like a tyrant instead of a president. Do so through the existing mechanisms of political and legal power. (And thank whatever powers you think there are that the founders gave nobody power that somebody else couldn't block.) But don't oppose him in panic. Determination, yes, but not panic.
  - akiselev 10y ago
    I'm in full agreement with you and I believe we're just working from different connotations of the word "panic." I don't mean we should behave like a chicken with its head cut off every time the president signs an executive order or tweets. I'm talking about realizing that we face a slippery slope to a worst case scenario and decisive action is needed. Panic can mean chaos but it can also mean that we put aside relatively minor grievances and act to preserve the integrity of the Constitution. I'm using panic to describe urgency, not disorganization.
    - AnimalMuppet 10y ago
      Fair enough. Yes, I think we are in agreement.