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My issue is we're still talking about the GOP as it is behaving now. My question is how were we allowed to get to this point? Trump is declaring national emerge

My issue is we're still talking about the GOP as it is behaving now. My question is how were we allowed to get to this point? Trump is declaring national emergencies and using emergency powers, but where did he get those powers from? Why did the DNC allow the executive branch to obtain those powers in the first place? When Trump lost to Biden why didn't the congress spend the next 4 years stripping the executive branch of all the scary powers they had been abdicating over the last century? And sure you might argue that they didn't control both houses, but the reality is they didn't even try. No one will look back on the Biden presidency as a time period under which the DNC fought valiantly to reign in the clear loop holes and abusive potential of the executive branch but were stymied despite their best efforts by obstructionist GOP opponents. For that matter, they didn't even spend the time trying to expand the capabilities of the minority party to better reign in an abusive majority. Let's take your example on the tariffs here. Either this was a power granted before the Trump presidency and one that the DNC should have worked to revoke sometime in the last 4 years if it was so easily abused, or it was a power congress granted this session, in which case why didn't they use that all powerful fillabuster to hold it back? This is what I mean when I ask why we should believe the DNC is even capable of defending this democracy. We are where we are because the DNC apparently found it more convenient to be complicit in the abdication of governmental power to the executive branch on the mistaken belief that those powers would never be abused. Then when Trump was elected for the first time, they didn't take that as a wakeup call and spend the next 8 years fighting tooth and nail "all hand s on deck" to reign in the powers of the executive branch. It's not like Trump wasn't talking up tariff and trade wars before, but apparently the DNC couldn't envision actually losing to him again? Which is another strike against their ability to effectively govern. Twice now (Bush II and Trump) they have supposedly lost the presidency to electoral shenanigans and then managed to lose to the same candidate a second time and that second time lose unequivocally. How? How is this party so inept as to lose a second time by a worse margin to a candidate that they managed to effectively tie the first time?

Tadpole9181 2y ago
I'm sorry, this is hard to take seriously. Yes, why didn't Democrats change our system and model of governance that was working fine, anticipating the Republicans. It's a shame they didn't stop them in... check 1789. 39 years before their party was founded. It's a shame they didn't overwrite the constitution (2/3 majority and state ratification) to be parliamentary. To bad they didn't prevent the head of their executive (ergo military) from having time-limited war time powers meant for emergencies and requiring their review... Right after two world wars, two proxy wars, the threat of cold war, or during a war in the Middle East. Or the use of time-limited emergency powers to direct funds used in organizations like FEMA. Blame, blame, blame. It's always the DNC's fault. They have to know of all threats and be totally unified and work around every obstacle. It's not at all up to, I don't know, the American public not to elect a convicted felon that attempted to overthrow the government, who were found guilty of raping women,who are deplorable, disgusting slobs in every way, and that threaten to go to war with allies. Why didn't the DNC protect us from ourselves? Did you send them letters or calls demanding these actions? It's a democracy. We got what we asked for and what we deserved.
- tpmoney 2y ago
  > Yes, why didn't Democrats change our system and model of governance that was working fine, anticipating the Republicans. It's a shame they didn't stop them in... check 1789. 39 years before their party was founded. Was it working fine? Was there really no possible way anyone could have seen the potential for all of this unchecked executive power to be abused before 2024? No warnings about presidential overreach until 2024? No signs at all that perhaps the right wing was getting a little off their rocker and maybe thinking about the consequences and precedents set by the actions we take might be in order? I'm pretty sure the DNC has been complaining about the GOP "not following the rules" since at least Bush II. Certainly they felt that the election at that time had been stolen, so it should have been clear that it was entirely possible for an unsavory and even unwanted person to ascend to the highest office in the land. And then of course they lost the second time, meaning it was also possible for said unsavory and unwanted person to win a subsequent election. But I guess for the DNC, none of that was a sufficient warning about the dangers of consolidating large amounts of unchecked and uncheckable power in the majority party and the executive branch. It's not always the DNC's fault. That is of course ridiculous. Trump decides for himself to abuse the powers he's been given. The choice to abuse the power isn't on the DNC. But the DNC's complicit behaviors, both in granting those powers in the first place and strengthening them or doing nothing to roll them back, is absolutely on them. Everyone is all up in arms that Trump decides he's just not going to enforce a law. And yet, a headline feature of the Obama administration was the executive decision to not enforce federal laws on marijuana. Rather than actually use the legislature to solve the problem, we just decided that yes indeed, the president does have the authority to pick and choose the laws they will enforce. Of course the GOP made plenty of hay at the time since "tough on drugs" plays well to their base, and then has subsequently abused that same authority for their own ends. But that's my point. Either the DNC wants to grant people like Trump these powers, or they are so blindingly stupid as to believe that someone like Trump could never hold office, despite decades of evidence to the contrary. > Did you send them letters or calls demanding these actions? Yes, yes I have because I actually am legitimately angry about this shit and have been for decades.

Tadpole9181 2y ago

I'm sorry, this is hard to take seriously. Yes, why didn't Democrats change our system and model of governance that was working fine, anticipating the Republicans. It's a shame they didn't stop them in... check 1789. 39 years before their party was founded. It's a shame they didn't overwrite the constitution (2/3 majority and state ratification) to be parliamentary. To bad they didn't prevent the head of their executive (ergo military) from having time-limited war time powers meant for emergencies and requiring their review... Right after two world wars, two proxy wars, the threat of cold war, or during a war in the Middle East. Or the use of time-limited emergency powers to direct funds used in organizations like FEMA. Blame, blame, blame. It's always the DNC's fault. They have to know of all threats and be totally unified and work around every obstacle. It's not at all up to, I don't know, the American public not to elect a convicted felon that attempted to overthrow the government, who were found guilty of raping women,who are deplorable, disgusting slobs in every way, and that threaten to go to war with allies. Why didn't the DNC protect us from ourselves? Did you send them letters or calls demanding these actions? It's a democracy. We got what we asked for and what we deserved.

tpmoney 2y ago
> Yes, why didn't Democrats change our system and model of governance that was working fine, anticipating the Republicans. It's a shame they didn't stop them in... check 1789. 39 years before their party was founded. Was it working fine? Was there really no possible way anyone could have seen the potential for all of this unchecked executive power to be abused before 2024? No warnings about presidential overreach until 2024? No signs at all that perhaps the right wing was getting a little off their rocker and maybe thinking about the consequences and precedents set by the actions we take might be in order? I'm pretty sure the DNC has been complaining about the GOP "not following the rules" since at least Bush II. Certainly they felt that the election at that time had been stolen, so it should have been clear that it was entirely possible for an unsavory and even unwanted person to ascend to the highest office in the land. And then of course they lost the second time, meaning it was also possible for said unsavory and unwanted person to win a subsequent election. But I guess for the DNC, none of that was a sufficient warning about the dangers of consolidating large amounts of unchecked and uncheckable power in the majority party and the executive branch. It's not always the DNC's fault. That is of course ridiculous. Trump decides for himself to abuse the powers he's been given. The choice to abuse the power isn't on the DNC. But the DNC's complicit behaviors, both in granting those powers in the first place and strengthening them or doing nothing to roll them back, is absolutely on them. Everyone is all up in arms that Trump decides he's just not going to enforce a law. And yet, a headline feature of the Obama administration was the executive decision to not enforce federal laws on marijuana. Rather than actually use the legislature to solve the problem, we just decided that yes indeed, the president does have the authority to pick and choose the laws they will enforce. Of course the GOP made plenty of hay at the time since "tough on drugs" plays well to their base, and then has subsequently abused that same authority for their own ends. But that's my point. Either the DNC wants to grant people like Trump these powers, or they are so blindingly stupid as to believe that someone like Trump could never hold office, despite decades of evidence to the contrary. > Did you send them letters or calls demanding these actions? Yes, yes I have because I actually am legitimately angry about this shit and have been for decades.