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No. It's just hyperbole. It's true that Trump has some worrying authoritarian tendencies. He's shoving his agenda through with all the subtlety of a sledgehamme

No. It's just hyperbole. It's true that Trump has some worrying authoritarian tendencies. He's shoving his agenda through with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer and has created multiple constitutional crises. He's determined to fulfill his campaign promises and carry out his vision as fast as possible before fully considering the consequences and demands absolute loyalty from everyone in his party and kicks out anyone who speaks out against him. Just the other day i read how Obama criticised him and thought for a moment unironically "wow that's brave of him". Where was i again? Oh yeah. I think it's just a transient phenomena. America needs a lot of fixing and Trump doesn't have a lot of time. He certainly doesn't want to waste it clarifying the legal limits of his authority. But no. The US is fundamentally too strong to fall like that. Earlier today [1] in response to a comment of mine and in all seriousness someone bemoaned the fact that America was so terribly authoritarian that Trump has the House, Judiciary and most of the voters on his side! Yeah democracy can be inconvenient like that sometimes. My opinion is that Trump is the hero america needs not the one it deserves. I'm not coming to trivialise anyones concerns but i don't think he's the antichrist people make him out to be. He's been doing a truly absurd amount of winning from his perspective at least and if anything is a great example of how much a truly powerful Western leader can achieve. The only question that remains is if his policies are correct or not which is a matter of rigorous debate, not all of which is conducted in good faith. [1]I'll post the relevant part here for convenience >>What's interesting is that the gaps in our political system that allow him to do so many illegal and distasteful things have always been there. The framers of the constitution never anticipated all three branches of government colluding together in alignment and bad faith, with the vociferous support of roughly half the voting population.

seanmcdirmid 1y ago
Everything that Trump has done via executive order and proclamation should have been checked by the court, and it mostly has except the Supreme Court has granted new supreme powers to the executive that aren’t going away even after Trump leaves office. That is the biggest travesty here, the American system of checks and balances has basically been broken and nothing short of a constitutional convention or revolution is going to fix it.
- defrost 1y ago
  Immediately after the first executive order declaring some "state of emergency" that 'legally' justified sweeping POTUS orders on tariffs US Republicans passed a bill with a rider clause that (I kid you not) "stopped time" (Congressional time). Legally, in the US, once a POTUS makes such an emergency order Congress must vote on it's continuance within 30 (? short fixed time period that I don't recall ATM) "congressional days". Legally (and this is very weird, I don't exactly know how this is being accounted for on the books) exactly zero "congressional days" have passed since then. Legally, Congress has had no clock run out on any required vote, legally there has been nothing amiss to appeal against and for Courts to rule on. Yes, this sounds crazy, bizarre, abnormal, made up. Yes, it's true. Reference: HN 6 months past: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43358343 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43358343
  - verzali 1y ago
    I've always wondered if they can simply redefine the length of a year to extend presidental and congressional terms. Based on this, it seems like they could.

seanmcdirmid 1y ago

Everything that Trump has done via executive order and proclamation should have been checked by the court, and it mostly has except the Supreme Court has granted new supreme powers to the executive that aren’t going away even after Trump leaves office. That is the biggest travesty here, the American system of checks and balances has basically been broken and nothing short of a constitutional convention or revolution is going to fix it.

defrost 1y ago
Immediately after the first executive order declaring some "state of emergency" that 'legally' justified sweeping POTUS orders on tariffs US Republicans passed a bill with a rider clause that (I kid you not) "stopped time" (Congressional time). Legally, in the US, once a POTUS makes such an emergency order Congress must vote on it's continuance within 30 (? short fixed time period that I don't recall ATM) "congressional days". Legally (and this is very weird, I don't exactly know how this is being accounted for on the books) exactly zero "congressional days" have passed since then. Legally, Congress has had no clock run out on any required vote, legally there has been nothing amiss to appeal against and for Courts to rule on. Yes, this sounds crazy, bizarre, abnormal, made up. Yes, it's true. Reference: HN 6 months past: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43358343 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43358343
- verzali 1y ago
  I've always wondered if they can simply redefine the length of a year to extend presidental and congressional terms. Based on this, it seems like they could.