4 ms·

He was rewarded with full control of every branch of government. What did we expect?

by jayd16 9mo ago

colejhudson 9mo ago
Through what mechanism is he controlling the other branches of government?
- galleywest200 9mo ago
  The GOP in Congress abdicating its role and deferring to the executive, as well as SCOTUS continually using the “shadow docket” to rule in his favor with little to no explanation provided.
- cosmicgadget 9mo ago
  Congress: anyone falling out of line will lose his support in midterms. Judiciary: appointments and ideological alignment with some of the Supreme Court. Thomas and Alito are fully controlled, Kavanaugh just loves a powerful executive, the rest aren't controlled but often in agreement. Then there's his use of executive power to punish his adversaries, e.g. Perkins Coie.
- zaptheimpaler 9mo ago
  The question is through what mechanism are other branches curtailing his power? It seems to be limited to strongly worded letters and speeches, indignant comments and scathing news reports but nothing real.
- vannevar 9mo ago
  Through the flawed primary system. Relatively few people vote in the primaries, which means they skew towards extremists. Trump can motivate MAGAns to vote in Republican primaries, which makes MAGA essentially a gatekeeper to Republican seats even in districts where the electorate at large is Republican rather than MAGAn. He's not directly controlling the judiciary yet, but he has appointed wildly extremist judges and threatened judges who rule against him with impeachment, so he's certainly making an effort.
- deleted 9mo ago
  [deleted]
- datsci_est_2015 9mo ago
  The execution of the Unitary Executive theory, a clear ideological descendant of Carl Schmitt’s Decisionism. Carl also had some beautiful prose describing the weaknesses of liberal democracy and how to exploit them that are very relevant to today as well.
esalman 9mo ago
And that happened even after they arrested him and tried to put him in jail. What's happening now might be shocking but not unexpected at all.
- rjbwork 9mo ago
  >tried to put him in jail They really didn't. It was a dog and pony show under the belief that he would not make his way back into power. The dems/reps did not want to set a precedent of holding a president to account for doing terribly illegal things. They didn't intend to actually do anything to prevent this. And so here we are.
  - AnimalMuppet 9mo ago
    I'm not sure I entirely agree with that. I wonder if the Democrats didn't delay prosecution until late 2023/early 2024 in order to have it be a headwind against Trump running again. If so, they have been well-paid for that bit of "strategy". Trump was able to delay the cases long enough that the election came first, and now he has immunity at least while in office.
    - kccoder 9mo ago
      > I wonder if the Democrats didn't delay prosecution until late 2023/early 2024 in order to have it be a headwind against Trump running again. I think they didn't realize the moment the country was in. They put a judge in charge of the justice department when we needed a bull-dog prosecutor. It was a bad choice.

He was rewarded with full control of every branch of government. What did we expect?

by jayd16 9mo ago

He was rewarded with full control of every branch of government. What did we expect?

colejhudson 9mo ago

Through what mechanism is he controlling the other branches of government?

galleywest200 9mo ago
The GOP in Congress abdicating its role and deferring to the executive, as well as SCOTUS continually using the “shadow docket” to rule in his favor with little to no explanation provided.
cosmicgadget 9mo ago
Congress: anyone falling out of line will lose his support in midterms. Judiciary: appointments and ideological alignment with some of the Supreme Court. Thomas and Alito are fully controlled, Kavanaugh just loves a powerful executive, the rest aren't controlled but often in agreement. Then there's his use of executive power to punish his adversaries, e.g. Perkins Coie.
zaptheimpaler 9mo ago
The question is through what mechanism are other branches curtailing his power? It seems to be limited to strongly worded letters and speeches, indignant comments and scathing news reports but nothing real.
vannevar 9mo ago
Through the flawed primary system. Relatively few people vote in the primaries, which means they skew towards extremists. Trump can motivate MAGAns to vote in Republican primaries, which makes MAGA essentially a gatekeeper to Republican seats even in districts where the electorate at large is Republican rather than MAGAn. He's not directly controlling the judiciary yet, but he has appointed wildly extremist judges and threatened judges who rule against him with impeachment, so he's certainly making an effort.
deleted 9mo ago
[deleted]
datsci_est_2015 9mo ago
The execution of the Unitary Executive theory, a clear ideological descendant of Carl Schmitt’s Decisionism. Carl also had some beautiful prose describing the weaknesses of liberal democracy and how to exploit them that are very relevant to today as well.

esalman 9mo ago

And that happened even after they arrested him and tried to put him in jail. What's happening now might be shocking but not unexpected at all.

rjbwork 9mo ago
>tried to put him in jail They really didn't. It was a dog and pony show under the belief that he would not make his way back into power. The dems/reps did not want to set a precedent of holding a president to account for doing terribly illegal things. They didn't intend to actually do anything to prevent this. And so here we are.
- AnimalMuppet 9mo ago
  I'm not sure I entirely agree with that. I wonder if the Democrats didn't delay prosecution until late 2023/early 2024 in order to have it be a headwind against Trump running again. If so, they have been well-paid for that bit of "strategy". Trump was able to delay the cases long enough that the election came first, and now he has immunity at least while in office.
  - kccoder 9mo ago
    > I wonder if the Democrats didn't delay prosecution until late 2023/early 2024 in order to have it be a headwind against Trump running again. I think they didn't realize the moment the country was in. They put a judge in charge of the justice department when we needed a bull-dog prosecutor. It was a bad choice.