My dude, the Constitution is literally just a piece of paper. It can do nothing without the will of the population to enforce it. You think Trump cares what it says? Or the party that backs him? Or the millions of voters who are begging for an excuse to commit violence?
Conversely, the government has whatever power the population gives it. If Trump decides he wants to be a dictator and stay in office, and the GOP don’t resist, the Constitution won’t magically force him out.
You know we have footage from when he already tried that, right?
and if nobody resists
I didn’t say “nobody” I said “the GOP”. No one who has been paying attention the last eight years could reasonably say that the GOP as a whole would oppose Trump in his efforts to remain in office.
It’s not up to the GOP. A lot of people would need to be on board with that before it can happen, including a base who is ideologically supportive of the constitution and term limits in general. I won’t get into Jan 6 because that’s a quagmire of misinformation and nobody actually knows the truth yet. In my opinion, if that was an attempt to overthrow the government (as opposed to a rally or a protest), it was so weak as to be laughable. What were they going to do with a few thousand people and no guns? Anyway even if he did have delusions of being a dictator, a lot would have to change to make that possible.
You know, once, I agreed with you that calls that one political party or the other would overthrow the will of the people and cling to power after being voted out were alarmist and full of bullshit. When Bush supporters said the Dems wouldn’t respect the results of the election in 2004, I pointed out that Clinton left the White House in 2000 without complaint. When Obama supporters said that they were worried Bush would pull off a coup, I pointed out that Bush 41 and Ford both left the office at the end of their terms when they lost the election. When McCain supporters said Obama wouldn’t leave the White House in '12, I reminded them of Clinton and Carter. And when Trumpers said in '16 that Obama would pull off a coup, I reminded them that their counterparts on the Left said the same thing in '08.
I said the same thing after November 2020 to Biden supporters, thinking that Trump was more likely to leave the country in late December or early January to go to a place where America’s court system couldn’t get at him. I was pretty damn sure he was going to buddy-buddy up to Putin and other Dictators from a country without extradition to the US, like Saudi Arabia, North Korea, or even Russia, leaving the USA to do some ‘MAGA diplomacy only I can do,’ with him setting up some Right-Wing Shit-Agitation site on the web, collecting cash from gullible Americans thinking their problems are everyone else’s fault but their own.
Then January 6th happened. And for the first time, we did NOT have a peaceful transfer of power.
There’s still room to say ‘hey, he hasn’t overthrown the duly elected President yet…because if he had, he’d be President right now’. BUT…I don’t think it’s a far jump to say that Trump is very likely to pull a Putin on America’s Presidency to become President for Life if we give him a chance to.
My dude, the Constitution is literally just a piece of paper. It can do nothing without the will of the population to enforce it. You think Trump cares what it says? Or the party that backs him? Or the millions of voters who are begging for an excuse to commit violence?
Conversely, the government has whatever power the population gives it. If Trump decides he wants to be a dictator and stay in office, and the GOP don’t resist, the Constitution won’t magically force him out.
If Trump decides to stay in office and if nobody resists are giant, giant ifs.
You know we have footage from when he already tried that, right?
I didn’t say “nobody” I said “the GOP”. No one who has been paying attention the last eight years could reasonably say that the GOP as a whole would oppose Trump in his efforts to remain in office.
It’s not up to the GOP. A lot of people would need to be on board with that before it can happen, including a base who is ideologically supportive of the constitution and term limits in general. I won’t get into Jan 6 because that’s a quagmire of misinformation and nobody actually knows the truth yet. In my opinion, if that was an attempt to overthrow the government (as opposed to a rally or a protest), it was so weak as to be laughable. What were they going to do with a few thousand people and no guns? Anyway even if he did have delusions of being a dictator, a lot would have to change to make that possible.
You know, once, I agreed with you that calls that one political party or the other would overthrow the will of the people and cling to power after being voted out were alarmist and full of bullshit. When Bush supporters said the Dems wouldn’t respect the results of the election in 2004, I pointed out that Clinton left the White House in 2000 without complaint. When Obama supporters said that they were worried Bush would pull off a coup, I pointed out that Bush 41 and Ford both left the office at the end of their terms when they lost the election. When McCain supporters said Obama wouldn’t leave the White House in '12, I reminded them of Clinton and Carter. And when Trumpers said in '16 that Obama would pull off a coup, I reminded them that their counterparts on the Left said the same thing in '08.
I said the same thing after November 2020 to Biden supporters, thinking that Trump was more likely to leave the country in late December or early January to go to a place where America’s court system couldn’t get at him. I was pretty damn sure he was going to buddy-buddy up to Putin and other Dictators from a country without extradition to the US, like Saudi Arabia, North Korea, or even Russia, leaving the USA to do some ‘MAGA diplomacy only I can do,’ with him setting up some Right-Wing Shit-Agitation site on the web, collecting cash from gullible Americans thinking their problems are everyone else’s fault but their own.
Then January 6th happened. And for the first time, we did NOT have a peaceful transfer of power.
There’s still room to say ‘hey, he hasn’t overthrown the duly elected President yet…because if he had, he’d be President right now’. BUT…I don’t think it’s a far jump to say that Trump is very likely to pull a Putin on America’s Presidency to become President for Life if we give him a chance to.