This stupid topic again

But sure

      • gravitas_deficiency
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        4 months ago

        He turned out to be a decent president, except for the massive, glaring failure to build any sort of meaningful bulwark against fascism. He had, like, the absolute best justification and mandate to aggressively crack down on the neofascists with Jan 6, but he pussyfooted around and dragged his feet on fucking everything so much that basically nothing has been dealt with or constructively changed since the coup attempt occurred.

        • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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          4 months ago

          I love how you skip the part where Congress blocked everything the SCotUS didn’t. That’s so efficient.

          • gravitas_deficiency
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            4 months ago

            There are a LOT of things he could have done in a lot of areas that require neither Congress nor the courts.

            Not to mention, he was so goddamn focused on “reaching across the aisle” that he picked a guy for AG that clearly doesn’t have a strong interest in, you know, preventing the fascists from winning, because he’s in the same party as the fascists.

            • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              There are a LOT of things he could have done in a lot of areas that require neither Congress nor the courts.

              Go on

            • tootoughtoremember@lemmy.world
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              4 months ago

              /s ?

              The President using the armed forces to assassinate a political rival would be immune to prosecution under this ruling.

              A President’s use of the military is a power granted to them under Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution. In order to prosecute for this hypothetical assassination, they would first need to prove that providing orders as Commander in Chief was somehow an unofficial act.

              This is one of the specific examples Sotomayor listed in her dissenting opinion on this ruling.

              • Omega@lemmy.world
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                4 months ago

                SCOTUS would just rule that political assassination was not an official act, assuming they were a Democrat of course. It’s not like they’re consistent.

                • tootoughtoremember@lemmy.world
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                  3 months ago

                  Under our constitutional structure of separated powers, the nature of Presidential power entitles a former President to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority. And he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts.

                  Determining whether and under what circumstances such a prosecution may proceed requires careful assessment of the scope of Presidential power under the Constitution. The nature of that power requires that a former President have some immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts during his tenure in office. At least with respect to the President’s exercise of his core constitutional powers, this immunity must be absolute.

                  The President’s authority as Commander in Chief is a core constitutional power, as granted in Article II, Section 2. This example is not hyperbolic.

                • octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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                  3 months ago

                  SCOTUS would just rule that political assassination was not an official act, assuming they were a Democrat of course. It’s not like they’re consistent.

          • gravitas_deficiency
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            4 months ago

            Well, not picking an AG with no interest in prosecuting perpetrators of a literal fucking coup attempt would have been a start.

            • Scallionsandeggs@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              I’m not exactly excited about Harris, but putting a former prosecutor in office at least makes me think she couldn’t possibly put in a worse AG than Garland, at a time when we desperately need a firebrand in the position.

              Plenty of opportunity to be proven wrong though 🙄

        • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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          3 months ago

          For the millionth time: every time they’ve done it before, they lost in a landslide. NOT stepping aside is the marginally better play.

          And as a voter more on the DNC side of the floor, after the news today I weep for the next 40 years in America.

          • Eatspancakes84@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            All 2 times this happened before? If that’s the best argument you have for running a candidate that is clearly too old both for campaigning and for the presidency, I think I would take my chances for a third try.

    • hddsx@lemmy.ca
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      4 months ago

      I would vote for any viable candidate not Trump. I would prefer not Biden and not Harris. In fact I’d prefer a sane Republican… but there seems to be a distinct lack of them.

      I’d vote for AOC though. She reminds me of the principled republicans of yore, albeit with different views

      • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        4 months ago

        In fact I’d prefer a sane Republican…

        This is a trap. Even with a “sane” Republican in office, the administration will still work to accomplish the policy goals of the GOP.

        • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Yes, this. No Republicans at all should be allowed into office. Ever. Don’t let them fool you, the agenda marches on regardless if they are “moderate” or “reasonable” or not.

      • MammyWhammy@lemmy.ml
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        4 months ago

        Basically all sane republicans have been pushed off the national stage in the last 8 years.

        • NewNewAccount@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Besides McCain, which notable sane republican existed in the Obama era?

          Pre-Obama we were dealing with the Bush-era neocons.

          They haven’t been sane for at least the last twenty years.

        • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          I would not say they were “sane” per se, it’s just that they’ve been replaced by even more overt bare-faced extremists. The Overton window on what is extremely right wing keeps getting pushed more and more to the right. A loud mouth performative asshole they believe is beyond punishment due to his “billions” has given them a permission structure to be who they always really wanted to be. These are the people that didn’t understand that Archie Bunker was supposed to be a parody, not a hero.

      • snooggums@midwest.social
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        4 months ago

        In fact I’d prefer a sane Republican

        I can’t think of a single one. Even the ones that pretended to be sane and were pushed out by the party were horrible.

      • ArbitraryValue
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        4 months ago

        I’d prefer a sane Republican

        It’s funny to me that Biden is currently both the most liberal and the most conservative presidential candidate.

      • Kecessa
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        4 months ago

        You would prefer a sane Republican but you praise AOC that is at the opposite end of the spectrum…

        • hddsx@lemmy.ca
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          4 months ago

          The thing I really admired about Republicans was that they had principles and held to them. AOC fits that bill. Plus, I believe that you have a right to your viewpoint even if I disagree with you.

          • mozz@mbin.grits.devOP
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            4 months ago

            The thing I really admired about Republicans was that they had principles and held to them.

            🤨

            In 1953 they did, yes

            Some weird little holdouts like John McCain and Liz Cheney survived into the modern era, somehow, but they’re about as rare and as realistic in the modern-day GOP as Bernie Sanders and AOC are in the modern Democrats.

            If you wanna be able to vote for Adam Kinzinger, say so. It sounds like a good idea to me. But don’t pretend it is because he is a Republican when his principles are exactly what got him run out of the Republican Party on a rail.

            • hddsx@lemmy.ca
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              4 months ago

              I mean, as a kid, it certainly appeared that they did to me.

              And people with principles getting kicked out of the GOP for having a backbone is exactly why I am very hesitant to vote GOP at the moment.

              As a conservative independent, I don’t /mind/ voting GOP but you have to give me a real candidate. I’m not going to vote for any republican who capitulates to Trump or endangers healthcare.

              Like, I don’t personally believe we should be pushing LGBT or abortion. But if someone is actually LGBT or actually requires an abortion, we should treat them humanely because they are, well, humans.

              What I really don’t like are the vote Republican or vote Democrat no matter what people. It’s contributing to the terrible political climate. Like I don’t like people who do things just for donors or votes. That’s where the principles come in. I want people who believe in what they are doing, or trust the people who know what they are doing.

              • Starrifier@lemm.ee
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                4 months ago

                At the risk of sounding like an asshole, everything seems simpler when you’re a child. I’d recommend going back and looking at the actual debate happening at the time with the eyes of an adult.

            • UltraGiGaGigantic@lemm.ee
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              4 months ago

              Crushing union strikes with a joy in her eyes that you wish you had when you looked at your kids.

            • hddsx@lemmy.ca
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              4 months ago

              It doesn’t matter to me what principles. To me, even I disagree with them, having principles and holding to them is what I like in a politician.

              And I hate everyone who tells me how to vote. Everyone voting who they actually believe in is how democracy works. You can disagree and debate, but at the end of the day everyone should be free to make their own decision and have their own opinion.

              • PythagreousTitties@lemm.ee
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                4 months ago

                How does not caring what the principles are make any sense at all? You don’t have any principles if that how you think.

                • hddsx@lemmy.ca
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                  3 months ago

                  I have principles. I just don’t feel the need to broadcast them. And it’s irrelevant here because the point is I like people who have principles and stand by them - no matter what their viewpoint is. I may disagree with them, but I can respect that.

                  What I can’t stand are the spineless people who change their viewpoint at the drop of a hat.

      • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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        4 months ago

        principled republicans of yore

        Is that before all the GoP and DNC switched sides over slavery?

      • octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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        3 months ago

        In fact I’d prefer a sane Republican… but there seems to be a distinct lack of them.

        The three I can remember from the Trump years (Kinzinger, Cheney, and Romney) have pretty much been run out on a rail haven’t they? Republicans don’t want sane Republicans, and anyone who appears to be one is going to get ostracized within the party, or turn out to be just like all the rest.

        They are walking around with bandages on their ears in solidarity with a man who immediately rushed to sell shitty Chinese shoes to commemorate and make a profit off of the assassination attempt which killed one of his own supporters. There are no sane Republicans. There are crazy Republicans, cowardly Republicans, and probably a few with Stockholm Syndrome. They let the inmates take over the asylum and there is no cleaning house now.

        • hddsx@lemmy.ca
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          3 months ago

          Yeah most conservatives who are republicans are getting pretty psychotic. The independents and the ones who switched to Democrat can still be okay though

    • dhork@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Moderate Democrats like Harris are like broccoli. Nobody really wants it, it’s not the highlight of the meal, but you need your veggies to get the proper nutrients to fight fascism. (Plus, if your diet has too little fiber you end up full of shit.)

      Eat your broccoli!

      • xmunk
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        4 months ago

        Instructions were unclear, Secret Service did not approve of me nibbling on Kamala Harris’s elbow.

    • RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I never would have picked her. But the excitement and unity she’s inspiring in like 2 days time is undeniable. It almost feels like a bad tv show plot twist.

    • Xerø@infosec.pub
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      4 months ago

      If they replace Kamala then they lose the black vote, so that is not happening.