That’s one of the things that really gets me about all this. This didn’t happen suddenly, but there has never been any actual effort by the opposition party to counter it. They never address the trend in any organized way, and never really raise awareness of it. The closest they get is to fundraise off the threats, but it never translates into action or progress. If anything, they organize to ostracize the few members of their party that do speak forcefully about it.
I have confidence in the ability of someone like trump to surround himself with exactly the type of people who would gladly take such leaps.
Fuck this guy. The country and freedom are more important than his ego and hubris. A real leader would work to facilitate onboarding a capable candidate so we can avoid devolving into a christo-fascist hellscape.
The president has the power to pardon the people around him.
I promise you that trump and the Christo-fascist movement that he represents will be very creative and forceful wielding this power. For Biden and the Democratic leadership to asymmetrically disarm is yet another example of why the fascists keep advancing despite being unpopular on nearly every issue. The allegiance to decorum and gentlemanly procedure is killing us. Remember when Obama just let them steal a Supreme Court seat, without any fight at all? Hell, remember when Gore just cowardly backed down and ceded his win for the good of the country? I’ll say it again. Every bit of awfulness that Republican authoritarians are successfully persecuting is actively enabled by a pathologically cowardly, ineffective Democratic Party. Biden is exactly the wrong leader for this moment in history.
I finally understand what ‘make America great again’ means. The America they are trying to return us to is the one where we had a king.
I’m sure trump’s funeral will get great ratings. Can someone let him know that?
Please. Of course any president could always do anything, and of course it’s always up to the prosecutor to make a case. Are you really claiming that the Supreme Court setting the precedent that presidents are exempt from criminal liability is not a change? Does the weight of that precedent not make prosecuting presidents vastly more difficult and, apparently, impossible in many important ways? Does that fact not make it much more likely that presidents will commit crimes? You may want that change, but there is no merit to the argument that this decision doesn’t change anything.
Just tell Joe that there are six Palestinian children on the court and he’ll get right on it.
Why should anyone believe either of those processes are possible anymore, now that the president has been granted the power to coerce members of both branches through threat of force?
Earlier today I was writing about how we are in a full blown constitutional crisis now. Then I realized that we aren’t. The crisis is over and the Supreme Court chose to abandon the constitution. The crisis was happening before this decision was made, but very few people were aware or alarmed about it. We are now in a state where I doubt there’s any legal recourse. We’ve moved on to another stage and that terrifies me.
Exactly this. It’s critically important that we prevent trump and his fascist goons from getting control of this power. But that in itself doesn’t address the really big problem here. Living at the whim of a benevolent king is still living under a king. I honestly think this is it. The constitutional republic is over in every meaningful way beyond window dressing. Given the authority of the Supreme Court, I don’t see a legal fix for this. This is dark AF.
I get it. This is how government functions according to the constitution. Please understand however, under this new interpretation there is no effective legal check on the executive doing anything at all. Yes, it’s not official for the president to do that, but there is no enforcement mechanism, and the president now has authority to coerce anyone or any institution. I know it is difficult to grasp the implications of that, but that is in fact what the Supreme Court did today.
Like, why even bother with the election at all? Biden can just not participate in it, and stay in power as long as he does it as an official act. The Supreme Court just ruled that he’s allowed to do that.
You are confusing the United States that existed until this decision with the United States that exists after this decision. As long as it’s an official act, the president can now do whatever it wants. If the supremes court objects, the president and threaten or assassinate the justices as long as it’s an official act. The President is now effectively a king. Read Sotomayor’s dissent in this decision. She explicitly states this.
Sotomayor’s written dissent explicitly says that this decision makes the US President a king that and can now act with impunity. This is effectively the end of the republic as described by the constitution.
Some in this thread think that ‘chaos’ would emerge if the party replaced Biden and that would hurt the party’s chance of defeating trump. You are correct that there would be a media frenzy, and weeks of exhaustive, drama chasing coverage. It would absolutely dominate the media narrative, and be pounded into the entire voting population’s psyche. You know what else? That would be a wonderful, wonderful thing. It would totally disarm trump’s ability to drive the media narrative for much of the rest of the election. Whatever deficit that exists of national awareness for the new candidate would be erased very quickly. That candidate would be gifted months of desperate, free, media coverage. It’s actually a great strategy. That being the case, I’m sure the DNC and the party elders will never attempt something so obviously effective since they are terrible at politics and their cowardly approaches to both campaigns and governing are ultimately the reason our democracy is in such an existential crisis to begin with.
And…the rest of us have to pay the price of his hubris. Just like we’re paying the price for Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s hubris. And Feinstein’s hubris. And Hillary’s hubris.
The Republicans are pure, self-interested evil. But, all of consequences of their awfulness is actively fueled by the Democratic Party’s unwillingness to mount a meaningful opposition.
The only silver lining to Biden’s pathetic display yesterday, is the prospect that this moment may represent the last few stammering gasps of boomer domination in the US. Thanks for the music and the computers, now get the fuck out of the way so younger people can start cleaning up the mess you made.
Ok, sounds like the Supreme Court is just sorta all-in on institutional corruption. Got it.