Critics and Fox News keep calling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez a ‘Marxist’ or ‘radical leftist’ as if repetition would somehow make it true but she is aligned with (and previously a member of) the Democratic Socialists of America party, which is by the standards of pre-“Contract With America” American politics has a moderately politically ‘left’ agenda (and which is pretty much normal median politics for Northern and Western Europe) focused in labor protections; human and civil rights; access to medical care, education, and child care; recognition of fact-based threats to life and well-being including climate change and environmental contamination with regulation and remediation policies; anti-trust authority and regulation over corporate monopolistic practices; and progressive taxation i.e. making the extremely wealthy pay a proportionally higher amount of income and wealth tax accounting for how the government-provided infrastructure and education has factored into their ability to acquire such massive capital. This is not “fairly extreme left stuff”, unless you consider Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, and Richard Nixon to be extreme leftists.
Rand Paul is and has always been a delusional libertarian lunatic who in this isolated case is right. His truthfulness and integrity is much like that of a stopped clock. But he’s right, Trump has illegally exceeded executive authority under the pretext of emergency measures that absolutely do not apply and Congress is too cowardly to do anything about it.
The President is delegated some powers over the control of tariffs by Congress. But Congress could take back that power at any time, over the President’s veto if necessary.
The fact that the party that controls Congress is too lickspittle to stand up to Donald Trump on this issue doesn’t disguise the fact that Congress, collectively, is the body with power over tariffs.
I’m glad that Rand Paul has at least shown some degree of spine in this instance, but let’s face it - the time to do something about Donald Trump was February 13, 2021, but he voted to acquit at the second impeachment trial.
There’s a certain mindset most commonly (but not uniquely) associated with Marxist revolutionaries that holds that it’s better to lose and be martyrs than win by compromising on principles. When you want what’s clearly best for the People, that includes ignoring what the People want when necessary.
Under the National Emergencies Act, a declaration of national emergency unlocks a menu of 150 statutory powers from which the president can choose. One of the most powerful is the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. That law can only be invoked, however, when the national emergency stems from an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to national security, foreign policy, or the economy. Trump’s invocation of the law in this case rests on the specious premise that our trading relationships with each and every country in the world — including those he has dismissed as nations that “nobody has ever heard of” — pose an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to the United States.
By no stretch of the imagination can long-standing trade relationships be considered an unforeseen emergency. If Trump believes that global tariffs could benefit the United States, he needs to make his case to Congress. Lawmakers can then follow the regular legislative process to decide whether to adopt his plan. That is the proper course of action here — not manufacturing an emergency to push the president’s economic and foreign policy agenda.
Trump is doing that thing that all of the conspiranoists nattering about the “New World Order” paranoia were convinced that GHW Bush and Bill Clinton were going to do in the ‘Nineties; declare an emergency, invoke executive authority in exigency, and then use those powers to institute a dictatorship. Except unlike Bush or Clinton, Trump told everybody that this is exactly what he was going to do and the Heritage Foundation fucks put it all in writing, so nobody had to concoct any crazy red string evidence board to tie together disparate facts and made up claims into a vast cabal of secret interests.
The right time to do something about Donald Trump was 16 June 2015, but everybody was too busy laughing about what a clown he was to take any of it seriously except for the Republicans who had been trying to turn the country toward autocracy for the last two decades to this point and in Donald Trump found their shameless, charismatic despot who will repeat anything someone whispers in his ear enough times, and is so embittered about how he has never been accepted or loved that he will destroy anything if it makes him feel powerful.
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Exactly this. There is clearly no national emergency that justifies the executive branch enacting tariffs; it’s an absurd pretext to illegally use a power that properly is the purview of Congress. And Congress is too cowardly to do anything about it. The Alien Enemies Act used to justify illegal deportations is likewise an absurd pretext. And Congress is too cowardly to do anything about it. Trump is also blatantly ignoring a unanimous Supreme Court order to return illegally and mistakenly deported immigrant Ábrego García to the United States. And Congress is too cowardly to do anything about it.
Bonus: When Republicans are complained to about USAID contracts to farmers, as an example, being cut they can still blame it on unelected bureaucrats in DC . . . not that they’ll mention that the cuts are because of Musk and Doge and in the end Trump and the Republicans.
I guess it’s not individual policies, it’s the entire basket. I don’t feel like many people are for the whole thing at once- one person may be for civil rights, but not so on board with more progressive taxation, while others may be for that, but less against free child care or public health care.
I think it’s short-sighted for the Democrats to paint AOC as anything other than fairly far left for America. They’re not trying to win the hearts and minds of the Left; they’re trying to win the hearts and minds of people who voted for Trump in 2023. What do they probably want? Normalcy and stability first, and probably something of a return to the status quo.
That’s what the Democrats need to figure out- for the people who are somehow malleable in their voting, what are they interested in? And those who stayed home, what are they looking for/what would compel them to vote? I’m not sure it’s further left in either case, unless they’re painfully stupid and stayed home out of some kind of protest mentality, not realizing the danger of not voting vs. voting against Trump. They’re the ones I want to personally choke, not necessarily the people who voted one way or the other. Not voting? In 2023? For left-wing ideological reasons? What kind of dumb-ass dipshit did that?
That’s about the most moronic line of thought I ever heard. Like they know better, and like being a martyr is being better than a live victor? They deserve exactly what they’re getting.
I was speaking tongue firmly in cheek, in that the Democrats apparently will never, ever stop thinking that gun control is a good idea, even if strategically doing so would win them almost all of the rest of their agenda.
It’s idiotic. They lost that battle. Give it a half century and come back to it, if it’s that important.
But continuing to beat that dead horse turns people off immediately- anyone who’s serious about gun control is already a Democrat. And anyone who’s not, wonders why they’re so concerned about something with several Federal court cases affirming it’s viability.
Which is why many gun owners and people on the Right (not synonymous) think it goes beyond mere stupidity and into the realm of fanaticism. Of a world view and political philosophy that is irreconcilably opposed to the very concept of private gun ownership. Doubtless many don’t go this far, but still.
The thing that gets me about the Left’s view of gun ownership is that it’s very much the elementary school teacher’s view on things, whichi is that we need to take something from everyone including the responsible and law-abiding, because a select few can’t handle it. Which punishes the law-abiding and responsible, and doesn’t have much effect on criminals or crazy people either.
I mean, I’m a responsible gun owner, and it pisses me off mightily when people want to take away my rights and property because some fucking lunatic can’t handle their shit, or because criminals do criminal shit. Not my problem, and I really shouldn’t be punished for it.
Despite that, I still vote Democrat, because the GOP has lost its mind, and I suppose my guns might be an acceptable sacrifice for the good of the country if it comes to that. I don’t like it, but if that’s what it takes, I’m ok with it, if not happy with it.
So there absolutely nothing to offend the constitution worshiping sensibilities of libertarian GOP senator (senators being part of the Congress who are the ones who are not taking it back). Congress delegated the power to raise tarrifs to the president, the president (as he said he would during the election campaign) raised tarrifs. Rand Paul is only complaining as it (as it was always going to do) crashed the economy, jepordising his personal political future.
Unlike literally anything else Trump has said or done. Let’s see. Hey, you know what a US senator who allegedly cares about the constitution, personal liberty, and opposing tyranny might want to complain about? A presidential administration saying they are going to suspend Habeas Corpus, FFS!!! And that’s literally just today’s headline.
Rand Paul and the libertarian wing of the GOP are a collection of amoral scumbags who only use words like “liberty” and “constitution” as buzzwords to con gullible schmucks into voting for them
Yet it’s Trump’s administration that keeps bringing up the confiscation of guns. And it doesn’t seem to be harming them. So it’s clearly not that big of a deal.
Libertarians like Paul aren’t making a big deal out of it either.
oh look the Trump administration has done something else spectacularly unconstitutional today (you know different to the spectacularly unconstitutional thing they did yesterday).
I’m sure Rand Paul’s strongly held libertarian principles will force him to use his position as senator to fight this, what with the constitution being sacrosanct and all ? On no, he won’t because he doesn’t have any. Because he’s an amoral scumbag who is happy to help the fascist take over of America as long as it doesn’t bother him personally.
Rand Paul as I said, can f_ck right off. The whole libertarian arm of the GOP can shove it up their collective a_s, the whole thing was a scam, they don’t care about liberty or the constitution, and never did.