What is it?
Well, at least, not until we make some radical changes. I mean, right now, about the closest we have to a “leader of the free world” is probably Germany.
Agreed, and I wish the Democrats would at least demonstrate that they get this, and offer a realistic plan to at least halt the decline.
I don’t think the Democrats can do much of anything. The problems are systemic. Money has taken over the political system, and you’re not putting that genie back in the bottle.
There’s nothing that can’t be fixed in our system, but you have to want to try.
I do think it’s important that we don’t lose ourselves to despair. While I expect a new world order to emerge from all of this, I still think its possible for the United States to pull their heads out of their collective rear ends and fix things. It’s going to take years, and we’re not going back to what it was pre-Trump era, but we do have a chance to turn things around in a way that’s beneficial to our own citizens and our allies.
One can even argue that our prior status in the world, as the “World’s Policeman” and “Lone Superpower” and the like, facilitated a lot of bad things, and maybe it’s best if no nation occupies a position like that.
Of course, at the rate things are going, China is likely to take over that status, which could be even worse than the US in the role.
Your entire system is faulty. You have to throw the entire thing out and start from scratch.
I agree that that would be preferable, because I think we can really learn a lot from the last 250 years of human history to design a better system. I don’t agree that it’s necessary: in theory, the Constitution can be amended infinitely.
In practice, neither of those things are going to happen. Americans are going to bumble along with the system they have, and deny that there are any problems, the same way they do with guns and healthcare.
These are fluttering thoughts, but I’ll throw them out for what comes next:
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We usually get an opposite/let’s reset/go back to normal…after an authoritarian President. Nixon - Carter; Bush - Obama; Trump - Biden; Trump - ?
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The next President never gives up the previous President’s expansion of executive Power. It’s throughout history, but recently Obama did not shrink the powers Bush handed him. It just grows. I’d guess the D President enforces a D agenda that D’s like, but implemented in “legal” ways that would be unthinkable a generation ago, but that we now accept as normal.
That seems to be true and it’s definitely a problem.
I should add…and Congress no longer tries to limit the Pres powers either, even though they have the power to do it.
For example, Pres war powers were abused/grew during Vietnam. Congress, as they can, reigns them in with the War Powers Resolution. Or, abuse of Pres powers leads to impeachment/(would be guilty vote) and removed from office.
Congress, as a whole, doesn’t do that anymore as far as I can tell. So Pres powers just grow even though there are several ways to stop it.
Presidential fiat. This is not how we did things in the past and for good reasons but these really are extraordinary times. The US government has become a corrupt oligarchy. If we keep playing along like everything is fine and normal then we quickly become another failed country. We can fix this but it will require a sea change in how we’ve always done politics in this country.
Year one: Dismantle Trump and anyone who has benefited from his corruption. That would include seizing all monies involved, tax avoidance etc.
Year two: Dismantle the current system of financing politics. This I think is the most important and the least likely possibility. If politicians were beholden to citizens and not donors all of our self-imposed problems could be worked on.
Year three: Universal healthcare
Year four: enjoy the fruits of our labor
Easy Peasy
The whole donor/lobby system bothered me since I first started learning about how the government worked in school. It felt like legal bribery.
Decades later… I feel even more like that’s the truth.
As a Canadian watching the stuff south of our border, I am actually quite concerned about what can happen post-Trump. ISTM that the US will almost need something equivalent to post-WW II de-Nazification. This should entail trying the entire GOP congress as they are completely complicit. As well, what about MAGA voters? How does one determine which voters are serious and hardcore enough?
Obviously, none of that can possibly happen without causing a civil war. Consequently, nothing substantive and effective will actually change, and the world probably be faced with the same thing in one or two election cycles.
If this happens the will confront roadblocks, rumors and outright lies, tying up anything they attempt to do, then the Republicans will run on a “Democrats are useless and accomplish nothing” platform.
I doubt it, because I don’t remember seeing Republicans do that before (it’s too mild and reasoned of an argument for them), and that’s a difficult and ineffective argument to make when the Republicans are in power.
(I mean, they could just fall back on “Joe Biden is awful” because that’s in their playbook, but that would be awesome for Democrats if that’s all they had.)
It’s like, if you are in power and the economy is struggling, and the other side blames you for it, and your argument is that they would have been worse, people aren’t going to buy it. Even if it’s true and you have statistics to prove it.
Axios thinks differently-see my link in the Senate P&E thread.
But that brings up a question I have debated- If the President died before the midterms (of course that would be a National Tragedy ) how would that effect the Dems chances of taking the House (and maybe the Senate)?
Would it make it better or worse in 2028 after the Veep has had two years to show what he can do?
They’ve literally blamed bad weather on the Democrats.
Entirely IMHO, it would be better for Republicans if this happened. The candidates would rapidly deify Trump while simultaneously sweeping his “mis-steps” under the rug by claiming it’s wrong to speak ill of the dead. And those Republicans on the fence about critical issues would be persuaded that some sort of return to business as usual would be in the works.
[ this is the sort of discriminate behind the scenes, but no ICE in the open, all tax breaks and sustainable corruption Republican ]
2028? Vance could just walk back the conflict on Iran and score a major win with little effort. He’s scum, but infinitely less provokable and ego-hurt as Trump. Of course, that’s a very low bar to beat.
While I would certainly agree legislatures, members of the judiciary, and even American voters enabled Trump, I’m not sure how many of them did anything illegal. Members of the House and Senate abrogating their responsibilties isn’t a criminal offense. Voting MAGA isn’t a crime. Millions upon millions of Americans supported Donald Trump, we’re just going to have to figure out a way to live with them when this is all over.