To be fair, we don’t still support the most corrupt administration in American history. We aren’t making excuses for tearing families apart at the border. We haven’t abandoned any pretense of caring when the administration does something wrong. When scandals which would have counted among the absolute worst of the worst of the Obama administration are just shrugged off on a near-daily basis… Yes, even compared to the idea that he might declare himself dictator for life, his supporters look fucking delusional.
Has any previous President, Democrat or Republican, publicly made “jokes” about staying in office after his term runs out? Trump has, on more than one occasion.
Once Trump started talking about becoming President-for-Life, the rest of us definitely needed to start talking about it as well.
Ironically, if Trump ever tried to stay in office, that would finally be the tipping point that would cost him his support from the Republicans in Congress. In a few cases, maybe out of principle. But in most cases, out of personal ambition. Congress is full of politicians who think they’re as qualified to be President as Trump is. If Trump tried to declare himself President-for-Life he’d be denying all of them their shot at the office. The Republican majority in Congress might be willing to overlook any other crime or scandal but if Trump puts himself in the way of their greed for higher office, he’ll be impeached.
I honestly missed these jokes. I doubt it’ll suddenly turn me as alarmist as many here, but for the sake of fighting my ignorance, could I get a link to a video or transcript or tweet or whatever form they took?
And to answer your question, yes, a previous (D) president publicly made “jokes” about staying in office after his term runs out: CNN - Obama jokes about 3rd term: ‘If I ran, I could win’
And of course, there’s a big difference between joking about becoming president for life in the mold of Xi Jinping, and joking about running for office a third time - one implies the will of the people is behind oneself and one could win another bid for re-election. Which Obama probably could.
And there’s a number of reasons why this particular line from Trump is super fucking creepy:
[ul]
[li]REDMAP’s gleeful touting of what they plan to do in the 2020 redistricting [/li][li]Trump’s constant beating of the voter fraud drum casting of doubt on our electoral system[/li][li]His phony “voter fraud” commission [/li][li]His attempts to manipulate the census [/li][li]The attempts to throw “inactive” voters off the voter rolls (which hits far more people than actually left the district and disproportionately targets minority voters)[/li][li]Trump’s consistent praise and admiration of dictators and despots[/li][li]Trump’s attempts to stuff the executive with loyalists and sideline anyone who is not first and foremost loyal to him (rather than, say, competent in their job)[/li][li]Trump’s utter disdain for the rule of law, as demonstrated by the quite frankly mind-boggling degree of corruption and self-dealing within his administration[/li][/ul]
It’s no secret (and shouldn’t be considered a surprise to you) that the republican party has been waging some serious procedural war since at least 2010, and this shows absolutely no signs of stopping. Combine that with a president who admires and praises dictators and “jokes” about staying in power indefinitely, and a political base who would, by and large, support suspending elections… Well, that’s a fucking scary combination.
I’m not saying it’s likely, but the idea that people worried about it are delusional… No. No, we’re not. Trump is saying and doing some really fucking scary shit.
Here ya go.
Trump as ‘president for life’? That’s no joke.
This may be the scariest thing Donald Trump has said as president
Everything President Trump Has Said That Sounds Like He Longs to be a Dictator (No, Really)
Is Trump aiming to be a US president ‘for life’?
‘President for life’ not a bad idea, Trump says of China proposal
Republican here. Although I do support Trump (90%), I would not support that kind of seizure of power and would take up arms. He won’t do it though.
Sadly, in many cases they’re right.
Why wouldn’t he? He doesn’t give a shit about the rules, he has a special place in his heart for tyrants and dictators, and he has purged the White House to point that there is no one left to even suggest that it might be a bad idea.
Tell me specifically why he wouldn’t do it.
If Trump loses in 2020, maybe he’d want to stay on. If he is reelected, I don’t see how he could or would stay on past 2024; he’d be utterly exhausted like all previous POTUSes and he’d also be 78 years old.
By which time he will see the country as his personal property, to be inherited by his children.
Hell, I’m as qualified to be President as Trump is. And I’m not close to being qualified enough to be President.
When his so-called Muslim ban was stopped up by the courts, twice, did he obey the courts or ignore them?
–JM
That decision didn’t remove him from the power he worships, did it?
edited to add: Showing that a man didn’t kill the guy who cut him off at an intersection is not evidence that he wouldn’t kill someone he thought was a danger to himself.
Where in the Constitution does it say you get to vote for president? Take a look. I’ll wait here.
Nope it doesn’t. It says that the states choose their electors and how many electors they get. It doesn’t say we get to vote for them. When this country first got around to choosing a president, most states had their legislative bodies do the choosing. Only in the 1820s did elections start as a way of choosing electors. I believe South Carolina had the legislature choose its electors until the eve of the Civil War.
In Florida in 2000, the state legislature introduced a bill to change the way electors would be chosen for the 2000 election when the election debacle took place. The legislature (controlled by the Republican Party would choose the slate if it looked like Gore might take the lead. Fortunately for the GOP, the Supreme Court intervened making the bill unnecessary.
If certain states with pro-Trump governments felt that their state might experience “voter fraud”, they could simply have their legislature choose their electors.
My feeling is that the American people wouldn’t put up with canceled elections. We have never canceled elections even in the midst of a civil war. It’ll probably be a bridge too far for most Americans to cross and the military nor police would support such a move.
That said, Germany went from one of the most democratic of counties to a facsist dictatorship mainly because many parties in Germany actively undermined much of the institutions that a healthy democracy needs. Both the right wing parties and the Communist party did their best to undermine the Social Democratic Party and other centralist parties by using fake news stories, degenerating the press, and undermining accepted political standards.
Hindenburg actively pushed the story that Germany only lost WWI because certain unpatriotic groups backstabbed the military which was winning the war. (In reality, the military was going into full mutany in the last days of the war due to lack of food and supplies and the feeling they were fighting for a lost cause). Hindenburg thought Hitler was a good ally in the fight against non-right wing parties, and that Hindenburg thought he could easily keep the Nazis under control.
We’ve been undermining our political institutions for almost forty years proclaiming that elections are rigged and news is faked. It’s not a good road to be taking.
He makes decisions that no other politician would dare touch because of their reputation and that of those they are connected to. He has money, businesses and his own influences… He doesn’t need to be a president forever. Sure he is arrogant and is causing much collateral damage in every possible scenario, but he isn’t pussyfooting around like some previous presidents despite the hilarious trolling (in my humble opinion).
He is a populist and a realist. Fuck feelings, get the job done. He has giant brass cajones. That arrogance does not make him an authoritarian. The fact that he supports the Second Amendment is enough assurance of that. An Authoritarian wants to disarm the populace, not let them keep arms and have free enterprise. His pursuits are completely the opposite of those of a dictator.
If by some ridiculous chance he did want to, Democrats (as if its a big surprise) wouldn’t let him stay and sure as hell neither would Republicans, who are very big on tradition if you have noticed. But it will not happen and this is nothing but alarmist hyperbolic horseshit.
No, it didn’t remove him from his ‘Position’. (Not. Power.) Why should it have? Because you want it to?
Present tense. The Ukraine. It’s (still) a Soviet-style democracy.
I’m not sure he even thought that far ahead. As I’ve stated in other threads, I believe Trump’s campaign was purely for the ego trip and he was astonished when he won. Take a look at the expression on his and Ivanka’s faces election night when it became apparent he would prevail as well as his statement earlier in the campaign that he would accept the election results – if he won. Sounds perfect for setting up an endless kvetch-session after Hillary won.
Instead he won and, as you’ve said, suddenly the lights are on and all the cockroaches are running for cover. If I can mix my metaphors, he’s on the back of the tiger now and doing everything he can to keep from being eaten, even if it means poisoning the tiger.
In all, it reminds me of a 1972 movie, The Candidate, wherein Robert Redford is offered up as the Democrat candidate against a bullet-proof Republican opponent for Senator in California. He wins, to his astonishment, and the last line is him looking in bewilderment at his handlers. “What do we do now?”
You said he didn’t care about the rules. I showed you that was not always correct.
But if you think he won’t leave, then perhaps you have examples of when he was “removed from the power he worships” and he refused to go. Any SCOTUS decision against him as president that he refused to abide by? If not, then it would seem you have a very weak case.