this post was submitted on 22 Jan 2025
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No Stupid Questions

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You'd think a hegemony with a 100-years tradition of upkeeping democracy against major non-democratic players, would have some mechanism that would prevent itself from throwing down it's key ideology.

Is it really that the president is all that decides about the future of democracy itself? Is 53 out of 100 senate seats really enough to make country fall into authoritarian regime? Is the army really not constitutionally obliged to step in and save the day?

I'd never think that, of all places, American democracy would be the most volatile.

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[–] frezik@midwest.social 19 points 16 hours ago

Hitler didn't take power democratically. Neither did Mussolini or Franco. They each found cracks in how liberal democracy worked in their respective countries. Those cracks were usually the places where the system was decidedly undemocratic, which in those three cases, was generally something where the old nobles still had some power and they lined up behind fascists to save them from leftists.

America never had nobles, but it does have plenty of cracks in its liberal democracy to be exploited by fascists.

So to answer your question simply, no, there are no instruments to fix this. Congress can potentially either reign Trump in with legislation, or even impeach him, but I don't expect either one to happen. If the GOP can be swept out of Congress in 2026, then we can maybe start to fix some things without resorting to extralegal methods. Even that is only a starting point.

I do know for sure that we can't go back to the old trajectory as if Trump was just an outlier.

[–] clutchtwopointzero@lemmy.world 14 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

America's vaunted "checks and balances" are, in the end, just smoke and mirrors to lie to the population and hide the fact that American institutions give way too much power to the president and there are no institutional controls to make the president behave.

[–] xor@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 13 hours ago

not true. congress could definitely remove the president… they just won’t do it because they’re too fascist themselves….

[–] Norgoroth@lemmy.world 14 points 17 hours ago

Second amendment

[–] Letsdothis@lemmy.world -3 points 7 hours ago

What do you mean by "nazi"

[–] Matombo@feddit.org 45 points 23 hours ago (4 children)

It's funny that Germany has safeguards against nazis in power in it's constitution which was designed ~~by~~ in cooperation with the USA, France and GB, yet afaik all three don't have similar mechanics in their own constitutions because they never belived to have to deal with the next hitler themselfs.

[–] technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (1 children)

Germany has a modern constitution created in response to nazis.

USA has extremely outdated constitution created by proto-nazis.

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[–] Miaou@jlai.lu 8 points 17 hours ago

Those same safeguards that banned AfD years ago, thank god they exist!

[–] IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

Lets take out the politics for a moment, and just look at railroads

This is what I call the "Old Railroad Theory":

The US build the railroad/subways so long ago, that most of it is now in decay and as far as I know, none of the US has any Platform Safety Barriers, and people could just fall on the tracks (see NYC)

In constrast, in China (PRC), because most subways are only recently built, they are much more modern, air-conditioned, and have Platform Safety Barriers, preventing any "fall on tracks" incidents. (I've seen first hand the subway in GuangZhou, they look much nicer than NYC, when I first got to NYC, the tracks were terrifying for me, I always have intrusive thoughts about falling in)

Its because once you build a system, its unlikely to get replaced even when better technology comes along. Too much cost to replace, politicians don't care.

Same thing with Constitutions.

It was written so long ago, now its too late to add new ideas like Defensive Democracy. 3/4 of US legislature means its almost impossible to add it as an amendment.

(Btw, Germany has a AfD problem, that they still haven't banned yet... 👀)

Edit: typos

[–] Matombo@feddit.org 10 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

PS.: With the current trend we will find out in about the next decade if the safeguards work ...

[–] NikkiDimes@lemmy.world 8 points 22 hours ago

Decade? More like 3 months. He's already doing wildly unconstitutional things. If the Supreme Court refuses to take on challenges to it or outright approves it, well, they didn't work.

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[–] masquenox@lemmy.dbzer0.com 24 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

a hegemony with a 100-years tradition of upkeeping democracy against major non-democratic players

Your proof of this is... what?

[–] iknowitwheniseeit@lemmynsfw.com 9 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

For real. US history is replete with supporting dictators, military coups, and so on.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 1 points 11 hours ago

Upkeeping our own democracy. For a certain value of "Dem"

[–] Daerun@lemmy.world 42 points 1 day ago

If you really believe that the USA has "100-years tradition of upkeeping democracy against major non-democratic players" you are in delusion.

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

That's what 2a is supposed to be for

[–] sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz 0 points 6 hours ago

The 2A was so that the Federal gov't wouldn't have a standing army. That went out the window really quickly when a Federal force under the first president had to be raised to put down the Whiskey Rebellion. At the time, the 2A should have been repealed or rephrased at least. Don't forget that one of the jobs of the US gov't, as defined in The Constitution (which admittedly, doesn't mean much now when we have a president who is clearly does not qualify under the 14th Amendment), is to put down domestic violence.

[–] Klear@lemmy.world 16 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

2A is supposed to facilitate millitias in case England attacks again.

[–] Hossenfeffer@feddit.uk 13 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (1 children)

... in case England attacks again.

I have been thinking about coming over there with a cricket bat.

[–] funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 5 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

And the benefit is most yanks won't even be able to make a cheeky single if you flat it past the square leg

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[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 2 points 17 hours ago

Guns can have multiple uses.

The American Revolutionary War literally started over the attempted seizure of guns by a government that feared its subjects could use them in an uprising.

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[–] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 52 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Ah fuck you really going to make me infodump I hate you sm fr


Part 1: The Two Parties

In the 1960s Civil Rights movement a deep political polarization began which results in wealthy interests backing the Republican party more and more, President Ronald Reagan in return shifted the party away from unions and towards deregulated and low tax markets and industries, and when Democrats introduced a campaign finance reform to curb the issue in 1995 it failed but was reintroduced and passed in 2002 it furthered that divide yet again, that bill was then sued by Citizens United wealthy interests and the SCOTUS sided with Citizens United as a Partisan 5-4 decision. So now we live in a world where political divide has all of the wealthy interests backing one side whose policies are actually extremely unpopular but people are easily misled into not knowing the stances of people they are voting for, or misled on the repercussions of those actions.

Figure 1: Partisanship of Congressmen

Figure 2: Partisanship of citizens


Part 2: Legislative Requirements of the USA

The USA has steps to pass laws:

  • It gets called to vote by majority leader and passes the House of Representatives, which is capped at 435 congressmen allotted very very roughly proportional to the state populations.

  • It gets called to vote by majority leader and passes the Senate with a simple majority of 51 votes, unless a handful of senators decide to filibuster it to delay the vote indefinitely, in which case the bill gets amended with concessions and sent back to the House for yet another round of voting. Filibuster can be bypassed with 60 votes which is basically impossible due to aforementioned partisanship.

  • The president signs it into law.

Now the problem here is that to remove a congressman, the president, or a supreme court judge: you need 60 votes following a successful impeachment inquiry. So it never happens.


Part 3: Foreign Interests

Influential media from the Murdochs, the Kochs, and the CCP are constantly pushing the USA further into the grave they've been digging for 50 years. China has always been a source of cheap labor and the relationship soured greatly following the Chinese influences on Korean and Japanese elections during the time those two nations were rebuilding following the World War era and were under the watchful eye of the US Military who were a central figure in the aforementioned conflict. This divide deepened with the 1984 Tienanmen Square Massacre where cities all over China were quelled by military forces being deployed on their own people. But far from being the end of it, the Pacific was still a prime trade route where the USA sought profits, and so Chinese influence continued to spread more as the days went by.


Part 4: Where We Are Now

President Obama was denied a lifelong SCOTUS nomination in an election year, giving the nomination to Donald Trump.

Donald Trump was granted yet another lifelong SCOTUS nomination in an election year. The SCOTUS was thusly deeply conservative.

His court nominations allowed him to run for office despite not qualifying under the insurrection clause, because if the courts choose not to reverse a lower court decision that he wasn't barred from office then nobody is enforcing the law.

Billionaires bought or operated their own home made social medias in the USA, the CCP deployed TikTok campaigns to elect a fascist.

This isn't just a thing that happened which we were unprepared for. It's a thing that has been happening for decades which so many of us have been desperately attempting to stop.

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[–] samus12345@lemm.ee 77 points 1 day ago (12 children)

He knew it from the beginning. People didn't listen.

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[–] LustyArgonianMana@lemmy.world 1 points 15 hours ago

Everyone has been bought and paid for https://lemmy.world/comment/13431373

[–] Objection@lemmy.ml 53 points 1 day ago (3 children)

The CIA can always assassinate a president who gets too far out of line, ~~like what happened to JFK,~~ but they don't tend to mind the right so much as the left.

[–] rickyrigatoni@lemm.ee 41 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Trump spent his first term selling classified documents to enemies of the state that revealed the identities of CIA operatives and got them killed and so far they have done nothing about it. I think it's safe to say the CIA is not as scary as hollywood wants us to believe.

[–] humanspiral@lemmy.ca 4 points 17 hours ago

The CIA is right ~~leaning~~ wing globally and at home

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[–] PanArab@lemm.ee 23 points 1 day ago (6 children)

What’s your definition of Nazi? I would think Andrew Jackson still a worse president than Trump. And not even the Supreme Court was able to stop him

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[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 37 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (5 children)

Yes, the President can be impeached and removed by Congress. On the opposite side of the coin a President can veto laws passed by Congress, which Congress can override but it's harder than passing a law. The problem is when Congress also goes nazi at the same time. In that case we're fucked. In fact I think Article 97 sub-paragraph E13/W even says, "Such conditions and circumstances shall by Law constitute Fuckage."

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