To be fair, in many ways the president doesn’t have the power. But Republicans in congress are complicit, so when he does incredibly illegal, batshit crazy stuff, none of the mechanisms to keep him in check function. Him being president is a big problem, but the real problem here is the complete abdication of responsibility by those meant to check him.
To be fair, in many ways the president doesn’t have the power.
Yeah. Want a minimum wage increase, legal cannabis, childcare, family leave, protecting Roe, protecting democracy itself, pursuing justice for January 6 or Epstein’s victims, and the president is conveniently powerless.
Want to ignore the law to sell weapons for genocide and the president is fucking omnipotent.
He is de facto incredibly powerful, but he is de jure not. He’s only capable of doing those things because the checks and balances failed through the coordinated efforts of hundreds of Republican congressmen. Every heinous act that goes unchecked bears the implicit seal of approval of the entire Republican party. He could do many of the things you claim he’s powerless to do, too, but he doesn’t want to, and all the mechanisms meant to force him to have failed.
I was talking about the previous administration. I don’t expect anything good out of this one. And I was a fool to expect anything good out of the last one.
That’s definitely true, but I’d still say the president shouldn’t even have the power to issue such decrees. Many of these things wouldn’t even happen if the president would first have to convince the legislative body (even if controlled by his own party) to write a law.
Reverting an already issued decree is harder than saying no beforehand, and politically much more delicate.
The decrees are basically glorified memos. They hold little to no legal weight in and of themselves, except that they direct the agencies that work under the president’s control, so it’s less legally binding document and more written order from your boss. The problem is that he writes ones directing them to do illegal shit, and they just do it because they know Trump and the rest of the Republicans spent decades packing the courts to protect them when this day came, and if they packed the courts, they’re sure as hell not gonna ruin all that work by properly using their congressional powers.
What is happening with this administration is exposing the great flaw of electoralism that anarchists and other leftists have been warning about for nearly a century.
That if we do not restructure our society, our politics and our culture leave us manipulatable to where these corrupt individuals could systematically consolidate power and out themselves or their allies into positions of power.
This is the result of not a decade but over a century of political and systemic manipulation by the owning-class.
Living in the US during this time has radicalized me so much against the system.
I don’t think it’s so much “fear” of defying the president as it is they’re getting what they want from him (white christo-fascism), and they’re getting bribed by the same people. Most of the Dems are also dependant on the same interests as well (not necessarily the white Christian-nationalist stuff, but the same money). The concentration of wealth has put far too much power into too few hands. These same people are heavily influencing politics and public opinion worldwide. Idk, how we get out of this mess; have to bring the entire global economic system to its knees; forcibly redistribute their wealth or make it worthless I guess.
Well one thing these last years have taught me is that the US president has way too much power.
It was never an issue before because presidents didn’t test it, but this is insanity.
The president largely doesn’t have too much power. Problem is the other two branches of government conceding theirs.
To be fair, in many ways the president doesn’t have the power. But Republicans in congress are complicit, so when he does incredibly illegal, batshit crazy stuff, none of the mechanisms to keep him in check function. Him being president is a big problem, but the real problem here is the complete abdication of responsibility by those meant to check him.
Yeah. Want a minimum wage increase, legal cannabis, childcare, family leave, protecting Roe, protecting democracy itself, pursuing justice for January 6 or Epstein’s victims, and the president is conveniently powerless.
Want to ignore the law to sell weapons for genocide and the president is fucking omnipotent.
He is de facto incredibly powerful, but he is de jure not. He’s only capable of doing those things because the checks and balances failed through the coordinated efforts of hundreds of Republican congressmen. Every heinous act that goes unchecked bears the implicit seal of approval of the entire Republican party. He could do many of the things you claim he’s powerless to do, too, but he doesn’t want to, and all the mechanisms meant to force him to have failed.
I was talking about the previous administration. I don’t expect anything good out of this one. And I was a fool to expect anything good out of the last one.
That’s definitely true, but I’d still say the president shouldn’t even have the power to issue such decrees. Many of these things wouldn’t even happen if the president would first have to convince the legislative body (even if controlled by his own party) to write a law. Reverting an already issued decree is harder than saying no beforehand, and politically much more delicate.
The decrees are basically glorified memos. They hold little to no legal weight in and of themselves, except that they direct the agencies that work under the president’s control, so it’s less legally binding document and more written order from your boss. The problem is that he writes ones directing them to do illegal shit, and they just do it because they know Trump and the rest of the Republicans spent decades packing the courts to protect them when this day came, and if they packed the courts, they’re sure as hell not gonna ruin all that work by properly using their congressional powers.
Which is what shocked me. I can understand that there are a few foul eggs in politics and if they take the wheel shits going down.
But since his second term literally nobody did stop any illegal shit from him.
The whole system is corrupt and broken. Nobody dares to defy the president even if they are supposed to!
What is happening with this administration is exposing the great flaw of electoralism that anarchists and other leftists have been warning about for nearly a century.
That if we do not restructure our society, our politics and our culture leave us manipulatable to where these corrupt individuals could systematically consolidate power and out themselves or their allies into positions of power.
This is the result of not a decade but over a century of political and systemic manipulation by the owning-class.
Living in the US during this time has radicalized me so much against the system.
it all starts with half assing copying the Haudenosaunee’s system in 1789
I don’t think it’s so much “fear” of defying the president as it is they’re getting what they want from him (white christo-fascism), and they’re getting bribed by the same people. Most of the Dems are also dependant on the same interests as well (not necessarily the white Christian-nationalist stuff, but the same money). The concentration of wealth has put far too much power into too few hands. These same people are heavily influencing politics and public opinion worldwide. Idk, how we get out of this mess; have to bring the entire global economic system to its knees; forcibly redistribute their wealth or make it worthless I guess.
Also: The same party has both houses of Congress who pretty much abdicated their power to the Executive branch.