- cross-posted to:
- politics@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- politics@lemmy.world
During the campaign, it was kind of hard to picture the specifics of how Trump might pull such a thing off. Alas, it’s getting less hypothetical by the week.
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Elections can not be delayed, nor can the federal government dictate to states how to administer elections (outside violations of the constitution, which are adjudicated by the courts, not executive orders). The constitution outlines the years in which elections for federal office are to take place, federal statute sets the date, and state laws cover the administration of the election. In order to do what is described in this article there would need to be a constitutional amendment(s) allowing changes to the set years for elections to the house and senate, for the house and senate to propose/pass a change of the statute signed off by the president, and then to either have the states all change their laws or have a case make it through courts and receive a judgement before the election that states not requiring voter I.D. costs the constitution. This is simply not possible within the time constraints, if at all. While the fascists certainly want a coup, this is not the route. Their move will be drastically more violent or continue on the slow, but escalating, course it is currently taking.
the constitution and all the laws that descend from it are all meaningless if no one upholds and enforces it
i can’t see how it could be made any more clear that these fascists couldn’t possibly care less about what’s “legal” or not. the only thing that’s (occasionally) stopped them so far is federal judges blocking things here and there. people are getting murdered by nazi goons without consequence. no due process. no charges. no legal representation. bullet in the face, dust off hands, job well done soldier.
what are federal judges going to do when they roll up on every major voting precinct to take over on election day?
I find posts/headlines like these genuinely bizarre. “Now be plainly said”? “hard to picture the specifics”? “Less hypothetical by the week”? I’m not American, I don’t live there but even I can see - and have always been able to see - that its been on his agenda since day 1, that he doesn’t care - and never did care - about how it looks or how it works, that its never, ever been hypothetical.
I don’t make any claim to a superior level of intelligence, I’m not intimately familiar with the inner workings of the US political system but surely this has been utterly obvious to literally everyone since 2016. How many times does this man need to subvert political processes - which has also been happening since 2016 - before US citizens realise that democracy there is gone as a political system? All the various points along the last 10 years I’ve heard US citizens say “well, OK, thats bad, but at least he can’t do this thing” - and then he does it and they say “wow yeah, thats terrible but at least he’s not done the other thing.” repeat unto infinity.
He doesn’t care about head-shaking sombre articles from left-leaning media, he doesn’t care about No Kings marches. He doesn’t care that judges rule against him, he doesn’t care about violating your constitution. What he cares about is beefing up the military, turning the area around the Whitehouse into a heavily armoured, protected zone and creating distraction after distraction after distraction for US left wing political podcasters to froth about in Instagram Reels. Whilst you’re all laughing at his propensity to shit his pants and fall asleep and make rambling speeches, he’s preparing his likely combat zones and mass detention centres/camps.
This is exactly the situation that the 14th Amendment was created to prevent. Yet our worthless government refused to disqualify Trump from the 2024 election and let him be sworn in despite the fact that all of that was clearly illegal.
The Supreme Court letting him run in direct opposition to the 14th amendment was a moment. There’s absolutely no way to interpret that as ok
Lets him run? Fuck that, they paved the way and ensured it would happen. They are fully complicit in everything that is happening. This has been plain as day for years now.
The coup is over, now the only thing that can save us is their incompetence.
The Chief Justice actually swore him in.
They were worried it might cause unrest. Because that clearly hasn’t happened anyhow.
wouldn’t even be his first…
Yeah well. We talked about it for ages, but now we have it straight from the horse’s mouth. I just hope it sends the appropriate signals to the people whose job it is to complain and ultimately prevent unconstitutional behavior.
You know hope, this tiny helpless thing that just does not want to go away?
You know what guys? At this point, I am beginning to think that this Trump fellow is up to no good. It is getting less hypothetical by the week.
What I haven’t seen anyone weigh in on is the scenario where red states suspend their elections, and blue don’t.
I have a hard time believing New York or Illinois would go along with emergency powers halting the election, but I could 100% see Texas or Florida doing so (especially if in those red states there are good indicators of seats flipping blue).
So if even one red state calls off their election, what then? At least for midterms there isn’t a multi-state ballot - but what about the next election? Can a president be elected if some states refuse to have an election?
This shit is so stupid and terrifying and fucking awful.
Yes, the number is electoral votes available just goes down. I suppose you could have only one state voting and have it decide the Presidential election? But you wouldn’t have much of a Congress. Every rep is elected every two years, so the house would be emptied of every non-voting state. The senate would loose 1/3 of its members. Without full elections, we really don’t have a government.
Of course they could have elections but leave the President off the ballot, but I think that would be harder to sell. Even if you somehow felt Trump could have a third, unconditional term, he still has to be elected to that term. How you could have an election but not for President I can’t even imagine.
On Trumps Draft National Emergency Order to take over US elections - (the National Emergencies Act (NEA) and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to claim authority over voting procedures.) let’s just say, any attempt to federalize elections would be considered unconstitutional and illegal.
States have control over how they are done as written in the constitution. Also, if SCROTUS allows it, the “We” are no longer a Constitutional Republic.
If Trump is allowed to move forward with this obvious unconstitutional grab for power, allowed by the Dems on a plater with little public outrage, a failed supreme court intervention resulting in no push-back by any checks and balances, then the US Constitution is a lot weaker than americans would have you believe.
The constitution is what gives them all their authority. If they don’t hold it up, the government has abdicated.
Organized force and the subsequent compliance of the masses is what gives authority. The rest is theatrics to give the illusion of legitimacy and popular support. This works quite well…until it doesn’t.
The question becomes: What will the police and military do, when push comes to shove? What will citizens do, and what will the response be?
The police will protect wealth. The military will follow orders if they are made plausibly legal. Which is why a third term really doesn’t hold up. There is no plausible way that is legal.
You are assuming the military will intervene to defend the US constitution? They might be a bit busy, by the looks of it…
Depends entirely on their ability to sell it. I know Trump has been purging anyone not loyal to him over the country from leadership, but will the ones left follow illegal orders? No one knows of course, but I have to believe a lot of them are going to be hesitant or unmotivated and confused.
But yeah, Trump doesn’t need the military when he has ice, looks like. Though I’ll tell you, as a former soldier and person with eyes, I’d give the people much better chances against ice than the army.
SCOTUS failing to stop federalization of elections is literally the last possible Rubicon.
Exactly. Everyone was afraid of what would happen when Trump was elected because of what he would do. That is what he would do. Pulling that off means the experiment is over, America will never come back from it.
i’m afraid by the time most people realize how fucked we are it’ll be too late
what happens with the midterm will determine everything moving forward
It’s not a matter of realization but action. “The guy with the enormous constellation of public and private allies plans to do The Big Illegal Thing” doesn’t tell us how we’re supposed to respond.
There’s a certain “well, people should just do something!!!” attitude that is divorced from reality. Everyone wants everyone else to “do something!!!” for them. Vanishingly few people know what is to be done.
It’s not a matter of realization but action
you have to be aware of a thing before you’re going to act on the thing
the vast majority of people are just carrying on as if it’s all business as usual, either because they’re just not paying attention, or deliberately ignoring things that are “uncomfortable to think about”
the entire last year should have been spent networking, organizing, planning–countless fucking things, in order to fix the fascism problem. but no one’s interested in realizing, much less taking action
the vast majority of people are just carrying on
They’re surviving because that’s all they believe they have the power to do.
the entire last year should have been spent networking, organizing, planning
All of this has been happening. We’ve had multiple protest marches, fund raisers, and relief efforts for vulnerable people in hostile states and counties.
If you’re not seeing it, you’re not looking for it. But then this is part of the problem.
There is no single national organization to rally around. At best you have some short lived movements - No Kings, BLM, Code Pink, Occupy Wall Street - that dissolve (or are dismantled) as soon as they emerge.
Otherwise, you’re organizing with a regional group - your local union chapter, an LGBTQ org, a political outfit like Palestine Action or the DSA or PSL - that’s at best a few dozen, largely disconnected from one another.
The closest thing to a general strike we’ve seen was the Minneapolis January 23 action, which lasted a day or two and never stretched beyond the city limits.
I guess most people still operate on the default democratic process, hoping and expecting checks and balances to finally take effect. The real problem is NOT the people. The real problem is that the republican party and therefore the whole legislative branch (as well as SCOTUS) has been hijacked and corrupted, to the point where they just let him do whatever he wants. The system only works when the people in their respective position to represent the will of the people actually do so. It is not the people’s responsibility to come up with solutions. It’s the representatives responsibility and DUTY to which they have all SWORN to protect, enforce and abide by the constitutionally laid out ground rules. But now, they just follow Trump and make sure nobody steps out of line.
The next constitutional update should include some personal responsibility and liability for those who refuse to honour their oath. The way I see it, this is something like treason.
Sounds about right, just like Elons PAC aiding trump to win using fraud
a few more peaceful protests will fix that right up
I consider them fire drills.
It’s been so predictable watching Americans sit on their asses for an entire year, openly talking about how this is going to happen and doing fuck all about it. Absolute cowards. Sleepwalking into fascism because they’re too comfortable to throw a punch.
