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Trump's real goal

I can always bump this thread in a few years to see who was right
 
ImTheCaptain said:
the founders who didn't even bother to put in a term limit, you mean?
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Yeah really. And legend is plenty of people wanted Washington to be King anyway.

Republicans are a really good midterm election cycle away from being able to repeal the 22nd Amendment.
 
PhDeac said:
Yeah really. And legend is plenty of people wanted Washington to be King anyway.

Republicans are a really good midterm election cycle away from being able to repeal the 22nd Amendment.
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That would be ironic because they are the ones who put it in place originally, in response to FDR continuing to run and win his third and fourth terms. He is the only president to break the unwritten rule, so there came to be a written rule.
 
Republicans on a State and National level have been working to weaken democracy in this country for awhile now. Trump is not going to be a dictator, but his time in office will damage our standing in the world, institutions, traditions and norms.
 
Deaconblue said:
That would be ironic because they are the ones who put it in place originally, in response to FDR continuing to run and win his third and fourth terms. He is the only president to break the unwritten rule, so there came to be a written rule.
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Grant and Teddy tried but failed to win third terms.
 
knowell said:
You guys do realize that there were all kinds of loony people thinking that Obama would not cede power either.

The notion was as foolish then as it is now. I have no doubt that if there were a legal way for Trump to become "Dictator for Life", he would try to do so. The same could probably said for at least half of the presidents we have had. That job attracts megalomaniacs. It is practically a requirement.

Fortunately our founders foresaw as much.
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Did they? There weren't term limits until after FDR.
 
sailordeac said:
The biggest canard around here is what you post about my views. I have always said that I don't know the truth about any collusion between Trump and the Russians during the 2016 election, am not opposed to an investigation of the question but at this time I am not convinced by the evidence that has been presented that there was any collusion.

As Danny Manning would say, you need to do better, counselor. If you keep missing obvious details like that, you will lose more cases than anyone can count, your legal career will be a flop, and you will end up in the poor house.
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Nah then I can just move to Hungary and teach....something.
 
ImTheCaptain said:
Grant and Teddy tried but failed to win third terms.
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Teddy took a term off and then came back as a third party spoiler in 1912, though. He was not trying for a consecutive third term. Further, supporters argued that since he came to presidency not by election but by assassination that he could win a third term without violating the unwritten rule, because he would only have run twice.
 
birdman said:
Teddy took a term off and then came back as a third party spoiler in 1912, though. He was not trying for a consecutive third term. Further, supporters argued that since he came to presidency not by election but by assassination that he could win a third term without violating the unwritten rule, because he would only have run twice.
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right, but he, like Truman had he fought the limit amendment, would have had three full terms, consecutive or otherwise
 
ImTheCaptain said:
pretty sure someone wrote a lengthy essay around election time about how trump might try a coup; something about beefing up the Homeland Security enforcement personnel as a loyal "secret police" type force and using a state emergency to extend their jurisdictional zone to include 100 miles from the coast, which includes a large bulk of the populations and our institutions.
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Grant also took a term off, after serving from 1869 - 1877, then didn't even get the party nomination, let alone actually run for a third term in 1880.
 
What worries me is that the more I talk to the people I know on 5th avenue, the more it seems they would be ok with Trump being a dictator. One went so far as to say "Hitler only fucked up when he started putting people in ovens." The people who don't know why authoritarian regimes or dictators are bad are the ones that threaten a democracy. It's the people who don't understand that while every dictator may not actually "put people in ovens", they are all clearly FAR more capable of atrocities than the head of a democracy. This stuff should be fundamental in American culture, but I do think Trump has shaken that bedrock, and THAT is what's dangerous.

It's like a "shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves in three generations" scenario, but with the foundation of democracy. That is to say it's as though the current generation is forgetting why democracy is the best form of government.
 
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Trump won't be dictator, but he may undermine the presidency enough to set us up for a dictator in the not-so-distant future. In addition to undermining the presidency, he is taking shots at (and exposing real weaknesses in) the other pillars - the free press, checks and balances, etc. To be fair, there has been a good amount of strain on the system already due to how quickly the world is evolving. Trump is a buffoon, but he is an extraordinarily powerful buffoon, and therefore, quite dangerous.
 
Demonwolverine said:
What worries me is that the more I talk to the people I know on 5th avenue, the more it seems they would be ok with Trump being a dictator. One went so far as to say "Hitler only fucked up when he started putting people in ovens." The people who don't know why authoritarian regimes or dictators are bad are the ones that threaten a democracy. It's the people who don't understand that while every dictator may not actually "put people in ovens", they are all clearly FAR more capable of atrocities than the head of a democracy. This stuff should be fundamental in American culture, but I do think Trump has shaken that bedrock, and THAT is what's dangerous.

It's like a "shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves" scenario, but with the foundation of democracy. It's as though the current generation is forgetting why democracy is the best form of government.
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Good post. Unsurprisingly, I overstated my case earlier. This is a solid post and more in line with what I should have articulated.
 
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