General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDICTATORSHIP
Mark your calendar. This day, August 7, 2020, the 233-year-old republic known as the United States of America ceased to be a republic and transformed into a dictatorship.
OK. Perhaps thats a little hyperbolic. Perhaps I am over-reacting. If so, please talk me down, but I see what I see, and its not good.
Using the breakdown in negotiations over a stimulus package as his excuse, President Trump has declared that he must AND WILL govern by executive order (fiat) in order to address the multiple emergencies that this nation now faces. My position is that he can actually do it if he has the backing of his cabinet and the Republican Party. I suspect he will try.
What happens if Trump orders Secretary Mnuchin to issue stimulus checks to the American people. Mnuchin has the power to do it. Hes the Secretary of the Treasury. Thats where all the stimulus money originates. If he does what he is told, Congress power over the purse will be cut. If he refuses on the basis that the President lacks the power to appropriate money, he could save the republic. Which way do you think Mnuchin is going to go? If he follows the Presidents orders, we will be living in a dictatorship. Who needs Congress if the President can control the nations purse?
John Woo has been telling the President that the Supreme Courts recent ruling on DACA gives the President the right to craft law by executive order. Naturally, this is exactly what Trump wants to hear. Who needs Congress if the President can write laws? Trump declared today that he intended to address multiple, national emergencies via executive order. If his agents (members of the executive branch of the federal government) carry out those orders, which they might, without regard to Congress, then we will be living in a dictatorship. All the incentives for cabinet ministers, upper-level (political) bureaucrats, and Republicans, in general, favor backing and implementing executive orders that distribute stimulus money, extend housing moratoriums, provide supplemental unemployment insurance, and defer student loans.
Trump, it appears, intends to govern by fiat. He intends to blame recalcitrant Democrats for forcing him to do so. If his executive branch officials and the Republican Party (generally) back him in this dramatic seizure of power, I can not see what we could do to stop it.
I quote Benjamin Franklin. Congratulations! Its a republic, if you can keep it. I suppose 233 years isnt bad.
-Laelth
malaise
(267,455 posts)over and over. The Con is history
Laelth
(32,017 posts)I dont see any way that the Courts could or would order Mnuchin NOT TO ISSUE stimulus checks, for example. For that matter, I can easily imagine Mnuchin defying the Court and issuing the stimulus checks even if the Court ordered him no to.
I do not have faith that our Courts can save us from tyranny.
-Laelth
Walleye
(30,573 posts)He threatens a lot of stuff. Just pulls it out of his ass. Lets see if he does anything
Laelth
(32,017 posts)... then he just wrote a law with real teeth, and theres nothing that Congress can do about it.
-Laelth
Walleye
(30,573 posts)mobeau69
(11,033 posts)Big bad bully backed down. Said our troops only suffered headaches. We need an ad about that fiasco. Pulled out of the treaty cause it was an Obama achievement. Hes fucking unfit.
Laelth
(32,017 posts)Thats a little different, isnt it?
-Laelth
mobeau69
(11,033 posts)Iran held him accountable, he knows already the pukes never will. November is our only hope.
Laelth
(32,017 posts)Not without federal stimulus money. Not without an extended moratorium on evictions. Not without supplemental unemployment insurance.
Were sitting on a boiling kettle of agony, here. I fear that the people are getting desperate and might be amenable to a dictatorship if it meets their immediate needs.
I worry than January 2021 wont come soon enough to save us from that dictatorship.
-Laelth
soothsayer
(38,601 posts)Laelth
(32,017 posts)I suspect he would if he could, but I also suspect that Trump will do whatever he can to secure his dictatorship and prevent Biden from ever becoming President.
And the American people? Hard to say, but I imagine that most Romans just stood by and hoped for the best as they watched their republic turn into an Imperial dictatorship. If the crisis that precipitates the change is bad enough, most people are hesitant to rock the boat.
-Laelth
Nexus2
(1,261 posts)Or at least this could soften the ground to the idea. Earlier polls indicated that quite a few Republicans and Trump supporters already found the idea of a President 'unhindered' by Congress and the courts (IOW: A dictator) appealing.
LaelthsDaughter
(150 posts)All I can tell you is if we do go into a dictatorship, we aint gonna put up with it. We take the money and off the sons of! I mean kill. What have they done for us? Nothing good except the money? The money also puts us in a dictatorship? Well, its guillotine time!
In all fairness, I truly dont think well see a long dictatorship even if we do become one. Its Trump. At least the other dictators from republics had the slight benefit of not of being Trump.