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Laelth

(32,017 posts)
Fri Aug 7, 2020, 08:42 PM Aug 2020

DICTATORSHIP

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 that’s a little hyperbolic. Perhaps I am over-reacting. If so, please talk me down, but I see what I see, and it’s 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. He’s the Secretary of the Treasury. That’s 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 President’s orders, we will be living in a dictatorship. Who needs Congress if the President can control the nation’s purse?

John Woo has been telling the President that the Supreme Court’s 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! It’s a republic, if you can keep it.” I suppose 233 years isn’t bad.



-Laelth

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Laelth

(32,017 posts)
3. The Courts are too slow, and they don't want to be involved in political questions.
Fri Aug 7, 2020, 08:52 PM
Aug 2020

I don’t 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)
2. He's not capable of writing a law. Some minion will have to write this up
Fri Aug 7, 2020, 08:50 PM
Aug 2020

He threatens a lot of stuff. Just pulls it out of his ass. Let’s see if he does anything

Laelth

(32,017 posts)
4. If he issues an EO, and the executive branch enforces it ...
Fri Aug 7, 2020, 08:55 PM
Aug 2020

... then he just wrote a law with real teeth, and there’s nothing that Congress can do about it.

-Laelth

mobeau69

(11,033 posts)
6. Trump threatened massive retaliation against Iran and they launched missles anyway.
Fri Aug 7, 2020, 09:02 PM
Aug 2020

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. He’s fucking unfit.

Laelth

(32,017 posts)
8. What if he orders Mnuchin to issue stimulus checks?
Fri Aug 7, 2020, 09:05 PM
Aug 2020

That’s a little different, isn’t it?



-Laelth

mobeau69

(11,033 posts)
11. You're right, it is.
Fri Aug 7, 2020, 09:45 PM
Aug 2020

Iran held him accountable, he knows already the pukes never will. November is our only hope.

Laelth

(32,017 posts)
12. Some of us won't make it to November.
Fri Aug 7, 2020, 09:50 PM
Aug 2020

Not without federal stimulus money. Not without an extended moratorium on evictions. Not without supplemental unemployment insurance.

We’re 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 won’t come soon enough to save us from that dictatorship.



-Laelth

Laelth

(32,017 posts)
9. Biden could restore the republic.
Fri Aug 7, 2020, 09:09 PM
Aug 2020

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)
10. I've had similar thoughts
Fri Aug 7, 2020, 09:13 PM
Aug 2020

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)
13. Practical Response
Fri Aug 7, 2020, 11:11 PM
Aug 2020

All I can tell you is if we do go into a dictatorship, we ain’t 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, it’s guillotine time!

In all fairness, I truly don’t think we’ll see a long dictatorship even if we do become one. It’s Trump. At least the other dictators from republics had the slight benefit of not of being Trump.

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