• UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    We ain’t had “checks and balances” since Allen Dulles and Curtis Lemay had JFK and RFK killed.

    I mean, the Truman-Era Red Scare / Eisenhower-Era “Operation Wetback” / “Operation Eagle Eye” weren’t exactly America’s finest hours, either.

    And you only have to thumb through a few chapters from Hoover back to McKinley to notice a certain historical weight of Fascist tendency baked into the American bureaucracy post-Reconstruction Era.

    Honestly, the more notable moments in US History are when “Checks and Balances” actually work. Like, Nixon actually leaving office before the Senate could impeach him was something of a high water mark for the country, precisely because it suggested these institutions functioned as advertised (eventually). Even Comey threatening to prosecute Hillary was something of a moment for the country, as it suggested a President’s Wife Turned Senator Turned Mega-Bundler Turned Presidential Nominee wasn’t impervious to the consequences of her shitty stupid decisions.

    But then Ford pardons Nixon and Trump fires Comey and you have to come back down to Earth to reconsider whether this game is rigged from the start.

    • Doomsider@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      Oh you mean the checks and balances that kept us honest with all the Native American treaties!? We were always dogshit, there is no good time to look back on.