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  • 29 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
Cake day: June 15th, 2023
  • dhork@lemmy.worldtopolitics @lemmy.world•Trump won’t rule out seeking a third term in the White House, tells NBC News ‘there are methods’ for doing soEnglish
    4·
    15 hours ago

    But there is nothing that prevents him from taking a position in the line of succession.

    The Constitution left the matter of Presidential Succession up to Congress, and Congress set it up in the Presidential Succession act. That act includes clauses that say it only applied to those “eligible to be President” and not to those who have a "failure to qualify* for the office.

    So, simply putting Trump in the line of succession is not enough to get around the Constitutional bar on a third term. He would still be ineligible. There is precedent to enforce this, too: there have been a handful of cabinet secretaries over the years who were not natural-born citizens, and they were not included in the line of succession. Madeline Albright is the one I remember; she was born in Prague and was not eligible despite being Secretary of State.

    With all that said, succession is determined by Congress and I suppose they could just pass a law to do whatever they wanted. They’d have to blow up the Filibuster for it. Would they? It would surely get challenged in court but even if the Supreme Court disallowed it, would Trump listen? The Court would need to find a way to enforce it.

  • dhork@lemmy.worldtopolitics @lemmy.world•Donald Trump Has Invented Something New and Chilling - Chaos FascismEnglish
    7·
    2 days ago

    It’s important to note that the reason this can happen here is because of how our checks and balances in the government are structured. None of them are automatic, and the GOP has ensured they will not be used.

    Congress can function as a check on the Executive, but only by passing laws (and, to a lesser extent, Senate approval, of appointments). So Congress has to take action to rein in the chaos (and, in the case of legislation, override a veto). If Congress takes no action, it cannot function as a check on the Executive at all. Essentially, their lack of action is permitting the chaos just as surely as what Elon Musk is doing.

    Similarly, the Courts can function as a powerful check on the Executive, but they rely on someone challenging something done by the Executive, and that starts off a lengthy review process. Individual judges have a lot of discretion, but their rulings get reviewed and it can take a while for appeals to be exhausted. Our court system also relies in all parties having respect for its process and judgements, and it’s clear that this administration does not have respect for rulings it doesn’t like. So even if a ruling against it goes all the way through the appellate process and is “binding”, they are very likely to ignore it anyway, and start another lengthy review.

    Both of these checks on the Executive have been effectively neutered, one by complicity and one by contempt. So Trump and Musk can do whatever the hell they want. It is always easier to tear down than build up. Even if, by some miracle, Congress changes hands in 2026, the Federal Administrative State will be a shell of itself, and while we set about to rebuild it Trump and Musk will loot it for their own enrichment.

    The next Federal election is critical, precisely because the President is not on the ballot, so all the elections will be for Congress, and hyper-local. Musk has already proven he can buy a national election. If he is successful at buying 50 state elections as well, he may build up enough power in enough states to call for a Constitutional Convention, where they can rip the whole thing up and start over. I think that is Musk’s endgame, where he can turn the US into Apartheid-era South Africa, totally legally.

  • dhork@lemmy.worldtopolitics @lemmy.world•Trump's order to "protect" voting could disenfranchise millions.English
    2·
    5 days ago

    There is some context missing here. Other posters have pointed out some things, but what I want to point out is that there are several states where the GOP is actively fucking with the voter rolls. It is very easy for someone’s voter registration to be “challenged” for bullshit reasons, and often these challenges are made strategically to target likely Democratic voters in poor places, who may not have the spare cash to get the additional RealID proof that this EO demands.

    So, even though it might seem reasonable on its face, in combination with other GOP priorities it’s obvious that the end goal is to harass poor voters.