Former President Donald Trump urged members of a crowd in Florida to vote and said that if he wins, they “won’t have to vote anymore.”
Speaking at a Turning Point Action event in West Palm Beach on Friday, Trump, who tried to overturn the 2020 election he lost, delivered a cryptic message.
“And again, Christians, get out and vote!” he said to a cheering audience. “Just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years. You know what? It’ll be fixed! It’ll be fine! You won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians. I love you, Christians! I’m a Christian. I love you. Get out. You gotta get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again.”
I’m barely into politics, my high school teachings of the political system aren’t terribly strong in my mind. All that to ask:
And, if so:
What would need to happen for a president to convert our system to lifetime terms?
What would need to happen for a president to convert our system to a dictatorship/monarchy/whatever? (so we actually never voted again)
Is it at all likely that Trump could make either of those things happen?
P.S. You don’t need to make the 86th comment about how this isn’t cryptic. Shitty headlines should be criticized, but it isn’t adding to the discussion at the point. I mean, look at me, I managed to get through this entire comment and not menti- Oh crap, I’m part of the problem.
Go back and watch Star Wars Episode 3. That’s actually a good description of how a democracy falls to autocracy. The Republicans have been openly dreaming of a “Permanant Republican Majority” since AT LEAST Bush 43’s terms in office. And they’ve been laying the framework since Nixon – a
newsentertainment channel that caters to Right-Winger fantasies, judges who put ideology over legality, partisan gerrymandering that concentrates Republican voters for power and dilutes Dem votes into meaninglessness, and political theories that basically advocate for the dismantling of our political systems if that will keep Democrats out of power even if they have a majority.To answer your questions directly:
Can he do that? Yes. He can. Anyone can.
What would need to happen to convert our system to lifetime terms? There are a variety of ways, but they all boil down to the President doing outright illegal things under cover of a friendly Supreme Court. After all, they granted immunity to ‘official acts’, which we believe is cover for an autocratic takeover of the country.
What would need to happen to convert our system into a dictatorship/monarchy/whatevs? This is just a hypothetical situation. It’s July 2028. Mass incarcerations of Leftists, Immigrants, Muslims, and Minorities have begun and the country is in the throes of a civil war. Polling is reporting that Trump could lose the election, despite disenfranchising the Left’s voting base through various means. Trump announces he’s postponing the 2028 elections 'until things calm down, they have to get much better first before we can have a fair election." People sue. It doesn’t matter what happens in the lower courts, because they’ll appeal all the way up to the Supreme Court. The same 6 Conservative ideologues that said he has immunity for ‘official acts’ will rule that he has the right to suspend the election. And that, my friends, is how Democracy ends, with massive applause from the Alt-Right assholes that Clinton quite rightly fucking called “Deplorable”.
Can Trump actually make either of those happen? Yes. Yes, he can. The framework is already laid out. HK-65 laid it out elsewhere. Essentially, you start by shutting the Other Side out of government. You then take over all the levers of government. Then you set them so you can’t lose. You might need to just waive away the safetyguards that get in your way, and some you might use your lock on government to remove ‘legitimately’. If the 22nd Amendment gets in the way of a Republican dynasty, they’ll have it removed.
TL;DR? Never rely on checks and balances to stop authoritarianism. In the end, the Constitution IS just a piece of paper, and will be run over by authoritarian jerks if that means power.
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The government is run by people, so he just needs a critical mass of followers in important positions in order to gum things up. That’s why the #1 and perhaps only thing he cares about in other people are how much they like him and how loyal they are. Also to him.
Its rhetoric for sure, but there are possible methods to suspend elections. We don’t know what they are yet until a group starts publicly speculating about how it could legally be done. Not that it is impossible, who knows what the future may hold?
I would say its pretty doubtful you could indefinitely suspend federal elections, but cheetoh benito loves to dog whistle to his base.
Not an expert on the US political system, but legislative power, and thus changing the system, is vested in Congress, not the Presidency. So he’d need to get a supermajority there, and rewrite the Constitution. Point is, it’s not Trump that can do it, but a theoretical Republican House and Senate 60% supermajority (or a supermajority of State legislatures).
Look at what happened in Hungary in 2010, that’s a blueprint of that happening. Biden dropping out is good news, since from the outside it kinda looked like the US might have been setting itself up for that kind of thing to happen. I think with Harris running, it’s not realistic the Dems will lose that bad.
That said, he could try another Jan 6th, basically take Washington under military occupation. Then it’s up to which states go along with it and which ones don’t, and you’ve got a civil war.
All he really needs is the supreme court to step in at any point there is a close contest to decide on the outcome. Also, there are only about 1,500 electors. Voting is kind of a sham.
The question was how can Trump stay president after theoretically winning now and reaching his term limits.
I wondee how the SC would argue that one out.