The US constitution is in peril. Civil and human rights are being trampled upon. The economy is in disarray.
At this rate, we will not make it through the second 100 days.
Federal judges in more than 120 cases so far have sought to stop Trump – judges appointed by Republicans as well as Democrats, some appointed by Trump himself – but the regime is either ignoring or appealing their orders. It has even arrested a municipal judge in Milwaukee amid a case involving an undocumented defendant.
Recently, Judge J Harvie Wilkinson III of the court of appeals for the fourth circuit – an eminent conservative Reagan appointee who is revered by the Federalist Society – issued a scathing rebuke to the Trump regime. In response to its assertion that it can abduct residents of the US and put them into foreign prisons without due process, Wilkinson wrote:
If today the Executive claims the right to deport without due process and in disregard of court orders, what assurance will there be tomorrow that it will not deport American citizens and then disclaim responsibility to bring them home? And what assurance shall there be that the Executive will not train its broad discretionary powers upon its political enemies? The threat, even if not the actuality, would always be present, and the Executive’s obligation to ‘take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed’ would lose its meaning.
This feels like we’re having a semantic argument. I would say, if Hitler still held power to this day, the country that Germany is would be different from the one it was. And if someone had stated in the 1930s that we were watching the death of our country, even in retrospect, i would agree with that statement. After all, he took total control and threw out the existing form of government. If you’re saying that it’s still the same country just became the new regime continued to use the same name for the same plot of land, I would not be convinced. Completely new form of government -> completely new country.
This is known as the “war of northern aggression” argument in the US south. The argument that the civil war had “nothing to do with slavery” and was “about states rights”. But I hope we all agree that that’s a BS argument. They wanted to continue enslaving humans in what was objectively a crime against humanity, and the other states who chose to wield the federal government’s resources to demand a stop to it were justified in doing so, both ethically and in service of the founding delcaration of the US: a nation where “all men are created equal”. But the federal government would not have been able to do that without support from the northern states. Conversely, today we find ourselves fast approaching a situation where the federal government will have total control over the states, regardless of what they or their “activist judges” want.
Now I agree that a peaceful, democratic secession of a state should not necessarily be precluded by the US federal government, but 1) I understand why that’s not how it currently works, and 2) that’s not the situation we find ourselves in.
I hope we can agree that “different” and “not surviving” is not the same thing!
No it’s not, according to the rules of the federation, no state is allowed to secede according to the constitution!!
You seem to be arguing from a personal opinion of what USA should be rather than reality of what it really is.
Yes that’s true, and it’s not supposed to be like that, but in reality it always was a risk by the way the federation clearly always can trump the states. This is VERY different from EU, which is built with way way higher without comparison better protection of the member states.
Hah, it’s now a discussion of literal existentialism. No, I would say one could reasonably believe that “different” and “not surviving” are symonomous. The form that something existed in did not survive, and now only the new, different form exists. Ship of Theseus. If you replace every part of the old country one-by-one, once every part is replaced is it the same country or a different one? In this case, I think it’s not useful to try to claim it’s the same country.
Again, that’s not what justified the civil war. Again, I agree that a peaceful democratic secession should be allowed, but again that’s neither here nor there. Because here is a federal government ignoring the states’ checks/balances, and there is a crime against humanity that was justified in being stopped by the other states, not a federal government acting outside of the states’ checks/balances.
I am arguing based on the founding doctrine of the US and the concept of Federalism.
The assumption you’re making is that the federal govt was designed to have autonomy of its own separate from the states. But the federal govt was intended to only be a democratic-republically determined representation of the states’ intentions. Trump has the same misunderstanding, which is why he’s using the “activist judges” rhetoric. But by design of the US constitution, the states are intended to have checks on the power of the federal govt. Regardless of how any 2A nut interprets the 2nd Amendment, that is the actual intended purpose: to prevent a federally organized military from staging a coup. The federation was always intended to be a way for the states to hold the power to regulate themselves.
The EU is fine for now, but I could easily see them going down a road to toward the same mistakes the US made. Especially if, in response to the failure of the US, they end up organizing a centralized EU-controlled military, and then all it takes is a bit of FUD to put a demagogue into power and wield that military to oppress.
No If USA falls into a fascist dictatorship, and the fedetal government takes full control, but in another 10 years, the fascist regime is exchanged for democracy again.
How can you say USA didn’t survive, just because they had a bad period?
You are arguing arbitrary points that have no impact on my original claim.
No what I argue is based on the reality that the president has the executive power, and can choose to ignore the checks and balances, because they are poorly designed, and only work when everybody respects them.
But again all that is besides the point.