Photo (cc) 2016 by Gage Skidmore
I’m spending a few days in Graceland with my daughter, an Elvis fanatic who’s wanted to visit for many years. But I want to make sure you’ve read The New York Times’ astonishing report on Donald Trump’s explicit, publicly stated plan to convert the presidency into authoritarian one-person rule. Here is a free link.
As you’ll see, Trump would eliminate any meaningful congressional oversight on the grounds that such oversight would somehow violate the separation-of-powers provision in the Constitution. At the same time, the president would be free to ignore spending directives passed by Congress. I would call it a path to dictatorship except that we would presumably still have elections. Oh, wait.
Trump has a non-trivial chance of being elected president in 2024. Everyone who’s concerned about the future of our country needs to read this.
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THE Anonymous Tipster
Dan,
What I find confounding is that if Trump’s proposals are even theoretically viable then it seems to me the following:
The Framers FLED from Imperial rule. It has always been my assumption that the US Constitution was supposed to be a stalwart bastion against any authoritarian challenge.
Ever since Trump took office, I have been startled, time and again, as to how that Ogre can make attempts at, or actually succeed at, measures that either defy the Rule of Law or otherwise challenge the basic principles of how I defined Democracy or perceived Democracy.
Either I have been harboring a Naivete that I never realized I had or else the Framers neglected to put in more formidable safeguards that should have squashed fetid Hubris in its path.
What am I missing?
Best,
Brett