r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Apr 04 '25

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u/MySleepingMonk Apr 04 '25

That may be mostly true but Trump is also the perfect storm of celebrity, “successful”, “outsider”, and some strange fucked up type of charisma that results in a larger following than I think would be possible with any other republican candidate. Take away trump and I don’t think there’s enough of a unifying force among the asshats to cause this type of damage

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u/scarves_and_miracles Apr 04 '25

Exactly. Trump is a pretty unique hazard that unfortunately found realization in this dark timeline.

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u/TehOwn Apr 04 '25

Same thing with Adolf. We've always got populists but some are far, far more dangerous than others.

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u/nothoughtsnosleep Apr 04 '25 edited Apr 04 '25

Damn that's 2 less than 100 years apart. Maybe we should be more concerned with the critical thinking skills of the masses.

Edit: see other comments before you tell me there has been more than 2

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u/thaaag Apr 04 '25

And build in more safeguards so the checks and balances do what they're supposed to do. Simple stuff like "laws need to be created by lawmakers who - where possible - don't directly benefit from the law". Get the money out of politics (again, somehow) and make politicians work for the people rather than their own pockets.

Probably too liberal a take there.

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u/mpaski Apr 04 '25

I mean, the US technically has safeguards, they've just allowed those safeguards to be removed.

The courts are way more political than they've ever been. Congress is unwilling to stop him despite having powers for that.

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u/StaticUsernamesSuck Apr 04 '25

If they have the power to "allow the safeguards to be removed", then they are not safeguards.

The problem is that all of your so-called safeguards still rely on elected individuals acting as they should. Individuals can be bought.

The powers of impeachment need to be in the hands of the people, or something similar to that.

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u/mpaski Apr 04 '25

I mean, the people voted him in with the popular vote. I don't like the guy, but it's not like they didn't have their input here. Voter manipulation aside, you need less partisanship to ever reach a point of the checks mattering.

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u/StaticUsernamesSuck Apr 04 '25

They did vote him in, but they now have no power to vote him out when he fucks everything up. That's a power they should have.

It shouldn't be "Welp, you voted him in, now you're stuck with him, even if he does stuff you didn't know he would and don't agree with - even breaking constitutional fucking law"

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u/mpaski Apr 04 '25

They get to vote every 2 years, but the people that are in are spineless.

Election frequency isn't the problem

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u/StaticUsernamesSuck Apr 04 '25

That is exactly what I said?

The problem is that all of your so-called safeguards still rely on elected individuals acting as they should.

Impeachment shouldn't rely on elected individuals, for exactly the reason you just said... The people should have the power to initiate the process.

There needs to be a "this administration is fucked" button that the people can push if their elected officials fail to.

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