heartofthebear said:Let me guess. You're an American, correct? And how many other countries have you lived in again?calbear93 said:If you have a better proven form of government that has stood the test of time, would love to read about it.heartofthebear said:calbear93 said:Unit2Sucks said:I agree. It turns out that we rely far more on norms than the rule of law. And when you (you in the general sense, not you cb93) stop pretending to care about comity, behavior, decorum, etc. then the US has a lot less formal protection against autocracy than many people thought we did.calbear93 said:heartofthebear said:Thanks for clarification and, if that is the case, then I certainly think the 14th amendment has bearing for the 2024 election. But I doubt it will matter much in the presidential electoral college. However, it will effect the overall vote and the down ballot races. It could be devastating for the Republicans in congress.calbear93 said:heartofthebear said:I believe the 14th amendment simply allows states to remove him from the ballot. That does not necessarily mean he is removed from the election in that state. Are you sure that the write in candidate votes aren't counted. I know from my work as a poll worker, that some write in candidates votes are counted and others aren't. You have to qualify as a write in via signatures. I think Trump would get enough signatures. I could be wrong about this so it's more of a question not a statement.sp4149 said:If he is disqualified, the same as if he were unqualified (underage, foreign national), votes for him would not be counted.heartofthebear said:
I don't know why you would remove him from the ballot. Can't he qualify as a write in anyway? Wouldn't that just bring out more MAGA voters to write him?
IOW, I think it would backfire.
The real issue is that Trump will most likely be in court and then in prison during the crucial time when he would be campaigning
Some states need to finish their primary ballot in December. This needs to be resolved before the primaries, delaying until after the conventions could be a disaster for Republicans.
Of course the Trump court could screw the pooch by refusing to hear the cases and letting every state decide for itself.
Also, the highlighted portion above is confusing to me. Could you restate that with more specifics so I can understand what you are referring to?
It's not an inclusion on the ballot question. It is a qualification to be a candidate question like age and natural born citizenship. You could no more write in a candidate so disqualified then you could write in Putin and have it count.
It will have to be litigated and I doubt the odds are good that any such litigation will be timely or successful.
There are all of these markers of freedom in a system of government that we used to take for granted and it turns out they don't actually exist. A great example is the historical "independence" of the DOJ. It's simply untrue - Trump and his supporters were very clear in stating that Trump was the chief law enforcement officer and could exert any control he wanted over the FBI and DOJ. They also claim persecution from the DOJ because it's been "weaponized" after they told us that Trump was allowed to weaponize it. Similarly, we talk about an "independent" judiciary but we've learned that our lack of actual laws and enforceability of ethics has rendered any such independents illusory.
These are just a few examples but I'm sure we can all think of a large number. The Constitution is a relatively short framework that leaves a lot to the reader's imagination. Turns out that we heavily relied for a really long time on the "readers" having some sort of common north star and that is no longer the case.
We aren't protected from bad guys on the left or the right, this isn't a partisan vulnerability. The major breach happened because of Trump but could just as easily be true of a democrat. Contrary to all of the hysterical claims by the people who defended Trump's omnipetence, we haven't actually seen any evidence of Biden breaking these sorts of norms during this presidency, but that doesn't mean that he hasn't, couldn't or wouldn't.
We should have a bipartisan agreement on closing a lot of these loopholes but we haven't seen enough enthusiasm from Democrats and it's been absolutely stonewalled by the GOP.
I couldn't agree more on the need to protect safeguards that have protected our democracy for hundreds of years even if not expedient. Hell is paved with good intentions, and I see even here those who may believe they are pursuing higher goals promoting destroying many of those safeguards.
Whether it's filibuster, separation of powers, Supreme Court appointment for life (decrease the need to be political to be re-elected or reappointed), electoral college (state rights and protect against mob rule), senate (state independence) vs house (popular vote), being careful and thoughtful about indicting former presidents (jeopardizes peaceful transfer of power and enhances risk of political persecution), etc. you have seen some of the nonsense even here by allegedly educated folks with no sense of history or the import of law and order, balancing of majority rule with tyranny of the majority, etc. People are too blinded by tribalism and even hatred of Trump to step back and be grown up about the key foundations of democracy. We are still an experiment and a lot of countries have tried and failed due to resorting to expediency. We will survive Trump and this period only if we have principles and not just stupid, expedient, unsophisticated thinking. Otherwise, we will just be another failed experiment, even if one that survived longer than most.
We are a failed experiment cloaked by a high standard of living
I am of the firm belief that, as flawed as America is, we are the best country in the world.
BTW, our form of government in theory could very well be the best. We've never ever gotten close to living up to our form of government. Also what are your metrics for measuring the quality of a country?
By most metrics used to measure quality, the US has fallen considerably over the past half century to far below the best. But, why don't you find me some metrics where the US leads the world.
Yes I am an American. And I express my belief through action by choosing to live here. Like most, I have options. I am not like those who say one thing and do another by mocking America and then choosing not to live elsewhere. I live where I believe is the best despite flaws, including the country, state and city. Why do you live here? It isn't that hard to leave. If you want to argue job, etc., isn't that also what makes this a great country - that a person who could not get a job anywhere else can make a living here and still have time to post how much they don't like it here? How sad of life to have no option but to live where you don't want to live.
The metric? The percentage of people from other countries who want to immigrate here legally or illegally over other countries.