Yup. This stuff going on is just a quick dopamine hit, with some real collateral damage long term.
In what way?
The move fast break stuff ethos, drain of expertise, consolidation of power, increasing distrust, the inevitable disappointment when things are reversed, things like that.
I’m talking about fallout from how the process is being done, not any specific policy.
By the way, this might be the funniest thing I read all day.
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I see it a little differently. I appreciate his elimination or at least reduction of career politicians. I don’t think we need a ruling class. To me “experience” smacks of entrenchment.
Moving fast is going to be part and parcel to an independently wealthy billionaire. It’s how people like him are, and why they’re so successful. He will push until he finds limits. This is a double edged sword, but it’s why he’s actually accomplishing what he set out to do. Some People may not like what he’s doing, but he hasn’t deviated from his campaign.
Consolidation of power is concerning to me. I appreciate how he’s leveraging it personally. I think immigration law enforcement is long overdue, and it blows my mind Antifa is just now being dealt with for example. But unleashing the military has a bit of a Tiananmen Square feel and while I understand and support labeling Antifa a terrorist organization, and realize the military also protects against domestic enemies, I hate to imagine what the septum ring queers would do if someone mentioned biology 101.
But, the action isn’t unprecedented. During the civil rights era in the south, as the KKK was labeled a terrorist organization, the military was utilized to control local govt too and we came out of that era alive.
I actually really like what he does in this regard. There’s a given law as it is written, the interpretation of it, and its application.
So he tests them. Pushes it all the way to the supreme court. If its a good law, it withstands that challenge and is backed by precedent. If it isnt, it gets declared unconstitutional.
You can tell who all the pearl clutchers that skipped their philosophy 101 course are when they can’t fathom that to challenge a law is good when it withstands the challenge, and even better when it fails.
Biden and many others would be drawn and quartered before they admitted it, but Trump did a great service to all future presidents by instigating clarity and definition to the terms of presidential immunity.
And no, he didn’t send “SEAL Team 6” to take out Pelosi and Schiff.
Yet.
Agreed. He’s utilizing the intentionally designed checks and balances. I think this just looks funny to a society who has grown used to lining up behind a “team” and towing a party line.
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In local news, this image is from a fourth grade classroom at Connor’s Elementary School in Lewiston. 9 year olds don’t need to know any of this stuff, but very sick and twisted adults run Maine right now thanks to blatantly rigged elections.
I had an idea (that will never happen) but thought it might be a fun thought experiment.
What if when you paid your taxes, there was an additional page where you could choose what Departments your dollars would fund, or wouldn’t be used for. You’d still pay the same amount, but could direct where it went.
There would be a “whatever” option also, maybe as a percentage.
I already see a tom of problems, but this is just a hypothetical idea.
It’s a variation of direct democracy, which is exactly what a republic is designed to prevent.
It is similar to the idea of eliminating Congress and putting everything to a citizens popular vote. Or, if you’re a democratic socialist, putting it to a “people’s vote” that anyone in the jurisdiction can vote on, regardless of citizenship status.
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In that case I’d like to point out that populism is also antithetical to a republic.
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It depends what definition you want to use, but if MAGA is “populist”, it is a populism that is generally compatible with the idea of a republic.
Compared to Democrats or swamp Republicans, MAGA is very much about returning power to “the people” while still being Republican. Overturning Roe v Wade is a good example, as is the dismantling of the Department of Education.
Fixed that for ya.
I don’t disagree. US citizens are the only people who should be voting in our elections. It is codified in Maine law, but bypassed by having no mechanisms to prevent noncitizen voting.
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At first I thought your idea was great and I was already thinking about what ridiculous programs/departments I would de-fund and which I’d more readily support….THEN, my brain said “wait a second, hit the brakes and think”….That’s when I realized that your proposal would probably push the country past the breaking point.
If we think about how the various geographical areas of the country are aligned politically, we can then make a pretty strong assumption of what those areas would do; the very liberal/blue areas like California, Portland, Seattle, Minnesota, etc would probably reduce the funding for police , for instance, while ratcheting way up money for illegal aliens, for youth programs related to trans/queer teachings, reduce money for capital expenditures, increase money for local gov’t DEI programs, increase money for housing assistance, food assistance, etc. In other words, social programs/services would see the majority of funding increases while city services like police, fire, infrastructure, etc would lose money. And naturally in the predominantly red cities/states, you would see the exact opposite,
So my earlier statement about such a proposal pushing America past the brink is related to the EXTREME polarization this would bring to the entire country. That would almost inevitably lead to even more arguing, fighting, and each side would tolerate the other side even less. I’d imagine those finding themselves living in areas that went a different direction than they liked would move to areas that better aligned with their politics. And as always, sadly, the low income people would be shit out of luck as packing up and moving is usually never an option for these people since they live hand to mouth already. Hell, this entire process would probably push the country toward a second civil war!
But I DO like the idea of telling the govt. where I would like my tax dollars to apply, as it always pisses me off to see it directed to things that I personally would never send my own money, and I’m sure that there are MANY others who share my same sentiment.
It still can happen by communicating with your representatives in government. That’s not a guarantee, but your likelihood of having your political spending priorities enacted increases the closer you get to local government. All of our woke city councilors do a good job of hiding it by looking normal but they let the cat out of the bag when they speak sometimes and always when they vote. In my personal case, communicating with my city council rep has yielded no votes I agree with in this particular council.
Statewide, the trans stuff in schools is remarkably unpopular, especially the sports, but we still have it somehow. Apathy is a big part why, with Lewiston’s local turnout being abysmal, leaving a WIDE OPEN window for “new voter registrations” that require translators in dozens of languages to always win when it really matters, sometimes a big rush of new voters needing translators right at the 11th hour. Many local school districts in Maine are aligning themselves with Title IX at the federal level, but they tend to have better turnout and fewer ways to always register enough new voters that day to win. They are still subject to a whole bunch of state-level mandates with transgenderism, though, so local power is often limited in that way.
Back to the idea of populism, the trend in Maine has definitely been towards more central control in Augusta and increasingly little local control. Our school budget is severely hamstrung by unfunded mandates, where the state requires all kinds of services and reporting that municipalities must provide, all at great expense. This has a massive impact on the school budget especially, which is why it is now more than double the municipal budget in Lewiston after decades of them being roughly the same until 2011 or so.
About all this would accomplish is making the person designating where his taxes went happy.
They would gather all the tax funds. Then place the designated tax funds in the appropriate area. Once the designated funds were assigned, they would take the remainder of tax funds (which would be a very large percentage of the tax collected) and finish filling the areas to the levels they were pledged to go.
Net result. No difference than before.
United Way tried this trick when there was outrage over their funds going to support the Boy Scouts when they went woke before woke was woke. Some were satisfied. Many rejected United Way entirely.
The retired Colonel I posted above seems to have predicted the “Come to Pete” speech pretty accurately. I haven’t watched it all yet but the clips I’ve seen all sound fantastic.
Yes, this is an ideological purge of Marxists, which is exactly what I voted for. Institutional recapture is an important step towards pushing woke ideology to the margins of society, and from a realpolitik standpoint, the US Military is the most important institution in the world.
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With Voter ID on the ballot in Maine this November, shenanigans are already happening. It is no coincidence that Maine has one of the highest “voter turnouts” in the country. I’m not sure if Voter ID will be too popular to rig, but we’ll learn soon enough.
