Revenge: analysis of Trump posts shows relentless focus on punishing enemies
Revenge: analysis of Trump posts shows relentless focus on punishing enemies
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington documents former president’s threats against perceived political opponents
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I was born after Watergate, but I've read enough about the era to know that when it was revealed that Nixon has an 'enemies list,' it was a massive scandal. There seemed to be a general consensus that was not something a president should have.
Fast forward to 2024 and Trump.
I guess when your enemies list isn't a secret one, it's fine?
Hot take: I also think that such a list is not something a president should have.
Then again I think having a president with so much power is a silly idea in the first place.
If you think a president has too much power now, if Republicans get their way, you ain't seen nothing yet...
If Trump wins, it may well be the last free election the US will see
Even if he doesn't, if there isn't a massive landslide for Democrats, it's still looking shaky.
True, it's not like conservatives will stop being conservatives
Honestly with the internet, we might be able to live in the first technologically viable direct democracy. I’d be curious to see a proposal for how that could be implemented.
Direct democracy sounds like a horrible system for national governance, though. The average person has nowhere near the capacity to be informed enough on a wide range of issues to make good decisions. You need specialists with deep domain knowledge to guide policy decisions, not lots of laypersons.
Our elected representatives aren’t specialists with deep domain knowledge either. Ideally you have specialists in a specific role as drafters of legislation, administrative people appointed to filter through the bills, but the final vote goes to the people instead of Congress. That way you don’t get fiascos like abortion rights where you have a small group of people controlling us despite overwhelming support.
No they aren't, but at least they'll typically be working with and advised by people who do have that domain knowledge. And yeah, I could see a system working where there's basically a veto vote for the people.
Yeah I’m not pretending I’ve thought deeply about my proposed system. But the people at very least deserve the ability to have a direct hand in legislation. Politicians are not scared enough of their electorate.
I used to agree that people should be able to vote directly on issues. Not sure where I land anymore. We seem way more vulnerable to propaganda than one would have expected.
If the status quo somehow carries on for another decade I wouldn't be surprised if the 20% to 30% of extremist nuts becomes 50% or higher.
Wish I had a solution.
Unfortunately, all the problems that exist in the population also exist for legislators. Turns out they are extremely vulnerable as well!
I don't know if I would trust an internet where a guy played a long con with xz Utils development to engineer a back door into Linux systems with accurately tabulating votes.
The issue is that society has degraded to the point where fucktards are coddled.
Nixon did not have an entire cable "news" propaganda channel. I was stuck in a restaurant with Fox News and wow, it was nothing but pro Trump, dunking on Biden, blaming everything on George Soros, and insisting the Trump conviction was nothing while hunter biden's trial is big news. And few people in the room thought anything was wrong with this...