Legal experts: "Shameful" Supreme Court put US one vote away from "the end of democracy"
"Unlikely Trump will ever be tried for the crimes he committed," says ex-Judge J. Michael Luttig
It’s not a hard question, or at least it hasn’t been before: Does the United States have a king – one empowered to do as they please without even the pretext of being governed by a law higher than their own word – or does it have a president? Since Donald Trump began claiming he enjoys absolute immunity from prosecution for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, two courts have issued rulings striking down this purported right, recognizing that one can have a democracy or a dictatorship, but not both.
“We cannot accept former President Trump’s claim that a President has unbounded authority to commit crimes that would neutralize the most fundamental check on executive power – the recognition and implementation of election results,” states the unanimous opinion of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, issued this past February, upholding a lower court’s take on the question. “Nor can we sanction his apparent contention that the Executive has carte blanche to violate the rights of individual citizens to vote and have their votes cast.”
You can’t well keep a republic if it’s effectively legal to overthrow it. But at oral arguments last week, conservative justices on the Supreme Court – which took up the case rather than cosign the February ruling – appeared desperate to make the simple appear complex. Justice Samuel Alito, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, argued that accountability was what would actually lead to lawlessness.
You do realize democrats are conservatives right?
Elaborate, please? How are Democrats Republicans, and if they aren't, what is the difference? I genuinely don't understand.
It sounds like the poster is looking at "conservative" by it's more objective view. Conservative is often a brand more than a strict political position since it has connotations of fiscal austerity, calm and measured or more "traditional" in value than party X.
Conservatism outside the brand however has a political throughline that aggregates around a few specific ideas. Generally speaking what they are actually conserving (once you bust through the rhetoric that usually tries to disguise it) is the idea of heirachy and legitimizing pre-existing power structures that stack power vertically rather than scattering it horizontally.
Not all Democrats are highly "conservative" but those who aren't don't tend to do well internally inside the party long term. They do however like to trot them out when allowing for starry eyed dreaming hour because it's good for their image. The main party throughline is kind of middle of the scale. It's not to say they can't be forced to be less conservative by circumstance since as long as they are more "Progressive" in ways that align with that branding pattern than their opposition then they are bound to need to back that image up from time to time to get to keep that spot in the minds of their audience as being "left of center" .
But "Progressive" just like "conservative" has shallow surface level brand connotations that have nothing to do with the political compass.
He didn't say Dems are Republicans, he said they're conservatives. Not the same thing. However, Republicans are conservatives too.
And yet, it wasn't explained how Democrats are conservatives, whatever that means. I just hear Republicans are conservative, now this one rando is saying Dems are conservative, what does that even mean, anymore? What does democrat or republican mean if they are being accused of being the same? How are they the same?
Three US democratic party is fairly "conservative" relative to European social democracies. That's all.
And what does that mean?
You won't be getting universal healthcare, decent paid parental leave, comprehensive worker protections, or 4-8 weeks' holiday pay per year for the foreseeable future.
Just to define the term: Conservative = right of center on the political spectrum.
That "rando" meant that Democrats, which are considered "left" in the US, are actually pretty far towards the right by most other countries' standards. This is due to the Overton window shifting pretty far towards the right in the US in recent years.
Republicans are just even further towards the right.
In lay terms, without referring to graphics, what does that mean? ELI5, please? People keep saying left and right like it means something.
Man, you're in a politics community, left and right is like basic knowledge. I'm happy to educate, but did you even google it? If not, do that first and then I'll be happy to help clear stuff up, but please put in at least a little bit of effort.
From Wikipedia:
Also from Wikipedia:
You can't tell me that anything like a Conservative Democrat exists, much less that they control the leadership positions within the party. I won't believe it.
I sure do.
Neoliberals are conservatives. They have just a bit more tact than Republican conservatives, but they are still conservatives by every developed international standard. The Dems have a couple progressive members, but the majority are neoliberals, unfortunately.
We don't have a progressive party. We have a conservative party and a more conservative party.