CaptainExplosion said:
Nighthawk117 said:
Don't worry about the Donald, He'll be gone in two years no matter what. |
If that doesn't work, we have...other ways.
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I will start by saying that I am no fan of President Trump.I disagree with much of what his administration has to offer with regards to policy (and I believe some of it has been quite damaging to the US and to certain groups of people in the US) and I believe he is greatly degrading the office of the President. His supporters may disagree with my stance and that is totally fine as everyone has a right to their own opinion.
However, I also do no not like what your reply is suggesting (and that includes your reply that you wish he was somehow forcefully removed from office). Your method is going to drive devision and polarization in a country. It is going to drive the people that voted for him because they were disenchanted to more radical extremes, and it will set a bad precedence. In essence, what you desire will further contribute to the problem and create more issues with it.
I look at Trump not as the source of the problem and certainly not as a solution but rather as a symptom of deeper issues. Which includes economic inequality, economic degradation in certain regions within the US (trade deals that disproportionately aide in the development of one part of society at the cost of other parts, which spurs on resentment and anger in the areas that are left behind), dismantling of New Deal era protections for workers (both within and outside of the government). Neither the Republican nor the Democratic parties are working to fix these issues, instead US politicians are tactfully engaged in their divisive culture wars that has polarized US society (white versus black/brown; rural versus urban; diversity versus nativism; men versus women; etc.) which allows them to score short-term political points while people suffer.
Beyond the socioeconomic issues (which I believe are the most substantial), you can look at the democratic system itself in the US. Lets start with the House of Representatives (in both US Federal Government and individual states), where Democrats and Republicans have been gerrymandering in order to make safe seats for themselves. You also have the Citizen's United decision by the Supreme Court that disallows the government from setting campaign funding limits with regards to donations from various organizations and associations (ironically this decision was made based on the interpretation that caping donations by the government will stifle free speech; when in reality, this allows wealthy individuals and organizations to gain even more influence over the government at the cost of individuals that have less). Beyond that we come to the questionable independence and supposed non-partisan aspect of the judiciary branch of government, and more specifically the Federal aspect of it where a partisan President nominates a Judge (often one that shares the political views of the President as opposed to being non-partisan) that has to be confirmed by a partisan Senate; how can you get Federal Judges that act independently from the other two branches of the government and are independent based on this system (as of right now, the US Supreme Court is essentially just as partisan as the legislature)? Finally, we have the electoral collage, which has on several occasions, including with Trump, produced Presidents that have not won the popular support of the nation.
I feel the long-term broad solution to the US's current political malaise is to focus on the problems I described above. The good news is that there are numerous grass roots organizations that people can join to get active in addressing these types of issues and there are existing and emerging politicians willing to take on these issues. However, what you propose, is in many ways a roadblock because it will drive already disenchanted people towards more extremes and it will ultimately not solve much. Now don't get me wrong, I do believe that President Trump ought to be held responsible to the letter of the law if he is found to have colluded with Russia or if he performs any other illegal action such as overstaying his mandated term. However, he was elected through the current system and ought to be allowed to serve his mandate so long as he does not violate the law. As for those that do not support him, there are many ways to build a good civic platform to counter him and politicians like him on in the future (I provided a list of some long standing socioeconomic and democratic issues that could be used as a basis).
