Trump has exactly one superpower, and that is to lodge himself into the heads of boomer democrat women and beta men. I'm in my early sixties, and a vaguely recall that Reagan had a similar superpower, but nothing like Trump has.
If Democrats were interested in getting me to vote for them next time around, they'd dial way back on the constant vomiting out their neck holes over Trump, and instead come up with better governing policies. Maybe also dial back on the "anyone who says anything I don't like is a Nazi Fascist"? But, who am I kidding, they clearly are not interested in my vote.
If in your fantasy, there is any, ANY evidence of Trump paying to fuck prepubescent girls, then please explain why the Biden Admin and or Obama admin kept it under wraps??
He's no more a "king" than Obama was, as Obama was the first to truly abuse executive orders. If you want to get rid of the Imperial Presidency, I understand that, but the Dems covered for a dementia patient while somebody (presumably "doctor" Jill) actually acted as president. The real problem for the democrats is that they cheer for terrorists, demand that they be able to chemically and surgically castrate young gay kids over parental objections, and fling open the border to allow low-skill, low-IQ males from cultures that hate us to leech off the government. Virtually every Trump post I see has to admit how many things his administration gets right. THAT is the issue the Dems need to fix.
The Dems and woke lefties have gone insane. And so they cover it up by holding phony protests that are really a combination of 2 minutes of hate and an aging hippy party. While doubling down on theit growing list of insanities. Boring, man...
"For Americans used to merit and competence over loyalty and subservience (and to the pretense that their public servants work for them) this can all represent kind of a sour egg to suck". Great satire after 4 years of the President Auto-pen circus. Try a one-to-one comparison of the cabinet appointees of both Presidents. The progressive cancel culture was the very essence of enforced loyalty and subservience.
I don't buy your King's analogy but would wholeheartedly agree with your premise that it doesn't matter if you like Trump or not, only results matter. If Democrats want to be relevant again, then pick something you can agree on and work with Trump to make it happen. Shutting down the government because you can't have covid era extensions for Obama care and funds for illegal immigrants is a rather poor choice of hills on which to make a stand in a time of 37 trillion dollar deficits.
Until the Democrats come up with a policy other than resisting everything Trump, then they will wander in the wilderness led by the likes of Neusome and AOC.
This is reasonable. I absolutely agree that Democrats need to start running on ideas instead of negative partisanship and personality (particularly as they have no personality)
They called Andrew Jackson a king in his time. Yet the history books would later say that American Democracy begins with Jackson.
Methinks it is the Sir Humphrey Appleby's of this country who are the most upset. Trump is bringing back the elected executive which is written on our Constitution, vs. the civil service system that came later.
The proper check on the president is supposed to be Congress, but today Congressional elections are less democratic than our presidential elections. Self-succession should end for our legislators, and we need a constitutional check on gerrymandering. Then dial back the fillibuster.
Some changes to the Constitution would definitely help:
#1 Repeal the 17th Amendment — this allowed the DIRECT election of Senators. Go back to what it was for the first 120+ years of the Republic — Senators were selected by their respective State legislatures. This was because the Senators were not to represent the PEOPLE of — say — the State of Georgia. They were to represent the state government of the State of Georgia. This also served as a check on Federal power — there’s no way in Hell an “unfunded mandate” to the States was EVER getting through the US Senate. It would also have the effect of removing a TON of money from our politics — no more $50 million campaigns for a Senate seat.
#2 Term limits for all members of the House of Representatives. 4 consecutive terms MAX. But you CAN run and serve a maximum of 3 more terms — but only if 10 years have passed since you were last a Representative.
#3. The Senate has been called “just a “green room” for people who want to run for President.” This is not good for us. Therefore, we need an Amendment which simply states that “No Person is eligible for the Office of President who has EVER been a U.S. Senator.”
I don't want anyone running for office while holding office. Hatch Act all sitting officers. (There was a great guest post on Tree of Woe which I'm too lazy to look up with some of the reforms I pointed to above.)
But yes, bring back indirect election of senators.
My take on term limits: 18 years total service in any combination of House or Senate terms. Any term you are elected to expires on the first day of the 19th year and remains vacant until filled by the election of someone else.
Supreme Court terms are also to be limited to 18 years.
First of all, this is an excellent piece, and you continue to be one of my favorite follows. Two issues, though.
"By his reckoning, they all want to put him prison and kill him. Actually, that’s not just Trump’s reckoning, it’s what’s true. Why wouldn’t Democrats want that?"
Perhaps because he's a duly elected president and they could act like grown-ups about it? (Crazy, I know!)
"If they still lived in a republican democracy, they might even have been doing them well."
We live in a representative republic, not a republican democracy.
I've also endlessly tried to make the point that these people clearly have no idea how monarchy functions they have just overused "tyrant" "Hitler" "dictator" etc
In modern Europe, the only king who was also a dictator was Alexander of Yugoslavia. Dictators more commonly served under Kings.
regardless, even for Democrats I don't know why they went with such retarded messaging on this one. As you said, the US Presidency simply is a more powerful position than most historic Kingships, particularly when you figure what a small part of the country was the demesne. In medieval France the King only controlled small parts of Paris and couldn't even formalize traffic controls or fire codes or that sort of thing [Hugo's Notre Dame de Paris is a quite interesting text for reasons beyond the basic storyline.] It is somewhat common that a Prince or Duke etc would have the powers these people are thinking of...which is why Saudi Arabia and Morocco are the only countries where a substantially powerful monarch uses the name King.
anyway I think it would be kind of funny if Trump did a Napoleon III and launched a coup instead of leaving office and we entered our American Empire era. I've been considering writing about this but while Trump is nothing like Hitler despite all of the comparisons he really has an amusing amount in common with Napoleon III, who wasn't, in the annals of history, a particularly terrible or malicious ruler, but who also was not a particularly good one.
No future president of any party will voluntarily give up the power that Trump has created for himself by refusing to follow historical precedent. He has changed our country for good or ill forever.
There is so much bullshit being written about this no king shit rallies. They are simply meaningless. There will be an election in 2026 and in 2028. Then we will know what direction the country is in and no matter who wins or who loses we will still be a democracy with many flaws!
The comments here do not disappoint.......... The wheels are so off the bus..the bus is so far in the ditch..and nobody seems to be able to know what to do.......
Whoever it was that created that blessing "may you live in interesting times" must not actually have lived in that interesting a time. It's less cool than it sounds!
right I mean for everything they say his cardinal sin with these people is simply his poor decorum. They are obsessed with the liturgy of government and this requires the President follow all sorts of little rules of behavior only the Mandarins even know about.
This is really what I'm getting at. Dems mostly attack Trump for having a style they dislike. His record in some really important areas - war/FP being a biggie - is far superior to that of most Democrats, but they can't see it through their bad feels.
The time to have a No Kings protest was sometime during FDR’s first term. Ignoring the other branches, breaching norms, and generally being as much of a monarch as public opinion will let them get away with is something every “great” president has done since Jefferson signed the Louisiana Purchase.
Brilliant. I was a Bill Clinton Democrat and I'm still a Bill Clinton Democrat culturally. Of course, his economic ideas were complete shite but they sounded good at the time. I am a stickler for interpreting the Founding Documents as I believe these men meant them interpreted. At the time. What I appreciate about Trump is the one thing liberals hate and that is a rollback of an extensive explosion of government. I am all for the Civil Rights Act that prevents legalized discrimination. But, is that all we got? Oh no. How many different laws were made off of that one law? Hart-Celler comes to mind. Legalized special favors. Disparate impact. And, then we had to have more people to police every single Act by everyone. That is not at all what was foreseen. There are tentacles on tentacles of expansion during that decade. Even civil servants get protection from accountability for as long as it takes to spend taxpayer dollars to defend them all. I mean, sheesh. And here's another thing. If the Democrats cared more about the people in this country than they did the next election, they'd be nice to Trump. I mean, the person they see is mostly a media creation. He is a human being. In my lifetime, I've never experienced such an unmoored hatred of a single human being. It doesn't compute for me. I guess I've spent my life around plenty of broken people and there's always a reason for grace. More importantly, do you know how great this country would be if Democrats swallowed their pride and just tried to treat him like a human being? I mean, he wants people to like him. He would meet them halfway with almost anything. The Republicans have been pro-life to the extreme and he made them shut it. If the goal is to make life better for the citizens, they are nuts for taking their position.
Trump has exactly one superpower, and that is to lodge himself into the heads of boomer democrat women and beta men. I'm in my early sixties, and a vaguely recall that Reagan had a similar superpower, but nothing like Trump has.
If Democrats were interested in getting me to vote for them next time around, they'd dial way back on the constant vomiting out their neck holes over Trump, and instead come up with better governing policies. Maybe also dial back on the "anyone who says anything I don't like is a Nazi Fascist"? But, who am I kidding, they clearly are not interested in my vote.
If Ronald Reagan had Trump's ability to turn the Democrats into Milton Friedman there would have been no stopping him.
It's crazy how democrats finally discovered free markets because of Trump.
If in your fantasy, there is any, ANY evidence of Trump paying to fuck prepubescent girls, then please explain why the Biden Admin and or Obama admin kept it under wraps??
Reagan didn't have the mean streak that Trump does.
Trump doesn’t have a mean streak, he’s just a master class troll.
What type of man are you,’David Burse?
He appears to be a logical one.
You didn't mind when you beta GOPtards vomited from your cocksucking mouths about Obama every minute, now, did you, you old fuck?
Thank God, you won't be voting much longer, Boomer.
Spot on.
He's no more a "king" than Obama was, as Obama was the first to truly abuse executive orders. If you want to get rid of the Imperial Presidency, I understand that, but the Dems covered for a dementia patient while somebody (presumably "doctor" Jill) actually acted as president. The real problem for the democrats is that they cheer for terrorists, demand that they be able to chemically and surgically castrate young gay kids over parental objections, and fling open the border to allow low-skill, low-IQ males from cultures that hate us to leech off the government. Virtually every Trump post I see has to admit how many things his administration gets right. THAT is the issue the Dems need to fix.
The Dems and woke lefties have gone insane. And so they cover it up by holding phony protests that are really a combination of 2 minutes of hate and an aging hippy party. While doubling down on theit growing list of insanities. Boring, man...
"For Americans used to merit and competence over loyalty and subservience (and to the pretense that their public servants work for them) this can all represent kind of a sour egg to suck". Great satire after 4 years of the President Auto-pen circus. Try a one-to-one comparison of the cabinet appointees of both Presidents. The progressive cancel culture was the very essence of enforced loyalty and subservience.
I don't buy your King's analogy but would wholeheartedly agree with your premise that it doesn't matter if you like Trump or not, only results matter. If Democrats want to be relevant again, then pick something you can agree on and work with Trump to make it happen. Shutting down the government because you can't have covid era extensions for Obama care and funds for illegal immigrants is a rather poor choice of hills on which to make a stand in a time of 37 trillion dollar deficits.
Until the Democrats come up with a policy other than resisting everything Trump, then they will wander in the wilderness led by the likes of Neusome and AOC.
Dick Minnis
removingthecataract.substack.com
This is reasonable. I absolutely agree that Democrats need to start running on ideas instead of negative partisanship and personality (particularly as they have no personality)
They called Andrew Jackson a king in his time. Yet the history books would later say that American Democracy begins with Jackson.
Methinks it is the Sir Humphrey Appleby's of this country who are the most upset. Trump is bringing back the elected executive which is written on our Constitution, vs. the civil service system that came later.
The proper check on the president is supposed to be Congress, but today Congressional elections are less democratic than our presidential elections. Self-succession should end for our legislators, and we need a constitutional check on gerrymandering. Then dial back the fillibuster.
Some changes to the Constitution would definitely help:
#1 Repeal the 17th Amendment — this allowed the DIRECT election of Senators. Go back to what it was for the first 120+ years of the Republic — Senators were selected by their respective State legislatures. This was because the Senators were not to represent the PEOPLE of — say — the State of Georgia. They were to represent the state government of the State of Georgia. This also served as a check on Federal power — there’s no way in Hell an “unfunded mandate” to the States was EVER getting through the US Senate. It would also have the effect of removing a TON of money from our politics — no more $50 million campaigns for a Senate seat.
#2 Term limits for all members of the House of Representatives. 4 consecutive terms MAX. But you CAN run and serve a maximum of 3 more terms — but only if 10 years have passed since you were last a Representative.
#3. The Senate has been called “just a “green room” for people who want to run for President.” This is not good for us. Therefore, we need an Amendment which simply states that “No Person is eligible for the Office of President who has EVER been a U.S. Senator.”
Just my $0.02.
You make some excellent points, but hardly any of our recent presidents were first Senators.
John F Kennedy. Lyndon B Johnson. Gerald Ford. Barrack H Obama. Joe Biden.
Ford was not a senator.
You’re right. He was a long term member of the House.
You beat me to it
I don't want anyone running for office while holding office. Hatch Act all sitting officers. (There was a great guest post on Tree of Woe which I'm too lazy to look up with some of the reforms I pointed to above.)
But yes, bring back indirect election of senators.
My take on term limits: 18 years total service in any combination of House or Senate terms. Any term you are elected to expires on the first day of the 19th year and remains vacant until filled by the election of someone else.
Supreme Court terms are also to be limited to 18 years.
I
First of all, this is an excellent piece, and you continue to be one of my favorite follows. Two issues, though.
"By his reckoning, they all want to put him prison and kill him. Actually, that’s not just Trump’s reckoning, it’s what’s true. Why wouldn’t Democrats want that?"
Perhaps because he's a duly elected president and they could act like grown-ups about it? (Crazy, I know!)
"If they still lived in a republican democracy, they might even have been doing them well."
We live in a representative republic, not a republican democracy.
Fair points. Thank you, Garrett.
I've also endlessly tried to make the point that these people clearly have no idea how monarchy functions they have just overused "tyrant" "Hitler" "dictator" etc
In modern Europe, the only king who was also a dictator was Alexander of Yugoslavia. Dictators more commonly served under Kings.
regardless, even for Democrats I don't know why they went with such retarded messaging on this one. As you said, the US Presidency simply is a more powerful position than most historic Kingships, particularly when you figure what a small part of the country was the demesne. In medieval France the King only controlled small parts of Paris and couldn't even formalize traffic controls or fire codes or that sort of thing [Hugo's Notre Dame de Paris is a quite interesting text for reasons beyond the basic storyline.] It is somewhat common that a Prince or Duke etc would have the powers these people are thinking of...which is why Saudi Arabia and Morocco are the only countries where a substantially powerful monarch uses the name King.
anyway I think it would be kind of funny if Trump did a Napoleon III and launched a coup instead of leaving office and we entered our American Empire era. I've been considering writing about this but while Trump is nothing like Hitler despite all of the comparisons he really has an amusing amount in common with Napoleon III, who wasn't, in the annals of history, a particularly terrible or malicious ruler, but who also was not a particularly good one.
Hey, Napoleon III let Haussmann build Paris. We need some of that
Right Trump would definitely love to do something like that given the power to
"Even for Democrats I don't know why they went with such retarded messaging on this one."
They've gone Full Retard. Never Go Full Retard.
Napoleon III is a much better comparasion, but less than 0.5% of the population would understand it.
Right, well, if I write an article about it I can explain lol
No future president of any party will voluntarily give up the power that Trump has created for himself by refusing to follow historical precedent. He has changed our country for good or ill forever.
“That which you resist, persists”
Fine. They want it so bad that’s what they get.
I voted for President Trump. It’s been a year now. Leftists have been working around the clock to coronate him.
I give up.
King Trump it is! All hail the King! Hail Caesar!
And all the outrage copy for the NYT the Atlantic the cable news and the WaPo that goes along with all that.
There is so much bullshit being written about this no king shit rallies. They are simply meaningless. There will be an election in 2026 and in 2028. Then we will know what direction the country is in and no matter who wins or who loses we will still be a democracy with many flaws!
The point of this Dennison post is we no longer have a democracy. We have a monarchy.
Which of course, is not true.
Exactly. If we actually had a dictator/king I wouldn't be worried about the midterms!
The comments here do not disappoint.......... The wheels are so off the bus..the bus is so far in the ditch..and nobody seems to be able to know what to do.......
Whoever it was that created that blessing "may you live in interesting times" must not actually have lived in that interesting a time. It's less cool than it sounds!
Uh, that’s technically a curse, not a blessing, and now you know why 😅
The only time I thought I lived in an authoritarian state was during COVID. And the Democrats were the authoritarians.
This is ridiculous. Trump isn’t much different than his predecessors. He’s just more open about it.
right I mean for everything they say his cardinal sin with these people is simply his poor decorum. They are obsessed with the liturgy of government and this requires the President follow all sorts of little rules of behavior only the Mandarins even know about.
This is really what I'm getting at. Dems mostly attack Trump for having a style they dislike. His record in some really important areas - war/FP being a biggie - is far superior to that of most Democrats, but they can't see it through their bad feels.
Your vision of this man is not the reality, no matter how often you wish it so
You're trapped in the photography studio of a shopping mall in 1985. There is no way you are engaged with present-day reality.
The libtards made George Soros their king.
The time to have a No Kings protest was sometime during FDR’s first term. Ignoring the other branches, breaching norms, and generally being as much of a monarch as public opinion will let them get away with is something every “great” president has done since Jefferson signed the Louisiana Purchase.
Brilliant. I was a Bill Clinton Democrat and I'm still a Bill Clinton Democrat culturally. Of course, his economic ideas were complete shite but they sounded good at the time. I am a stickler for interpreting the Founding Documents as I believe these men meant them interpreted. At the time. What I appreciate about Trump is the one thing liberals hate and that is a rollback of an extensive explosion of government. I am all for the Civil Rights Act that prevents legalized discrimination. But, is that all we got? Oh no. How many different laws were made off of that one law? Hart-Celler comes to mind. Legalized special favors. Disparate impact. And, then we had to have more people to police every single Act by everyone. That is not at all what was foreseen. There are tentacles on tentacles of expansion during that decade. Even civil servants get protection from accountability for as long as it takes to spend taxpayer dollars to defend them all. I mean, sheesh. And here's another thing. If the Democrats cared more about the people in this country than they did the next election, they'd be nice to Trump. I mean, the person they see is mostly a media creation. He is a human being. In my lifetime, I've never experienced such an unmoored hatred of a single human being. It doesn't compute for me. I guess I've spent my life around plenty of broken people and there's always a reason for grace. More importantly, do you know how great this country would be if Democrats swallowed their pride and just tried to treat him like a human being? I mean, he wants people to like him. He would meet them halfway with almost anything. The Republicans have been pro-life to the extreme and he made them shut it. If the goal is to make life better for the citizens, they are nuts for taking their position.
Great article!