Oh!
I didn't see that since I absolutely cannot imagine him holding up in office for another almost 5 years. (Yes, that's how long he would have to make it to finish up a hypothetical second term.)
Imho, he will step down after the 2026 midterms at the absolute latest.

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Jan 17 2024 11:25am

This is why people are voting for Trump. The question is whether he's competent enough to do it. DeSantis understands the problem far better, but his chances now are effectively zero.

Yeah lots of people want a fascist government.

Yourself included.

You shouldn't advertise it if you want to win though. You're playing your hand too early.

Think you don’t understand that we’re living in a fascist government right now with controlled media groups that cut what you can and can’t see and a sitting president using the doj to go after a political rival. I’m sorry that you don’t understand that Biden is only one step away from being Hitler.

Dismantling the administrative state is not the same as fascism. And many folks will interpret his comment about how he's "not gonna be a dictator, except on day 1" as tongue-in-cheek, meaning that he intends to exact revenge against his enemies, but otherwise govern like a normal president. (Wether that's a reasonable interpretation is a different question...)

All in all, opinions about Trump are probably so set in stone by now that rhetoric will not change a lot of votes. People have made up their mind about him. He imho has a firm floor at 45% of the popular vote, and a firm ceiling at around 49%.

People who compare Trump to historical fascists are without a doubt idiots, but it's neither here nor there. Dismantling administrative bureaucracies is not a hallmark of fascism, and asserting popular authority over bureaucratic institutions is certainly democratic.

To be fair though, delegitimizing and gutting democratic institutions is a hallmark of fascism. Assume that Trump has successfully dismantled the administrative state - is it really a stretch to assume that he wouldn't stop there and instead try to also beat Congress, the media and the courts into submission? I don't think such efforts would get very far, but not for a lack of trying.

When we talk about centralization of authority, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the group, and regimentation of society and the economy you're going to find a lot more commonalities with the present day Democratic party than you are with Trump. Covid and "green" economic planning are two prime examples. Aggressive militarism is an indispensable part of fascist dogma, but Trump's quasi-isolationism doesn't check that box either.

Does Trump wish he were a dictator? I'm not inside his mind, so I don't know, but there are plenty of dictators in the world today and very few (or no) fascists.

This post was edited by bogie160 on Jan 17 2024 03:09pm

Gutting and delegitimizing are negative connotations that are applied unjustly. In the corporate world it's expected that every few years as the economy contracts, as the company overestimates growth, etc. trimming will happen. This year for example huge rounds of layoffs are happening and will happen, my bank is expected to lay off something like 20k people. There shouldn't be a stigma around leaning government institutions that have decades worth of built up bloat. I worked for the federal government in the past and it was by far the most waste-filled job I have worked in. Literally heard managers talking about using up funds close to end of year, with the sole reason of not having that funding cut next year.

This post was edited by ofthevoid on Jan 17 2024 03:20pm

I'm totally on board with Trump dismantling the administrative state. That's fat which can and should be trimmed, as you say. Particularly in the present day when the administrative state has become increasingly partisan and insubordinate.




I neither claimed to be against Trump going after the administrative state, nor did I deny that the contemporary Democratic party has grown a strong authoritarian and collectivist streak.

Still: there is an important distinction between a democratically president cutting down non-essential parts of the executive which serve at his discretion, and the president going after other democratic institutions which are coequal to the presidency, rather than subordinate. It is a very reasonable assumption that Trump will not make this distinction and thus check one typical box of fascism, even if he does't meet a lot of the other criteria. Hence, likening Trump to historic fascists is not as far-fetched as you made it out to be. I ultimately disagree with the notion, but it's not coming out of thin air.