17 July 2023

How to build an autocracy

Donald J. Trump and his allies are planning a sweeping expansion of presidential power over the machinery of government if voters return him to the White House in 2025, reshaping the structure of the executive branch to concentrate far greater authority directly in his hands...

Mr. Trump and his associates have a broader goal: to alter the balance of power by increasing the president’s authority over every part of the federal government that now operates, by either law or tradition, with any measure of independence from political interference by the White House, according to a review of his campaign policy proposals and interviews with people close to him.

Mr. Trump intends to bring independent agencies — like the Federal Communications Commission, which makes and enforces rules for television and internet companies, and the Federal Trade Commission, which enforces various antitrust and other consumer protection rules against businesses — under direct presidential control.

He wants to revive the practice of “impounding” funds, refusing to spend money Congress has appropriated for programs a president doesn’t like — a tactic that lawmakers banned under President Richard Nixon.

He intends to strip employment protections from tens of thousands of career civil servants, making it easier to replace them if they are deemed obstacles to his agenda. And he plans to scour the intelligence agencies, the State Department and the defense bureaucracies to remove officials he has vilified as “the sick political class that hates our country.”..
“Our current executive branch,” Mr. McEntee added, “was conceived of by liberals for the purpose of promulgating liberal policies. There is no way to make the existing structure function in a conservative manner. It’s not enough to get the personnel right. What’s necessary is a complete system overhaul.”
The strategy in talking openly about such “paradigm-shifting ideas” before the election, Mr. Vought said, is to “plant a flag” — both to shift the debate and to later be able to claim a mandate.
More information at The New York Times. Image credit Anna Moneymaker.

13 comments:

  1. That actually sounds like some good ideas. It is pretty obvious that a lot of our agencies are way out of control and do need to be controlled in some manner and conform to the original intent of our founding documents. Whether or not the voters will agree that Trump is the one to do this is of course up to those voters.

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    1. We should not be interested in perpetuating the desires of slave owners and people who didn’t think women or people who didn’t own land should vote. Times are very different from what they were 240+ years ago. They were people with some bad ideas the same as there are now. I think it makes far more sense to work for the greater justice and equality for all people than to deify people or ideas from a long time ago.

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    2. The living should not be governed by the dead. Jefferson believed in generational re-drafting of the Constitution for this reason.

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    3. There will always be large flaws in our government, because people are imperfect and the policies are too. But that's no excuse to impose a dictatorship, and anyone looking to establish the regime described above will declare himself president for life - game over.

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  2. And this would be a stepping stone to his ultimate goal of being "president for life."

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/democracy-post/wp/2018/03/07/trump-as-president-for-life-thats-no-joke/?utm_term=.9c0b74d01503

    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/04/world/asia/donald-trump-xi-jinping-term-limits.html

    https://thehill.com/homenews/media/376748-scarborough-trump-wasnt-joking-about-wanting-to-be-president-for-life/

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  3. Arresting your leading opponent to prevent autocracy

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    1. There's a system in place where if you don't want to get arrested avoid doing crimes. He dun all the crimes.

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    2. More people should run for President. The precedent setting....

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  4. What scares me is millions of people can't see how dangerous this clown is.
    I doubt there's anyone hasn't had a negative experience with some branch of government (IRS, DMV, school board) but to not see how much you benefit from our government on all levels is shortsighted.
    Founding documents? Your founding document (birth record) said you were less than 2 feet long. Should you be prevented from growing?
    xoxoxoBruce

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    1. It irks me when people describe Trump as a clown. That is exactly how a lot of people described Hitler in the 1930's for exactly the same reasons.

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  5. "Arresting your leading opponent to prevent autocracy" is not what's happening in the United States.

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  6. Clown; noun
    1 - a comic entertainer, especially one in a circus, wearing a traditional costume and exaggerated makeup.
    (entertainer...traditional costume... exaggerated makeup... bingo)
    2 - A person not to be taken seriously.
    xoxoxoBruce

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