Politics XVI: Democracy In The Balance

[ahah]

Nov 21, 2024 17:58:54 GMT -4 Spinderella said:

Nov 21, 2024 16:16:51 GMT -4 chitowngirl said:

From Huff Post- “The Florida congressman resigned his seat in Congress last week on the heels of his nomination. He had just been elected to another two-year term representing Florida’s western panhandle. But Gaetz only resigned from the current Congress, not the one he was just elected to, meaning he could return to office in January. Gaetz hasn’t made any announcement yet about his future plans.”

Gaetz reportedly wrote in his House resignation letter that he did "not intend to" take the oath of office in the new Congress. By federal law, Gaetz could get his seat back in Congress if he were re-elected during a special election.

So, he would have to be re-elected, he can't just take it immediately with the new term starting. I don't know...good people of Florida's 1st, do you really think he cares? He was super quick to quit you all merely a week after you elected him back into office and then decided to bail on the AG bid. I think ya'll need to start fresh. Especially now that more women are coming forward. He's looking a little murky as a good candidate.

I think it will all come down to whether or not anyone else runs for the seat. The district is VERY Republican, and very MAGA. There have been years the Democrats don't even bother to run a candidate. I don't know how many other Republicans in the district would run against Gaetz if he decided to run for it again. My mother lives in the district, and she's refused to vote for him for a number of terms. But so far, no one has had the name recognition to push him aside.

[cremetangerine82]

Trump announces Pam Bondi as new attorney general pick hours after Matt Gaetz withdraws.

Bondi has long ties to Trump. During the 2016 Republican National Convention, she joined in “lock her up” chants aimed at former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and was then part of Trump’s defense team during his first impeachment trial.

After Trump lost the 2020 election, Bondi was involved in efforts to overturn the results, falsely claiming that Trump had “won Pennsylvania” during a news conference in Philadelphia.

So, another Trump loyalist.

[Spinderella]

If people think that Trump is smart enough to come up with someone so quickly to replace Gaetz, they're dreaming. This is something that is all pre-planned with the Heritage foundation and all the other cronies. With his pick for FCC, I'm pretty confident things are going to be very difficult to get real news from at some point.

Project 2025 wants to change up the First Amendment (and so did Trump during the first term) and I think now is the time they're going to act. It's just insane to know how thin of a thread this country has been hanging by and how quickly it can be changed in an instant.

[ahah]

I think the desire to change the first amendment is real among many. But how do you think they're going to go about getting the majorities required to amend the Constitution when we can't even get 60 votes for basic legislation both sides agree on?

[ladyboy]

Can they do it through the courts? Create a case that goes to SCOTUS and interprets the amendments that way?

[lizziebeth730]

Well, it starts with Congress proposing a joint resolution... that's not an impossible ask. Then it goes to the states with the legislatures (or state conventions if that's what the resolution requires) voting for it to pass. Once 38 of 50 vote yes.. *poof* it's done. Harris won 17 states. They only have to potentially move 5 states in their direction and that's it folks, that's all she wrote.. literally because there won't be free press anymore

[phillipa]

Yeah the whole changing the first amendment thing is not going to happen. It's the Constitution guys. You need 2/3 of both houses of Congress, then you also need 3/4 of the States to ratify it. The Constitution is almost impossible to change. SCOTUS also has no power to change the Constitution. They can interpret the constitutionality of laws, but if something blatantly goes against the Constitution they will overturn it. This is what would happen if Trump theoretically wanted to run for a third term. He can't. There's zero ambiguity in the Constitution about that.

Frequently SCOTUS doesn't even agree to hear cases. And for all of the uproar about SCOTUS, Kavanaugh, Coney Barrett, and Gorsuch have all voted against things Trump (and the GOP) wanted at various times during their tenure (admittedly this is rare for Gorsuch, but it has happened). They're conservative for sure but saying they always do what they're told is disprovable by their voting records. And John Roberts is also conservative but he is not a Trump appointee and sides with the liberals at a not infrequent rate.

I know plenty of people here will call me naive for believing these things. All I can say is, some of the things that are being talked about here, I'll believe it when I see it.

[ahah]

Nov 22, 2024 9:59:33 GMT -4 lizziebeth730 said:

Well, it starts with Congress proposing a joint resolution... that's not an impossible ask. Then it goes to the states with the legislatures (or state conventions if that's what the resolution requires) voting for it to pass. Once 38 of 50 vote yes.. *poof* it's done. Harris won 17 states. They only have to potentially move 5 states in their direction and that's it folks, that's all she wrote.. literally because there won't be free press anymore

This assumes that if a state went for Trump, they support everything that Trump stands for. Living in one of those states (Georgia) I can assure you it is not the case. Georgia has conservative leadership -- but it's also leadership that will tell Trump no, hence the whole Fani Willis prosecution.
You've also got states, including the blue wall, where the margin of victory was very narrow, the state leadership is either mixed or led by Democrats, and where the vote for Trump is perceived to be to some degree a vote against areas where Harris went further left. I don't see voters who are against a party that tells them what pronouns to use or wants to change the gendered rules of the Spanish language to get on board with limiting the ability of citizens to speak out about what the government is doing.
Do you honestly see a Gretchen Whitmer or Josh Shapiro supporting a Constitutional amendment to put limits on the press because voters in their state who voted for them also voted for Trump?

[Spinderella]

Nov 14, 2022 12:55:00 GMT -4 phillipa said:

I know plenty of people here will call me naive for believing these things. All I can say is, some of the things that are being talked about here, I'll believe it when I see it.

I just feel like this is a very different time we're in right now. If not the First Amendment, what about them changing term limits for presidents? Would people possibly be on board with that? I don't know, just call it a gut feeling. It's one that I would like nothing more than to be wrong about. But with the threats to congress ("Don't agree with us? Consider your primaries over.") about their time left if not jumping on board fully, might control what happens to a lot of things that come across their desks. If they're more fearful about themselves, and not the country...we might have some unfavorable outcomes.

[lizziebeth730]

Whitmer and Shapiro? No, but I'm not overly familiar with their state legislatures. And while there's SOLIDLY blue states, NY, NH, MA, ME NJ all have had republican governors. For as much as the GOP likes to claim MA is a giant bastian of liberal suckitude, because we only send democrats to federal office, we got ourselves a real run of Republicans- after Dukakis we had Weld, Celucci, Swift, Romney (a brief interlude of Patric) and then back over to Baker. And I live in a REAL PURPLE town and my state rep, who is a democrat, is anti choice, and very conservative on issues and he's really benefitted by having a bunch of clowns put forth by Diehl to run against him (the first was a woman who claimed to be in finance- she was a bank teller. The next was a guy who was so young, I have bras older than him, who claimed to have years of private business experience- he'd graduated from college 2 years prior to running, and the third was a guy who no one ever really heard of until like 2 weeks before the election when he started posting things like "stop and shop is closing stores" yea, but the closest one was in Brockton which is 80 miles away and also we all go to DeMoulas you weirdo)