But as those opponents strategize their response, it is vital that they see the important truth that there is no going back to the status quo ante. President Trump and Elon Musk really have altered the structure of things. They’ve taken steps that cannot be so easily reversed. If American constitutional democracy is a game, then they’ve flipped the board with the aim of using the same pieces to play a new game with their own boutique rules.
And so the president’s opponents, whoever they are, cannot expect a return to the Constitution as it was. Whatever comes next, should the country weather this attempted hijacking, will need to be a fundamental rethinking of what this system is and what we want out of it.
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I’m mostly disappointed how castrated the US system is to react at all. This is like a dead body finally bursting and the local wildlife just accelerating decay.
A lot of people working within the system are going to have to make a choice if they are loyal to the people or status quo. Will they continue to overlook corruption to save themselves?
I’m afraid this has already been answered because all that lead up to this moment was paved with corruption and greed that favored elites and not the common people. Meanwhile the common people of the US are ok with ignoring this theft or just simply fighting with each other. Which was the plan all along. Keep everyone distracted well the rich and powerful gut the nation.
If Congress can’t rid these agencies of Elon’s techno-kids, there is no point to fed workers staying if they can just block stuff from “above” you.
A 19 year old with the handle “BigBalls” has all of our social security numbers, and a lot more data more important then that. Another has control of federal payment systems and can make the government bounce a check so to speak.
Honestly, this authoritarian takeover of the US government is the biggest thing happening in most of our life times so far. Shocked that this is not dominating news all over the world. I’m not even American.
It’s a century defining moment for sure. It’s what everything has been building up to so far
How rich. Fuck the NYTrash. They’re a primary reason why this creep has been normalized.
- The New York Times’ obsession with Trump, quantified
- NY Times editor: Not media’s job to prevent Trump from winning
- Not Reporting on Trump as a Threat to Democracy Is Also a Threat to Democracy
- NYT’s Predictable Advice for Kamala Harris: Go Right
- As Constitutional Crises Mount, US Press Sleepwalks Into Autocracy
Agreed, but the statement
And so the president’s opponents, whoever they are, cannot expect a return to the Constitution as it was. Whatever comes next, should the country weather this attempted hijacking, will need to be a fundamental rethinking of what this system is and what we want out of it.
Is very true and libs need to understand that. Decorum is broken.
Decorum has been broken since Montana’s congress kicked out an elected transgender woman under the guise of decorum.
Or when bush declared war under false pretenses. Or when reagan ratfucked Carter out of an end to the Iranian hostage crisis. Or when MLK Jr. Was assassinated. Or countless other examples of rightwing terrorism. “Decorum” has only ever been a means to silence progressive voices.
The American Experiment has a result. It failed.
As a European living in Canada, it seems like outside of the States there’s a lot of talk about figuring out how to just carry on without America. And this is going to sound harsh, but TBH even when the US being more chill it’s still kind of a pain in the ass to other countries around the world. There’s always some war that they start and expect everyone else to get involved in or something like that, and for the last decade or so they’ve been flipping between sensible people and Trump every 4 years which makes the whole country wildly unpredictable to deal with. It’s hard to get any sort of international agreement going when it takes a year or two to negotiate, and you know it’s just going to get tossed out a couple of years later anyway.
Also, as a non-American if you complain about the president or say something like “You guys should vote for Harris” during an election, there’s always a swarm of Americans who show up and tell you to butt out and mind your own business, but they don’t seem to get that it is our business because when you elect someone like Trump it fucks up the world. I’m sitting here in Canada, wondering when the tariffs are going to kick in or if America is going to try an annex us, whether the US is going to start a war with the EU over Greenland, or if they’re going to seize the fucking Panama Canal in the next couple of years, which are all things that the president of the USA has openly talked about doing. Not to mention there’s an unelected ketamine-addicted billionaire Nazi running around installing servers in all the government offices with nobody stopping him, who’s also talking about overthrowing the UK government and trying to get the AfD elected in Germany, so who knows what that’s going to do around the world.
it is vital that they see the important truth that there is no going back to the status quo
The status quo was already shit and widely unpopular with everyone except the wealthiest…
It wasn’t enough to motivate more people to vote for a moderate than trump.
We shouldn’t be focused on trying to bring back the status quo we had under Biden. Because if we do, we’ll lose another election
Yeah it’s ruined now. Whatever results it will never be the same again. Hopefully better in the long run, but looking pretty bleak right now.
Ignore and move on. Just another shitty piece of NY Times propaganda.
Let the bridges we burn light the way. There is no going back, but that doesnt mean it has to be terrible. People have dealt with tyrants since time immemorial and we’ll do it again.
The only way the US political environment becomes healthy again is either through a Renewal, or through a new system. I say Renewal because the reality is that the old republican guard was right when they said the federal government was becoming too powerful, Trump proved it and is wielding this power to its fullest extent. We need to claw back presidential power, restore state sovereignty and overturn Citizens United, among other minor changes to the system the Founders left us.
That is the “fix” what is already there option. The other, better but more harmful in the short term option, is to completely form a new system. But there’s no way the current division will be overcome without huge changes a la New Deal (which is actually one of the main causes of this current crisis).
Hmm Mirror Universe Calvin Ball
