Axulus
Veteran Member
Ezra Klien had a very good monologe destroying the argument you often hear from MAGA that there was no real damage done to our country/democracy in Trump's first term, so it is equivalent of Trump Derangement Syndrome to keep going on about the danger of a second Trump term.
He puts it in the context of one of Trump's most unique and characteristic traits: his disinhibition. Pretty much everyone agrees he has almost zero impulse control. It is one of the traits MAGA love about him: he will say whatever is on his mind with no filter.
But it is also one of his biggest flaws as a decision maker. A flaw which is getting worse as he ages.
In his first term, he surrounded himself with more traditional government bureaucrats who believed in upholding the constitution and doing what's best for the country was more important than being obidient to Trump. They were able to restrain him from his impulsive and destructive behavior by not obeying him and disuading him from his worst ideas.
Some of these include the following:
Ordering the military to shoot the George Floyd protestors in the legs, even the peaceful ones.
Telling FEMA to stop sending money to California for the wildfires because they didn't deserve it.
Asking the US military to drop bombs on drug labs in Mexico.
Ordering the justice department to open and publically announce a fake investigation into election fraud.
Ordering the justice department to prosecute Comey and Hillary.
Ordering Pence to not certify Biden as the election winner.
None of these were done because the adults in the room said no, they will not obey these commands.
Among many, many others. The book "the toddler in chief" documents hundreds of such instances of the people around Trump having to restrain him and disobey his many crazy ideas and orders.
MAGA calls these people the swamp since they are stopping him from doing what he wants. JD Vance has called it anti-democratic when unelected officials decide not to obey the democratically elected president.
This time around, these kind of guardrails will be mostly absent. Donald Trump values obedience to himself highest among all other traits, and he has surrounded himself with such people much more so this time around. It's why he says he needs generals like what Hitler had, blindly obedient in his mind. JD Vance was chosen in part because he said he would've done what Mike Pence didn't do regarding the certification of the election. His advisors are all coming up with plans to staff the top positions full of loyalists. He will almost certainly have control of the senate with 50 or 51 Republicians as the overwhelming likely scenario to advance his cabinet positions (or just install acting ones when the senate stalls). He also now has effective criminal immunity granted to him by the Supreme Court for his official orders.
It is truly insane to not see the danger of a 2nd Trump presidency. Many dozens of former Trump staffers and cabinet officials have said exactly that. The people who were not anti-Trump liberals, many of whom agreed with his MAGA movement, who worked for him directly and know him best, are all sounding the alarm.
See the full Ezra Klien monologe here:
He puts it in the context of one of Trump's most unique and characteristic traits: his disinhibition. Pretty much everyone agrees he has almost zero impulse control. It is one of the traits MAGA love about him: he will say whatever is on his mind with no filter.
But it is also one of his biggest flaws as a decision maker. A flaw which is getting worse as he ages.
In his first term, he surrounded himself with more traditional government bureaucrats who believed in upholding the constitution and doing what's best for the country was more important than being obidient to Trump. They were able to restrain him from his impulsive and destructive behavior by not obeying him and disuading him from his worst ideas.
Some of these include the following:
Ordering the military to shoot the George Floyd protestors in the legs, even the peaceful ones.
Telling FEMA to stop sending money to California for the wildfires because they didn't deserve it.
Asking the US military to drop bombs on drug labs in Mexico.
Ordering the justice department to open and publically announce a fake investigation into election fraud.
Ordering the justice department to prosecute Comey and Hillary.
Ordering Pence to not certify Biden as the election winner.
None of these were done because the adults in the room said no, they will not obey these commands.
Among many, many others. The book "the toddler in chief" documents hundreds of such instances of the people around Trump having to restrain him and disobey his many crazy ideas and orders.
MAGA calls these people the swamp since they are stopping him from doing what he wants. JD Vance has called it anti-democratic when unelected officials decide not to obey the democratically elected president.
This time around, these kind of guardrails will be mostly absent. Donald Trump values obedience to himself highest among all other traits, and he has surrounded himself with such people much more so this time around. It's why he says he needs generals like what Hitler had, blindly obedient in his mind. JD Vance was chosen in part because he said he would've done what Mike Pence didn't do regarding the certification of the election. His advisors are all coming up with plans to staff the top positions full of loyalists. He will almost certainly have control of the senate with 50 or 51 Republicians as the overwhelming likely scenario to advance his cabinet positions (or just install acting ones when the senate stalls). He also now has effective criminal immunity granted to him by the Supreme Court for his official orders.
It is truly insane to not see the danger of a 2nd Trump presidency. Many dozens of former Trump staffers and cabinet officials have said exactly that. The people who were not anti-Trump liberals, many of whom agreed with his MAGA movement, who worked for him directly and know him best, are all sounding the alarm.
See the full Ezra Klien monologe here:
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