Comment by _mattyjoe on 02/02/2025 at 17:23 UTC

3 upvotes, 2 direct replies (showing 2)

View submission: If a U.S. president attempted to dismantle democracy or impose authoritarian rule, how would the military likely respond? Would they prioritize their oath to the Constitution or follow orders from leadership?

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I’ll keep it simple, and to be clear, I am happy to have a deeper discussion on this.

The President acts on policy that Congress passes. That means, he must “faithfully” execute the laws as Congress passed them (that comes straight from the Constituion). He also cannot legislate himself, he cannot dictate policy outside of the scope of what Congress passes through law.

Several of his executive orders are just simply illegal, they are not within his authority, and they constitute an attempt to legislate.

Why is this a problem? Because that would make him a dictator; a head of state that unilaterally passes law.

We don’t have a dictatorship in the US. We pass law through Congress, who represent us.

Additionally, the Constitution only gives power to Congress to allocate funds. The President cannot order that funding be ceased for actions that Congress has taken. His order to freeze Federal Spending was also Unconstitutional.

This goes for all present and past actions. Laws that Congress passed previously that he might not like, only Congress can repeal those laws. It’s a process. Trump cannot unilaterally decide which laws to enforce or not enforce. That is not HIS call to make. The Constitution requires the President to “faithfully execute” the law.

To reiterate, these protections are all in place to prevent tyranny, to prevent a dictator from making orders that the country needs to follow.

Trump��s actions just in these areas are fascist. Point blank. He is trying to dictate policy unilaterally. He is showing a disregard for the separation of powers, the constitution, and many other laws already on the books.

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Comment by CHUCK_C1993 at 03/02/2025 at 17:12 UTC

1 upvotes, 0 direct replies

But who is going to stop him when he takes Congress's power as his own? There is no one left to stop him! Those who insist that there are safeguards because of laws on the books are NAIEVE!

Comment by Sneep_Snorp5 at 02/02/2025 at 17:41 UTC

-1 upvotes, 3 direct replies

The executive orders from what I’ve seen have been constitutional. A judge stopped one on a federal funding freeze, but I’m going to give that one some more time before I judge that.

Other orders like pardoning the January 6th rioters was a reaction to their absurd sentences given.

I think a lot of this is a reaction to policy people heavily disliked from bidens presidency; but make of that what you will.

I still wouldn’t call Trump a fascist, because he’s still seems to care about the working class, and because his executive orders can still be striked down or challenged.