Heard back from a friend of mine whose advice I regard pretty highly. He's in Canada now.
I asked, back in November just after the election, what kind of "learnings" can we absorb from this election, and what does it mean about 'operating' in a democracy? And I sent him a little song-and-dance presentation, said, tell me what you think.
He said, as long as the most powerful man in the country can impose his will over the courts, there isn't rule of law anymore:
"As for your attached materials, my fundamental problem is that I do not believe that the United States federal government operates under the rule of law, if you define the rule of law as the opposite of the rule of man. The key definitional distinction is whether, when the most powerful man breaks the law, it is the man or the law that bends. In the case of America today, it is very clear. In light of that, I do not see a peaceful path to the transfer of power. Many current Trump officials are criminals, and the peaceful transfer of power is a personal threat to them. If that, in turn, is the case, then this thing gets pear-shaped pretty fast. In other words, I do not see how elections matter anymore if one side has been extremely clear that they will not accept any election result that they do not win, and now they have ample legal and kinetic power to enforce that. "
I've been thinking about that a lot today especially since the Wisconsin Supreme Court election results got announced.
I don't know that he's wrong because of one election result.
I recall, in fact, that Musk's million-dollar giveaway still happened, just under very slightly different wording, and he still hasn't been punished for either that or his previous pay-to-vote scheme back in the 2024 campaign season.
And Trump announced two days ago that he thinks he can run for a third term; given the Trump administration's open defiance of the courts, it is entirely possible that he'll just ignore the law and do it.
Maybe it's just more complex than all that, I don't know.
And between my friend and Tim Snyder now both leaving the country it's sort of got me thinking about a lot.
For Trump to run again, either an amendment repealing the 22nd would have to be rammed through in record time, or an Article V convention would have to be held. Neither is going to happen.
Right. However, it is worth mentioning that I did see a video thumbnail on youtube from what I could easily surmise was a lefty channel saying that America might not recover from Trump, so even if he leaves gracefully come the end of his term (which I think is what will likely happen), I can see him being scapegoated for a lot of things that happen during his successor's term even if the pendulum swings back in the blue court's favor.
Exactly.