This is the very essence of the difference that should exist between a President and a King. From Federalist 69:
The President of the United States would be liable to be impeached, tried, and, upon conviction of treason, bribery, or other high crimes or misdemeanors, removed from office; and would afterwards be liable to prosecution and punishment in the ordinary course of law. The person of the king of Great Britain is sacred and inviolable; there is no constitutional tribunal to which he is amenable; no punishment to which he can be subjected without involving the crisis of a national revolution. In this delicate and important circumstance of personal responsibility, the President of Confederated America would stand upon no better ground than a governor of New York, and upon worse ground than the governors of Maryland and Delaware.
The failure of the Republican party to support this kind of check on Presidential power is why we’re having this crisis now.
Is it time to petition the military to intervene?
When I was little, long before I had a reason to want it to be true, I had this theory that the Secret Service, which is obviously not a secret, was called that because they had a secret mandate: If the President ever gets really out of pocket and goes for dictator powers, it’s their job to execute him as a traitor.
Anyway, I doubt it’s true, but I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately.
The Praetorian Guard killed some emperors, but that isn’t an official duty of the Secret Service. Of course, it wasn’t an official duty of the Praetorian Guard either.
I feel like the more likely scenario is if someone really wanted to do it, they wouldn’t, but they’d let it happen by inaction if someone else did it.
Oh shit, I didn’t see that shooter.
You just made me hope for a second, you beautiful bastard
Not yet. Trump saying something horrifying while it not being entirely clear he understands what he’s actually saying or how anything in government is supposed to work is what we call Monday around here.
You don’t want the military intervening they might decide to run things in a manner efficient for the end user instead of the rich people!
Historically, this is not usually the result of the military taking over a country. Usually the general who did the coup becomes the new rich person, thanks to all the political power.
Odds that even one of Trump’s generals would be worse for the country? Most people who make it to that upper eschelon in the military have some sense of duty, honor, a moral compass, and intelligence. There certainly is SOME ‘failing upward’ in the military, but a LOT less than business and politics.
Unless they are a person of integrity. Say for instance George Washington, Nicola wanted him to rule, he said nah bro!
We just need the general who removes tyrant trump to be a man who believes in his oath to defend our nations constitution written by we the people, passed down for generations and defended by the blood of those who came before his tenure. I don’t doubt there is such honor still among those who serve. After all it is their oath to defend our construction from enemy’s both foreign and domestic. Our dictator and chief fits both.
Let me tell you the story of the best officers I ever followed into combat. These guys were super sharp, and they were literally rewriting the book while we were fighting. The first guy took money meant for reconstruction and gave it to his Iraqi mistress. The second guy left classified intelligence reports out while dating a journalist.
These guys are human. Expecting super human restraint because of their oath is unrealistic.
I get it, but all it takes is one general with integrity, im sure thats the same odds as finding one in general population. Is it a long shot, maybe. You can still get people to do the right thing for the wrong reasons. A national hero they would become after the dust settled. Not just a footnote in some dictators playbook. Ambition can be a powerful motivator. Even if they decided to take the rains, i doubt they would be doing a worse job than our current admin. Could be wrong though. Our democracy died 30 years ago and has been a charade puppet show for the rich for far too long. What do we have to loose. I think we all know that our elections are over already.
Well yeah, I’m just making bad jokes over here.
i want to do than cross my fingers for this. i wonder what the proper channels really are.
There’s no proper channels for this. Either the military leadership is motivated or they’re not.
how do we motivate them?
My thought: Point out to them that there is no “permanent winner” here in terms of ending violence unless they stop Trump.
The people believing in his agenda are often aimless, and very often extremely violent. See the January 6 rioters, who continued to be aggressive after being pardoned, as well as fringe groups going on the attack now that they think Trump will pardon them. Emboldening them any further may mean years and years of continuing to deal with such violent offenders, AND without the support of experienced FBI staff able to track threats on a national level.
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic
It’s the domestic part we have to concern ourselves with, and thankfully the Joint Chiefs seem to still think he’s an idiotic shitbag
As a veteran, I remain 100% convinced that the Pentagon has and has always had a plan for “a dictator becomes president.” However, also as a veteran I’m sure there is a very specific checklist of things that must be true for that plan to be activated.
As a low ranking veteran I don’t have any better guess than anyone else what things are on that checklist, but I feel sure it exists, and that if we aren’t seeing them mobilize it’s only because it’s an extreme event and the conditions required to execute on that plan are many.