“Unlikely Trump will ever be tried for the crimes he committed,” says ex-Judge J. Michael Luttig

It’s not a hard question, or at least it hasn’t been before: Does the United States have a king – one empowered to do as they please without even the pretext of being governed by a law higher than their own word – or does it have a president? Since Donald Trump began claiming he enjoys absolute immunity from prosecution for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, two courts have issued rulings striking down this purported right, recognizing that one can have a democracy or a dictatorship, but not both.

We cannot accept former President Trump’s claim that a President has unbounded authority to commit crimes that would neutralize the most fundamental check on executive power – the recognition and implementation of election results,” states the unanimous opinion of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, issued this past February, upholding a lower court’s take on the question. “Nor can we sanction his apparent contention that the Executive has carte blanche to violate the rights of individual citizens to vote and have their votes cast.”

You can’t well keep a republic if it’s effectively legal to overthrow it. But at  oral arguments last week, conservative justices on the Supreme Court – which took up the case rather than cosign the February ruling – appeared desperate to make the simple appear complex. Justice Samuel Alito, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, argued that accountability was what would actually lead to lawlessness.

  • @[email protected]
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    28 months ago

    He didn’t say Dems are Republicans, he said they’re conservatives. Not the same thing. However, Republicans are conservatives too.

    • @[email protected]
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      38 months ago

      And yet, it wasn’t explained how Democrats are conservatives, whatever that means. I just hear Republicans are conservative, now this one rando is saying Dems are conservative, what does that even mean, anymore? What does democrat or republican mean if they are being accused of being the same? How are they the same?

      • @ynthrepic
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        8 months ago

        Three US democratic party is fairly “conservative” relative to European social democracies. That’s all.

          • @ynthrepic
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            8 months ago

            You won’t be getting universal healthcare, decent paid parental leave, comprehensive worker protections, or 4-8 weeks’ holiday pay per year for the foreseeable future.

      • @[email protected]
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        48 months ago

        Just to define the term: Conservative = right of center on the political spectrum.

        That “rando” meant that Democrats, which are considered “left” in the US, are actually pretty far towards the right by most other countries’ standards. This is due to the Overton window shifting pretty far towards the right in the US in recent years.

        Republicans are just even further towards the right.