Anthony Romero, the A.C.L.U.’s executive director, talks about what he thinks could happen if the Trump Administration defies the authority of the courts.
but who the hell is going to step up and actually try to stop him?
To me it seems that there is no actual hard checks and balances, it’s all based on respecting norms, and anyone who doesn’t, that has control of the executive branch, will be very hard to stop.
But that’s what I’ve been warning USA about repeatedly for more than 20 years. USA is a dysfunctional democracy, the 2 party system undermines democracy. Everybody has known that since the constitution was written, but Americans wanted that because they imagine this system to be more “efficient” at making “strong” decisions.
Maybe so, but if it’s at the cost of democracy, those decisions are very likely not good decisions.
I think we can safely say that the US government has failed the people for decades, despite being richer, when you compare to the superior rights and freedoms and quality of life in Europe.
As an absolute fan of USA in the 70’s when I was young, the decline of American society over the past 50 years has been a sad sight.
Everything changed when Reagan was elected over Carter, and the humanist ideal have never come back.
We were the first modern democracy. No one did the math on how FPTP works until over 50 years after the country was founded, and by then it had already produced our two party system. IIRC, they did the math to determine if the US was a fluke, or if that was the natural conclusion of FPTP voting.
This is just willful misunderstanding of history. Several of the founders were against political parties, but since game theory hadn’t been invented yet they put in place a system that would force a two or one party system. Which it quickly did. There have been two parties from the very beginning, just not the same two parties. But arguably, the same two broad positions: the Federalists favored elites, while the DRs favored liberalism.
To me it seems that there is no actual hard checks and balances, it’s all based on respecting norms, and anyone who doesn’t, that has control of the executive branch, will be very hard to stop.
But that’s what I’ve been warning USA about repeatedly for more than 20 years. USA is a dysfunctional democracy, the 2 party system undermines democracy. Everybody has known that since the constitution was written, but Americans wanted that because they imagine this system to be more “efficient” at making “strong” decisions.
Maybe so, but if it’s at the cost of democracy, those decisions are very likely not good decisions.
I think we can safely say that the US government has failed the people for decades, despite being richer, when you compare to the superior rights and freedoms and quality of life in Europe.
As an absolute fan of USA in the 70’s when I was young, the decline of American society over the past 50 years has been a sad sight.
Everything changed when Reagan was elected over Carter, and the humanist ideal have never come back.
We were the first modern democracy. No one did the math on how FPTP works until over 50 years after the country was founded, and by then it had already produced our two party system. IIRC, they did the math to determine if the US was a fluke, or if that was the natural conclusion of FPTP voting.
There was no two party system when the U.S. was formed.
This is just willful misunderstanding of history. Several of the founders were against political parties, but since game theory hadn’t been invented yet they put in place a system that would force a two or one party system. Which it quickly did. There have been two parties from the very beginning, just not the same two parties. But arguably, the same two broad positions: the Federalists favored elites, while the DRs favored liberalism.
Yeah, so almost 20 years after the formation of the U.S…