Election years might be a time of hyperbole, yes, but there is nothing the least exaggerated in the idea of Donald Trump running not for president but for dictator — and not for one day. None other than the Biden-Harris HQ account flagged this article, which is by the Heritage Foundation. The Heritage Foundation may have been a legitimate conservative think tank at one point, but no more. It is right-wing lunacy all the way. None other than Viktor Orban paid a call on them when he was in the states visiting Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
I smell #RogerStone.
— Pyramid45 (@PYRAMID45) March 29, 2024
Lost in the Left’s endless babbling about Donald Trump’s alleged threat to democracy is a very simple but inconvenient truth: Trump’s re-emergence as the Republican presidential nominee in 2024 is a triumph of democracy.
Not only did Trump secure the nomination following his defeat in 2020—a rather incredible feat in and of itself—but did so in spite of every obstacle the mainstream media, the Republican establishment, and the lawfare apparatus have put in his way.
The primary voters and caucus-goers who chose Trump did so in spite of January 6, the prosecution of the former president, or even the popularity in some MAGA quarters of Ron DeSantis. They chose him because they damn well felt like it.
This is democracy in action: The voters surveyed the scene, tuned out the noise, and selected the man the rest of the world loves to hate. What could be more democratic than voting for your preferred candidate against the advice—the warnings, the threats, the fear-mongering—of your betters?
Yet, even if Trump returns to the White House this November, the Twenty-second Amendment will bar him from standing for re-election in 2028. Ratified in 1951, the amendment is largely seen as a kind of constitutional course correction following the four consecutive presidential terms of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
What follows next is the usual sophistry and screwy logic that we have come to know from MAGA lo these past eight years. And yes, they are actually going to try to convince you that the 22nd Amendment against more than two terms is a bad amendment, like prohibition was. Uh huh.
As the primary season has shown us, the Republicans have not moved on from Trump—yet the Twenty-second Amendment works to constrain their enthusiasm by prohibiting them from rewarding Trump with re-election four years from now.
This is plainly unfair. Indeed, there has long been support for axing the Twenty-second Amendment due to the artificial limits it places on voter choice. Many popular presidents have agreed. In 1985, the Washington Post reported that Ronald Reagan supported repealing the amendment, saying in private remarks that the lame-duck label being applied to his second term left him feeling “handicapped.” In 2016, Barack Obama told David Axelrod that he was sure he would have coasted to a third term if such a thing were permissible: “I am confident in this vision, because I’m confident that if I had run again and articulated it, I think I could have mobilized a majority of the American people to rally behind it.”
The case of Donald Trump, however, makes an even more forceful ethical argument against the Twenty-second Amendment and for its repeal: If a man who once was president returns, after a series of years, to stand again for the office and proves so popular as to earn a second nonconsecutive term—as Trump seems bound to do—to deny him the right to run for a second consecutive term cuts against basic fair play. If, by 2028, voters feel Trump has done a poor job, they can pick another candidate; but if they feel he has delivered on his promises, why should they be denied the freedom to choose him once more? […]
Conservatives have gritted their teeth for years as the Left, in their hatred of Trump, has attempted to pervert the meaning of first the Twenty-fifth Amendment and, more recently, the Fourteenth Amendment. The case for repealing the Twenty-second Amendment is far more straightforward: As with Prohibition, it is simply a matter of finding the will to get rid of a bad idea that needlessly limits Americans’ freedom.
This is prima facie evidence, if you ever needed it, that we are on the precipice of seeing Nikita Khrushchev’s admonition from 1956 come true: “We will take you over without firing a shot. We will destroy you from within.”
There's a reason Trump cozies up to Putin. Putin helped Trump win his first term, and now Trump owes him. It was never about 'America First', it's always been about satisfying the dictator he's indebted to. pic.twitter.com/sXZ6AX747n
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) March 29, 2024
This is what you’re seeing. Putin is using Trump to take over America without firing a shot. And the GOP is all for it. Enthusiastic, in fact.
Mike Johnson signals he will enact Trump’s Project 2025 if they win in November: We’re gonna make big, radical changes. Those first 100 days, aggressive changes to the country pic.twitter.com/cfqtXBddiI
— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) March 29, 2024
Radical, aggressive changes. Yes. The plan is to make America into a fascist dictatorship and end her as a democracy. You can’t get too much more radical than that. Putin’s behind it, the GOP is completely on board. Ask Alexander Smirnov, who was James Comer’s “star” witness. He’ll explain it to you.
“My own view is that this planet is used as a penal colony, lunatic asylum and dumping ground by a superior civilization, to get rid of the undesirable and unfit. I can’t prove it, but you can’t disprove it either.”
Christopher Hitchens
The Rs passed the 22nd Amendment because of Roosevelt’s popularity. Then they found Eisenhower and realized they’d shot themselves in the foot. Not for the first time…
Well, the 22nd Amendment did not apply to Harry Truman. Per the second sentence of Section 1: “But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.” So, if Truman had wanted to, he could’ve run and been elected every presidential election until he died.
As for Eisenhower, I really doubt he would’ve considered running for a third term and I really doubt even his most ardent supporters would’ve voted for him, you know, considering those little medical issues he had. Hell, even when he was considering a second term, supporters were questioning his health (he’d suffered a heart attack in late 1955 and was still technically recovering when he made his decision to run again). Yes, Eisenhower’s second election was a slightly more impressive victory than in 1952 (about 1.5 million more votes or about 1.5% greater margin) but I really doubt Ike really wanted another term (hell, he wasn’t even committed to having Nixon as his VP for a second term until the spring of 1956).
Hey there moscow mike, if you think you’re going to enact anything that destroys our nation such as that 25 bilge, think again. WAY before you can even think about proposing the bill we will rise up against you a-holes and take your asses out.
People, if you’re not preparing for this take-over of our nation, you’ll be in chains soon after the election. More powder, primers, and bullets folks. Oh, and don’t forget G. Gordan Liddy’s advice on where to aim.