“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.

  • Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    This illegitimate “supreme” court needs to be dismantled and rebuilt with normal justices. There is no place in a modern culture for conservatism or any other hate-based, oppressive ideology.

    Conservatives should not be permitted to participate in government at any level. They seek only to control others and destroy progress. We should be speaking openly about the deadly dangers of conservatism and should exclude such toxic lifestyles from polite society.

      • Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        This is truly the only possible way. But, damn it would be nice to not have conservative pieces of shit anywhere near a position of authority over the normal people.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      normal justices

      I’ll believe one when I see one. The profession is simply drowning in Federal Society freaks and Ivy League snobs.

      Conservatives should not be permitted to participate in government at any level.

      They’ve got a plurality, at least in the economic strata that control all the material wealth. I don’t know how they stop participating in government while still retaining control of all this property.

      • Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        . I don’t know how they stop participating in government while still retaining control of all this property.

        Excellent point. Historically, an infestation of unchecked conservatism has never been cured peacefully.

      • EsheLynn@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        7 months ago

        Elaborate, please? How are Democrats Republicans, and if they aren’t, what is the difference? I genuinely don’t understand.

        • ebc@lemmy.ca
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          7 months ago

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

          • EsheLynn@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            7 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@lemmy.world
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              7 months ago

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

            • ebc@lemmy.ca
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              7 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.

        • Drivebyhaiku@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          It sounds like the poster is looking at “conservative” by it’s more objective view. Conservative is often a brand more than a strict political position since it has connotations of fiscal austerity, calm and measured or more “traditional” in value than party X.

          Conservatism outside the brand however has a political throughline that aggregates around a few specific ideas. Generally speaking what they are actually conserving (once you bust through the rhetoric that usually tries to disguise it) is the idea of heirachy and legitimizing pre-existing power structures that stack power vertically rather than scattering it horizontally.

          Not all Democrats are highly “conservative” but those who aren’t don’t tend to do well internally inside the party long term. They do however like to trot them out when allowing for starry eyed dreaming hour because it’s good for their image. The main party throughline is kind of middle of the scale. It’s not to say they can’t be forced to be less conservative by circumstance since as long as they are more “Progressive” in ways that align with that branding pattern than their opposition then they are bound to need to back that image up from time to time to get to keep that spot in the minds of their audience as being “left of center” .

          But “Progressive” just like “conservative” has shallow surface level brand connotations that have nothing to do with the political compass.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        You can’t tell me that anything like a Conservative Democrat exists, much less that they control the leadership positions within the party. I won’t believe it.

      • Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        I sure do.

        Neoliberals are conservatives. They have just a bit more tact than Republican conservatives, but they are still conservatives by every developed international standard. The Dems have a couple progressive members, but the majority are neoliberals, unfortunately.

        We don’t have a progressive party. We have a conservative party and a more conservative party.