2mo ago

GOP congressman makes oddly specific proposal to give Trump third term

www.dailykos.com GOP congressman makes oddly specific proposal to give Trump third term

Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles has proposed legislation that would amend the Constitution, allowing Donald Trump to run for a third presidential term. “I am proposing an amendment to the Constitution to revise the limitations imposed by the 22nd Amendment...

New GOP bill would let Trump (but not Obama) run for a third term [another source]

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/new-gop-bill-let-trump-not-obama-run-third-term-rcna189099

74 comments

Americans are just letting these guys touch them right in the constitution.
It’s so wild after all those lies about freedom and the right choice.
- Not really. There's no way this passes. The constitutional amendment process is too complicated even for broadly popular ideas to get through. Anything blatantly partisan like this is DOA.
  There's some other novel legal theories (read: dumb as shit, but our Supreme Court might let it through, anyway) on how Trump could bypass the constitutional term limits, but I doubt even those will work.
  
  Wasn’t there also something in the constitution about insurrection..? Yeah.. I don’t think they care about it.
  
  I'm just waiting for the Supreme Court to declare part of the Constitution unconstitutional.
  
  Can’t they reverse tickets next time so he’s running mate to Vance, then on Jan 22 Vance falls out a window and Bobs your Uncle. Trump gets his third term but was only ever elected twice
- Americans are just letting these guys touch them right in the constitution
  If you have any ideas on how to stop them (that doesn't violate Lemmy tos or get you put on a watch list) please share it.
- It would still have to get through the Senate and 38ish State Legislatures. This isn't a serious thing.
  
  It's never serious until it is.

Can't happen
Congress: A two-thirds majority vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate is required
Constitutional convention: Two-thirds of state legislatures must call for a convention
Ratification
Three-fourths of state legislatures or conventions must ratify the amendment
Each state legislature must vote on the amendment in an up-or-down vote
State legislatures cannot change the language of the amendment
This bill is DOA, it's just (more) political theater
If anything it's an admission of the realization that Trump won't be able to accomplish much of anything in just 4 years at the pace government functions
- Hitler didn't become dictator by playing by the rules. Why do you think Trump will?
  Hitler burned down the German Congress. Trump will do something similar if he can.
  Basically our only hope is if the CIA, FBI, secret service, and us armed forces refuse his orders. Step 1 will be putting his cronies in positions of power and firing anyone who stands up to him.
  Our only hope is that they refuse the firing and take over their respective office, that employees are loyal to them and not Trump. Specifically this is most important in the us armed forces among the generals. But then our best case scenario is a civil war.
  Civil war or dictatorship is on the horizon and there is no stopping it.
  
  He already replaced the leader of the Coast Guard. That's how you start. It's already happening people. Recognize.
  
  That's kind of a separate thought. The topic here is the specific amendment, which will not happen. If he somehow establishes himself in that manner, it won't have anything to do with this amendment that will fail.
- Can’t happen
  Know your history. Pieces of paper don’t mean shit when the right political circumstances arise / are manufactured.
  -edit: case in point, recent article by The Atlantic
  
  People still think they care about the law and it mystifies me.
  You don't need to follow the law when you are the law.
  
  And it has happened in the US. Consider the case of the Bonus Army. Herbert Hoover sicced Douglas MagArthur on US citizens protesting in Washington DC for fair treatment of veterans.
- You're assuming the constitution will still mean something by the time his ~~first~~second term ends. That's exactly why they're pushing all sorts of unconstitutional shit. The executive branch is the one that has the power to enforce or not enforce laws, and the only recourse the legislative branch has is impeachment, which we've seen twice isn't going to happen. Especially when the supreme court is beholden to him too.
  
  You’re assuming the constitution will still mean something by the time his first term ends.
  2021?
  
  If they get to the point of being able to just ignore something like that, they have no reason to amend the constitution anyway because they can just toss it out
  
  Even if it doesn't mean anything, it won't get amended. This discussion is about passing an amendment, not directly about whether Trump keeps hold of power anyway.
  Incidentally, assuming the larger institutions are intact (which is not a given), on the next inauguration day he is no longer head of the executive branch. He doesn't need to be impeached, he's out of office. So new president has authority to act regardless. So if he stays in, it is because he successfully dismantled everything, not because he can continue to wield authority as the executive branch after the conclusion of his term until an impeachment finally throws him out.
- Oh totally, if you are playing by the rules then this can't happen.
  What happens if the GOP appoints him as their candidate in 4 years time? Presumably someone asks the supreme court to weigh in, but given it's current make up, what happens if they say "yeah sure, because democrats are The Enemy" or something?
  It's just people, breaking the rules is always an option. Rules and laws only work if they are enforceable - and at the end of the day, who would be enforcing that he can't run? The military? State militias?
  
  I fully expect them to come up with some kind of insane rationale to try to get around the 22nd amendment and it will come down to a stacked deck supreme court to rule on its constitutionality
  It will be fun to watch the Supreme Court justices try their best to distort reality on an amendment specifically designed to handle instances such as this.
  It's going to be a brain melter for sure
  I think I might just sell everything I own, quit my job and move somewhere low cost and tropical after November 7, 2028
  I wish I had already done it. I just honestly didn't think America would elect a convicted felon. Even just misspelling the word "potato" used to be a deal breaker
  
  State militias
  Yeah, that's who was supposed to be the last resort. Buuuut...our modern "militias" probably would just turn their guns back on us for him.
- Wait till till Carence Thomas and Samuel Alito pic and choose Textual mism and Originalism to say that the ratification that added term limits is not how the founding fathers intended and therefore is note constitutional.
  
  Kind of impossible to rule an amendment unconstitutional.
- You're a lot more optimistic than I am that they'll actually follow the rules, even in how to change the rules...
- It's so we are talking about this and not the incompetent racist fascists who are being selected.
  
  That ship has sailed. You need to catch up. Things are moving fast.
- Now do abortion...oh wait
  THEY SAID THEY EXACT SAME THING THEN
- At least there’s hope.

Meh, I fully accepted that if Trump got a second term then the Supreme Court would find an excuse for him to become a dictator for life. This is just smoke before the flames. They don’t need a measly bill to do this. It’s going to happen through the courts.
Fuck all these assholes.

As a Newsweek report noted, “The language specifies preventing a president running for a third term if they were elected for two consecutive terms.”
For the curious
- But…. Didn’t trump also win in 2020 according to- pretty much all conservatives since then?
  
  By conservative logic, Trump's current presidency should be illegitimate as he already "won" two elections.
- They've been saying for years that Trump won in 2020.
  
  Don’t look for logic from these lunatics.

How about we drop it down to one term only for anyone

I would love a better proposed amendment... Anyone may kick a skip term president's ass after he's no longer president. 3 times.

TIL in U.S. presidents can't run for a third term.
Edit: Okay, in a lot of countries it's the same.

https://youtu.be/Wuwfe3DRJzE

Why won't the Republicans push for an actual Republic in the image of the original "Res Publica"? Two presidents, each with the power of veto over the other, each elected for one year at a time with no ability to serve two years in a row. I'm not saying it would be a better system, but it would be more fun than whatever other bullshit they're cooking up.
The exceptions are notable for being exceptional, thus proving that the rule existed otherwise.

Someone should turn him into a vampire so he can be president indefinatelly! /s

Don’t worry. It’s just to get your undies ruffled. Won’t happen.
- Thats what they said in 2016 about him becoming president. And him winning the 2024 presidency.
  His whole life is based on "never gonna happen", and then he gets away with it.
  
  Literally everyone: "Oh, I was sure someone else was going to stop him."
  
  Yup there’s a large collection of wealth behind that persona.
- Your faith in the system is very misplaced.
  For reference, see the entirety of American history.
  
  He might just throw us into a war in which case we’re fucked

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