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Al-Khwarizmi | on: Trump wins presidency for second time
I see this claim often but (from my position as an outsider, not American) it doesn't look very plausible: Trump was already president once and that didn't happen, why would it happen now?
bojan | parent | next
It did begin then. The Supreme Court of the US is since then conservative and will now probably remain so for many years to come.

Further, he needed the second term then, so he couldn't go all crazy as he needed the people to vote for him once more. Now he doesn't have that limitation any more.

fallingknife | root | parent
The SC being conservative is the result of a democratic process, not a threat to it.

If Trump wanted to be dictator, why didn't he just do all that stuff in his first term and not worry about reelection in 2020?

wholinator2 | root | parent
Things take time. Erosion of trust and the creation of political apathy in the populace takes time. Also, as has been said, he did try things but was continuously pushed back on by the actual politicians he put in his cabinet. He's also 8 years more elderly and emboldened. His cult of personality has essentially stabilized into an American institution. He's also had an entire administration to place judges and pass legislation that favors his power plays. In general it seems like you're asking, why might it take more than 4 years to topple a democracy, which i think has an obvious answer, democracy doesn't want to be toppled.

Again, I'm not arguing he's gonna go full dictator, but i think it's a lot more likely this time around than last time.

kartoffelsaft | parent | next
Trump has stated that his biggest regret from his term is that the people he appointed to various positions, while quite competent and/or experienced, would push back on ideas or plans he proposed. In other words, they weren't loyal.

The difference between this term and his previous is going to be a much stronger focus on making any position he can appoint be one that doesn't tell him no. And it looks like many of the positions he can't (the senate and likely the house) are going that way too. That, to me, makes him represent a meaningfully larger threat to the balance of power in the US than his previous term.

nobodyandproud | parent | next
Because Trump selected career Republicans who still followed the Constitution and law for his cabinet.

This time around: 1. He allowed an insurrection and was voted in anyway, so his extremist followers are emboldened. 2. He surrounded himself with yes-men.

arp242 | parent | next
He's significantly more unhinged than he was 4 years ago, and even more obsessed with personal loyalty than he was before.

And in general this sort of thing doesn't happen overnight; there's a process to things. It's like the old quip on how someone becomes bankrupt: "very gradually, and then suddenly all at once".

I don't know what will happen, but it's a dangerous path to walk. Maybe the next four years will be sort-of okay-ish, but what about the state of things in 10 or 20 years?

In large part, democracies work because we all believe it should work, and once that belief goes out the window for a critical mass of people then you're playing with fire.

The GOP in general has been engaged in scorched earth politics since Obama: all that matters is a win today and doesn't matter what conventions or institutions get damaged in the process. A healthy democracy would have disqualified Trump from running again in 2020. It would not play highly nihilistic power games with the supreme court. etc. etc.

It's absolutely not a healthy state of affairs.

tdeck | parent
When Trump took power in 2016 there wasn't much of a plan because nobody expected it. Today Trump's backers have Project 2025 ready which has a specific plan to replace anyone who might be able to slow things down in the civil service, armed forces, justice department, etc... Not to mention the immunity doctrine that the administration now has from its handpicked supreme court.

In theory there are things Biden could still do right now to help preserve these institutions but I doesn't look like he will, or even like he has the mental capacity and empathy to be motivated to do so.