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PaperclipPerfector  2mo ago (text post)   30074 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 12, 2024

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That people still think pieces of paper protect them after all we've lived through in the past few years never ceases to amaze me.

Now granted, constitutions are a powerful kind of magic, but they too must yield to power. Otherwise you'd still be able to own warships unimpeded.

Let's say I get elected with a loyal enough congress. What exactly is stopping me from packing the court and reinterpreting the constitution to always have meant what I want to do? Precedent didn't stop Roe from happening. And it didn't require any amendment to straight up make up constitutional law this way.

Now sure, what can be done so can be undone so. But that just means whoever Calvinballs his way to dictatorship first wins. All that protects you is decorum and violence. Nothing else. Insisting on ritual is not going to change that.

But that just means whoever Calvinballs his way to dictatorship first wins.

I read this as "Whoever violates the constitution first gets to then do whatever he or she wants to the constitution."

There are so many assumptions - electoral, legal, judicial - baked into that statement that it is logically equivalent to "a wizard did it!"

A wizard being some FDR tier politician in this case.

Nothing stops you. But a loyal enough congress is a pretty big stipulation, especially when Republicans disproportionately seem to care about what the text of the Constitution actually says, and are used to having to worry about how things look for the purpose of reelection.

We really need a constitutional amendment safeguarding the supreme court, as that would make the particular avenue you describe significantly harder to pull off.

Let's say I get elected with a loyal enough congress. What exactly is stopping me from packing the court and reinterpreting the constitution to always have meant what I want to do? Precedent didn't stop Roe from happening. And it didn't require any amendment to straight up make up constitutional law this way.

in theory, separation of powers. The different branches of government are supposed to selfishly seek power for themselves. Congress is supposed to be constantly look to take power for itself, which stops the president from becoming a dictator.

In practice that kind of fails because most individual congressman just don't have any real power, so it's easy for them to give up power to the party apparatus in hopes of eventually becoming a senior party leader or leaving to become a lobbyist. But each individual Justice really does have a lot of power, so I can't see them giving it up voluntarily to a dictator.

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