Thread

1. harrouet · 1790926771 · focus · HN ↗

   History will remember this administration as a traitor to Europe and its values. Right when the US needs allies.

   1. x______________ · 1790927877 · focus · HN ↗

      > History will remember this administration as a traitor to Europe and its values. Right when the US needs allies.

      Time fixes everything. Give it a few generations and the world will be inhibited by new humans who will carry on doing what life demands of them, unfazed by today's events.

      1. neogodless · 1790942865 · focus · HN ↗

         (Not a down voter)

         I think the issue with this hypothesis is that it omits variables.

         Basically... is the United States, scratch that, WILL the United States be on a trajectory, post-Trump, where there is reason to believe future leadership will consistently be trustworthy to foreign nations? And how would anyone know that, or at least have reasonable confidence in that belief?

         What brought us here to elect someone like this, and is that "what" going away or being fixed? Is there some hope for undoing polarized politics in this country, so that "this election is the most important of our generation" doesn't occur every four years, and both sides believe that "the other side" will ruin the country once and for all?

         Time is not enough to fix the core issues. Time can move us past this particular era, these particular instances of unpredictable leadership, but time alone will not move this country past whatever levers of control convinced this electorate that this kind of leadership was the right choice for this country -- and the rest of the planet.

         1. AnimalMuppet · 1790949441 · focus · HN ↗

            Trump will go away. Eventually he will die. But he laid out a blueprint for ruling by executive decree. (Yeah, previous presidents did too, but he took it far further than anyone before him.) Sooner or later someone smarter than him will come along and do it better and even more successfully.

            American democracy is eventually doomed, unless there are structural changes that make this kind of thing impossible to ever happen again. I predict a Democratic president and Congress in 2028. If they don't fix this, in the first two years, then limited government will not endure in the US. (Why two years? Because they probably won't have enough of a majority in Congress after the 2030 midterms. That's just how these things usually go.)

            1. ryandrake · 1790954361 · focus · HN ↗

               > But he laid out a blueprint for ruling by executive decree.

               Other presidents also extended the power of the executive branch and over-used executive orders. Of course, not to the extreme degree Trump did.

               Trump's legacy will be his effective use of social media saturation and his "mask off" approach to rallying his base. Previous (R) administrations felt they had to maintain at least a little civility and be coy about the kind of people they were rallying, and cryptic about the kind of emotions that activated these people. You had to use innuendo and dogwhistles. Trump proved that you can directly preach to people's anger, belligerence, and cruelty, win elections based on those messages, and even maintain your popularity by delivering on your promises with oppressive, cruel policies. This lesson is going to be burned into politics long after he's gone: You don't have to even try to be a statesman to lead government.

            2. hunterpayne · 1790991457 · focus · HN ↗

               None of this is historically true at all. We learn history so we can have informed opinions about trends like this. Nixon was called the "imperial president" because he had more power than any US president since. After that, executive power was reduced significantly until Obama (who expanded it more than any president in US history). Yes, we can talk about why that was and there are reasons Obama did that, but he still did it. Trump just increased at bit over that.

               PS They are called "Executive Orders". Decrees are things monarchs give so I expect you aren't an American which explains your lack of understanding of US politics.

               1. x______________ · 1791007735 · focus · HN ↗

                  > After that, executive power was reduced significantly until Obama (who expanded it more than any president in US history). Yes, we can talk about why that was and there are reasons Obama did that, but he still did it. Trump just increased at bit over that.

                  Interesting. We're talking current administration and Obama has bled into the conversation.. Lets see:

                  President Total Executive Orders (Combined);

                  Franklin D. Roosevelt 3,728 Woodrow Wilson 1,803 Calvin Coolidge 1,233 Theodore Roosevelt 1,081 Donald Trump 508 Ronald Reagan 381 Bill Clinton 364 George W. Bush 291 Barack Obama 276 Joe Biden 162

                  Official daily logs and historical texts for these directives are indexed in the Federal Register.[0]

                  No further questions.

                  0 <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.presidency.ucsb.edu&#x2F;statistics&#x2F;data&#x2F;executive-orders" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.presidency.ucsb.edu&#x2F;statistics&#x2F;data&#x2F;executive-or...

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