Mandrake get Carrie Leonetti on the phone.
Posted on 12/23/2016 5:41:05 PM PST by hiho hiho
There has been a great deal of hand-wringing lately, particularly in progressive circles, about how a Trump presidency could destroy American democracy: the end of free speech and a free press, the influence of money in politics rising to the level of a true oligarchy, Supreme Court appointments that end cherished civil rights, like abortion rights, voting rights, and equal protection. These changes could be coming, and they could be every bit as destructive to the core values of our democracy as many people fear.
But a Trump presidency poses a far more direct, permanent, and existential threat to our democracy that has had almost no notice in the media: the threat that a Trump presidency would trigger a coup. Not an armed rebellion, but a bloodless coup brought about by a reckless and indefensible presidential order, and a refusal of Trump's subordinates to carry it out.
Imagine for a moment that Trump ordered a nuclear first strike of China because the Chinese Premier insulted him on Twitter. Or imagine that Trump ordered the armed take over of Saturday Night Live to stop Alec Baldwin's unflattering caricatures of him. Now imagine that the Joint Chiefs or the FBI SWAT team or the missile-silo commanders simply refused to carry out the order. For most of us, that refusal would be a good, responsible, reassuring response. It would also be a coup. Under our constitutional structure, the President is the chief officer of the executive branch of government and the commander in chief of the military.
This is the scenario that I have been playing in my head since the election, and it is not nearly as far-fetched as it sounds. All it takes is a reckless, dangerous, abuse of power by Donald Trump (and that sentence pretty much writes itself). That would leave the fate of our democracy in the hands of the people to whom he gives orders. If they comply: World War III, autocracy, the end of life as we know it. If they refuse, we are Turkey, Burma, Pakistan - a titular democracy whose continued existence ultimately depends on the whims of its generals.
Whatever one may think is broken with our democracy - campaign finance, government surveillance, executive power - we are still fundamentally a democracy. A country in which military leaders and bureaucrats have to decide whether to follow a president's orders (and can and must decide not to, if human survival depends on doing so) is not.
Carrie Leonetti is a professor of criminal and constitutional law at the University of Oregon School of Law.
Oh my, I have no nails left to bite. Save me from myself, please.
Wonder what color the sky is in the alternate reality her mind dwells in?
No guarantee of her personal sanity. This view makes that aspect somewhat iffy! She appears to have OD'd on the 'D' propaganda!
Wow. That’s quite an imagination.
And from people who could not fathom that Obama just “might” not be proud of his background.
Yet another LIB lunatic on the public dole who should be in a mental institution. What an absolute idiot.
Yeah, that could happen. {eye roll}
Would this be like Obama’s IRS going after the Tea Party?
The U of O should be embarrassed to have this silly person on staff.
They lost me right there. Too stupid to even give it anymore serious consideration.
Mandrake get Carrie Leonetti on the phone.
The dumbing down of America continues. Colleges should be dismantled and rebuilt.
Carrie Leonetti has more bats then belfry to keep them in.
Try it, liberal asshole. (Please excuse the necessary profanity.)
It will not be bloodless.
a professor of criminal and constitutional law at the University of Oregon School of Law.
FOr a professor of the constitution she misses that this is a Representative Republic, not a democracy
What if aliens stepped out of a UFO and Trump called them illegal? We have to stop this man, the entire planet is at stake.
The absolute and complete denial of the left about the sheer evil of their president and his party is made crystal clear by just this kind of insane rhetoric. The madness is strong in these critters.
This looks to have been written by a heavily indoctrinated 15 year old girl or a not terribly talented hack writer for the Communist newspaper.
At least ambulance chasers do some semblance of work. It’s not always easy convincing their clients that they actually care about them.
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