Every time I read an article that imagines a dystopian world if Donald Trump is elected, I say to myself, "Well, surely they've reached the limit of anti-Trump hysteria, right?"
Not by a long shot. And don't call me Shirley.
This one on the NBC News website took four leftists to write. "Fears grow that Trump will use the military in ‘dictatorial ways’ if he returns to the White House" is a fantasy worthy of Tolkien. It's Trump teams up with Sauron; all that's missing are some orcs.
Peter Nicholas, Katherine Doyle, Megan Lebowitz, and Courtney Kube all work for NBC News and are fearful that because all the adults in the room who made sure that Trump didn't blow up the world and do very bad, very un-American things during his first term are gone and Trump wouldn't have any adult supervision in a second term, he would therefore establish a military dictatorship...or something.
RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!
The premise of this fantastical thesis is that even though Trump didn't even try to do unconstitutional stuff in his first term, it's guaranteed that Trump, the authoritarian, will do it this time because...because...because the left says so.
Just like every modern president, Trump tested the constitutional limits of his power. Did anyone notice that the Supreme Court has struck down several Biden initiatives as unconstitutional, including trying to forgive a trillion dollars in student loan debt and calling a moratorium on evictions? Nobody accused Biden of wanting to be a dictator then.
But for whatever reason, Trump doesn't get a pass from these hysterics.
Trump has raised fresh questions about his intentions if he regains power by putting forward a legal theory that a president would be free to do nearly anything with impunity — including assassinate political rivals — so long as Congress can’t muster the votes to impeach him and throw him out of office.
Well, no, that's not what the "legal theory" of presidential immunity is all about, and Trump is not seeking that kind of power. But it sure scares lefties when one of their own presents hysteria as fact.
Now, bracing for Trump’s potential return, a loose-knit network of public interest groups and lawmakers is quietly devising plans to try to foil any efforts to expand presidential power, which could include pressuring the military to cater to his political needs.
Standing atop the battlements, waving the bloody shirt, sacrificing everything for the cause -- how fricking heroic are they?
Those taking part in the effort told NBC News they are studying Trump’s past actions and 2024 policy positions so that they will be ready if he wins in November. That involves preparing to take legal action and send letters to Trump appointees spelling out consequences they’d face if they undermine constitutional norms.
“We’re already starting to put together a team to think through the most damaging types of things that he [Trump] might do so that we’re ready to bring lawsuits if we have to,” said Mary McCord, executive director of the Institution for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown Law.
No left-wing group formed to save democracy can operate without fantasies. Thankfully, this group has J.R.R. Tolkien as a model. The Trump-Sauron coalition doesn't stand a chance against Aragorn and the White Wizard.
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