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As you can all see, power can easily corrupt anyone.

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[-] Hobbes_Dent@lemmy.world 65 points 1 day ago

Power can corrupt, but Americans took corrupt and gave it the power. Again.

[-] Xbeam@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago

Yup. Trump wasn't corrupted by power. He was corrupt before the power.

[-] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

Power corrupts. Always. Every time. That's the basic idea behind democracy. You only get power for a limited time and you're bound by law and held accountable for breaking it. That's why besides free and fair elections the other pillars of democracy are rule of law and the separation of powers. Right now we can see in the US what happens when these principles are overturned.

[-] BrainInABox@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 day ago

Power corrupts. Always. Every time.

A baseless truism doesn't become more credible the more you repeat it.

[-] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Can you name any example of a person that has had unchecked power for an extended period of time that didn't end badly?

[-] expatriado@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

'Murican efficiency bitch!

[-] BrainInABox@lemmy.ml 23 points 1 day ago

Yeah man, Trump was clearly only corrupted when he got power...

The fundamental problem is that, while the people grant power to representatives at elections, there is no mechanism to revoke it. For example, the Senate can impeach the president mid-term, but the people cannot. Nor can they remove their senators or congressional representatives.

[-] TomMasz@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago

That's why there are (were?) three branches with the intention of balancing each other to some degree. The Founders knew what could happen. They just didn't foresee two of the branches ceding their power to the executive.

One of the three branches is nominated and confirmed by the other two branches, so you only really have to capture the senate and the presidency, as we have seen.

[-] bob_lemon@feddit.org 1 points 1 day ago

The basic idea of the founders was good, but the US implementation of checks and balances is wildly outdated. There were several points where equivalent powers have proven disastrous in other countries over the last 3 centuries, and the US failed to act upon such data.

[-] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Taking the judiciary is a long term project though. It's resistant to short term swings associated with the rise of autocrats. The problem is the Republicans have been moving in this direction for decades.

[-] FabledAepitaph@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

Yeah, the president isn't even supposed to have that much power. It's the party-first subservience in the other two branches, especially the legislative branch, which is exacerbating the issue. And the fact that the state-level governments are bowing down to Der Leader whuch appear to be amplifying his bullshit.

[-] sylver_dragon@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago

If this were a dictatorship it would be a heck of a lot easier... as long as I'm the dictator. Hehehe.

I guess Dubya was kinda prophetic.

[-] TheAlbatross 8 points 1 day ago

Yah we should get rid of the office of the president

[-] OneSpectra@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

Congress has to impeach this guy next year.

[-] TheAlbatross 10 points 1 day ago

It's difficult to be hopeful about the DNC doing anything helpful considering the past 40+ years

[-] njm1314@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Doesn't matter if they impeach him or not, the Senate won't convict him.

[-] mikenurre@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Then you get Peter Thiel controlled puppet Vance. You think he'd back off the project 2025 playbook?

[-] LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

And yet so many people on the left seem to think if only it was their guy terrorizing everyone things would be just peachy.

[-] HopeOfTheGunblade 4 points 1 day ago

Turns out?

Terrorizing not so hot as a governing method.

Can we try helping everyone instead? Say for like, five generations. That's not much, we've certainly been doing variations of terror for at least that long.

this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2025
119 points (100.0% liked)

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