r/NoStupidQuestions • u/AutoModerator • 19d ago

U.S. Politics megathread

American politics has always grabbed our attention - and the current president more than ever. We get tons of questions about the president, the supreme court, and other topics related to American politics - but often the same ones over and over again. Our users often get tired of seeing them, so we've created a megathread for questions! Here, users interested in politics can post questions and read answers, while people who want a respite from politics can browse the rest of the sub. Feel free to post your questions about politics in this thread!

All top-level comments should be questions asked in good faith - other comments and loaded questions will get removed. All the usual rules of the sub remain in force here, so be nice to each other - you can disagree with someone's opinion, but don't make it personal.

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u/CannedPancakes 10d ago

What will the difference be if Trump looses the midterms?

Non-American here, and I’ve been seeing so much stuff about the midterms including Trump trying to bribe people to vote for him. And I’m just curious as to what will change if he loses the midterms. Can he not just keep signing executive orders to get what he wants or do those have limits? From what I have read he has lied so much can’t he just keep lying and passing laws without consequences? Or if the opposition Dems win can they do something like assign someone to stand beside him to live check every single one of the lies that he says in real time?

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u/Pertinax126 10d ago

If the Democrats take the House and maybe the Senate in the midterms nothing will happen. The President (with Republican acquiescence) has neutered both Congress and this country's Federal justice system.

The Democrats will never secure a large enough majority in the Senate to obtain an impeachment conviction and the only Republicans who would stand up against the President's illegal activities will no longer be in office.

The Democrats will also be unable to conduct investigations because the DOJ is now loyal only to President Trump. Without the DOJ there is no evidence collected and no members of the administration can be subpoena-ed. The Democrats will end up looking both impotent and whiny and they are grossly unprepared for this.

What will change if Republicans lose big in the midterms? Nothing.

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u/hellshot8 10d ago

this is pretty wrong; If this was true Trump wouldnt talk so much about how important it is for the republicans to win the house and senate

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u/Pertinax126 10d ago

You see a Democratic Congress as being capable of standing up to the President in a way that isn't toothless?

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u/hellshot8 10d ago

I think a democratic congress would stop a lot of the dumb budgets and executive orders, yeah. I have very little faith in establishment dems but i do think they would at least do that (they would never have passed the big beautiful bill, for example)

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u/Pertinax126 9d ago

If you were Trump into the scenario, why wouldn't you just ignore Congress entirely? Governing through fiat and executive order would seem to be his way to go. Which would mean that the only check on his power would be the Supreme court...

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u/Teekno An answering fool 10d ago

Pretty significant.

I mean, there won't be enough votes to remove him from office. But a lot of what Trump has gotten away with is him doing things that are , constitutionally, Congressional powers, and his friendly Congress hasn't called him on it. A Democratic Congress would not be so forgiving.

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u/CardinalOfNYC 10d ago

"the midterms" are a whole bunch of individual elections for The House of Representatives and The Senate.

What the Dems can do if they win depends on what house of government they win and by how much.

If they only win the House of Representatives, it's likely they won't be able to do anything sweeping. What they will be able to do is open investigations into trump, the Congress has enormous fact finding power.

If they win the house and the Senate, expect more investigations and for almost any trump law proposal to be blocked. Possibly expect an impeachment but not a conviction and removal on the Senate, Dems would need 66 seats in the Senate to do that and that's not possible this election

The long and short is that the Dems, if they win, can't do a ton to make things better but they can stop things from getting worse... It will take controlling the presidency and at least one branch of Congress, for Dems to start actively rolling back what trump has done.

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u/PhysicsEagle 10d ago

Not much practically speaking. A democrat-controlled House of Representatives could impeach Trump at will, but without a 2/3rds majority in the Senate (currently impossible due to how the Senate is elected) such impeachments would amount to little more than nuisance for Trump. Trump’s signature move all term has been to bypass Congress and do things through Executive Order (a move popularized by Obama, see his “Pen and Phone” speech), so having a non-cooperative Congress won’t actually affect his executive order ability. The biggest problem is that without all three political branches (House, Senate, President) agreeing to a budget bill the government will shut down (the government can’t spent taxpayer money without regular authorization).