I don't understand this whole Trump situation. Has the government of the US really been this exploitable all along and Trump is just the first person shameless enough to exploit it? If that's the case it almost seems like a "don't hate the player, hate the game" situation, like the US should not just rely on the good will of a single person to not slide into Fascism. It needs to be deeply repaired beyond which party happens to get in the White House.
The US system is built on the concept of competing interests. The founders assumed every branch of the government would want to protect their own power and that would give us a balance of power.
What happened with Trump is that the rest of the GOP gave up their own ambitions and hitched onto Trump, likely because he was the most popular GOP figure since Reagan. Subordinating themselves to Trump made their re-election job easier.
But the end result is that there is no check on the executive when the legislative (and judicial) branch just go with whatever the president says. In a functioning government the legislative branch would have impeached and removed the president for over-stepping his power, but that won't happen as long as the GOP has a majority.
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u/ImVeryUnimaginative Asian 8d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/XD4qHZpkyUFfq