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Comment by al_borland | Hacker News Reader

Turn off the news for a while. We have congress, we have the courts, we have term limits.

Part of living in a democracy is not always liking the current administration. The administrations, good or bad, are temporary.

George W Bush once said: “We're here in the Oval Office, and by the way, the office is bigger than the person. And so when you work for democracy and freedom in your country, make sure you put institutions in place that are bigger than the individuals.” [0]

The office is bigger than one man. And if you think Trump is ruling as if it’s not, then you should be happy, because any rule he makes that way can be undone just as easily if it doesn’t make sense.

[0] https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/results/leadersh...

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Congress is completely under autocratic control.

It appears the supreme court is, as well.

They keep hinting at wanting to use those above two factors to get rid of term limits.

Saying Congress is under autocratic control is hyperbole. There is a slight Republican advantage, smaller than the Democrat’s advantage during Biden’s term. The big beautiful bill didn’t sail through Congress, it took a while and the vote was close… a whole bunch of nonsense went on to get that through. If it was autocratic control, Trump wouldn’t be signing a million executive orders, he could sail them right through Congress and make them much stronger.

The important question to ask, is why the Democrats have had such a hard time winning at the polls? Clearly the message of “we’re not Trump” isn’t enough for voters, and voters also don’t like candidates being chosen for them (even Bernie agreed that the Democrats haven’t had an honest primary since 2008). The party is broken, and it’s easy to point the finger at the right, but the Democrats have been hemorrhaging voters and still seem unable to get their act together enough to win people back. There is a growing center that feels both parties have left them behind, and it would be great if the Democrats could wake up, see that, and move forward with an ounce of common sense to win them back.

Balance won’t be restored by demonizing the right, it will be restored by the Democrats getting their own house in order, before they claim to have the answers for the country.

At this point, both parties might be too far gone. I’d be happy to see them both implode and new parties emerge without all the baggage of the past.

Ideally there would be no parties. Just have candidates present themselves, and where they stand on issues. Disqualify anyone that label themselves liberal or conservative.

But that would probably confuse the hell out of most zombie Americans and half would end up so confused, mental hospitals would be overflowing with patients. Cant have that…

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