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Comment by petilon | Hacker News Reader

Trump is not emperor for life, fortunately. He'll be gone in a couple of years. With any luck the upcoming midterms will significantly limit his powers. America will recover from this dark period. Other countries have had dark periods too, like Germany, and recovered.

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Germany got a whole new constitution which was fairly explicitly designed to prevent that from happening again. The trouble for the US is that it is now very clear that the US president can just act like a crazy dictator, and that the mechanisms which were supposed to prevent that simply don't function. Absent constitutional change (which the US system makes virtually impossible), well, sure, there might be sensible leadership in 2028, but Canada will still have to look to 2032.

> The trouble for the US is that it is now very clear that the US president can just act like a crazy dictator, and that the mechanisms which were supposed to prevent that simply don't function.

This is true. A US president who has strong support from a majority of voters of his own party can act like a dictator. So if 51% of Republican voters (which may be just 25% of all voters) support him no matter what, then he can act like a dictator. This is because Republican members of Congress who are supposed to rein him in are worried that they will be voted out if they anger the 25% of voters who support the president.

The fact that 25% of voters can set the direction for the whole country is indeed a defect in the system that is not easily rectified.

But if Republicans are defeated by Democrats in the upcoming midterms then there is hope. That's how we are going to recover.

The trouble for its global partners, especially in the Western Alliance, is that even if the attitude in the White House does change in 2029, no-one will ever be able to trust a repeat isn't 4 years away. US dominance has depended on its reliability as a partner - and that's gone.

Trust won't come back immediately, but if the next 2 to 3 Presidents are "normal" then trust will come back slowly.

I don’t think you get it - the realignment has started.

Countries cannot put their economic and physical security in the hands of a few thousand mouthbreathers in Pennsylvania or Wisconsin every 4 years.

Europe is rearming and talking about a continental nuclear shield. China is selling US Treasuries.

Middle powers like Canada that do not wish to become a U.S. protectorate are looking hard at what is needed to secure their futures.

A President Newsom, though a welcome change, does nothing to reverse these vectors now that they have been started.

The times to stop this were Nov 5, 2024 and Nov 8, 2016.

The Republican party, its voters, the organizations influencing it like Heritage Foundation, The Federalist Society and AIPAC will still exist. The propaganda outlets manipulating public opinion like Fox News and OANN will still exist. The billionaires in the front row of Trump's inauguration will still exist.

Where is the recovery?

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