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Comment by pyre | Hacker News Reader

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  Seeing your interrogator pull out a rubber hose,
  and realize that none of that matters: Priceless

----

  | think those who have power will relinquish
  | it voluntarily

Yea. It was pretty crazy when the Secret Service sided with GW Bush and the Marines sided with Obama, and Bush made his last stand to retain the Presidency at the Oval Office. I don't look forward to when/if Obama is voted out of office...

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Pretty sure you misinterpreted what OP meant by "power". Sure Bush left office when his term ended, but Obama continued a lot of the policies we thought were going to be ended, keeping the NSA in a greater position of power than it should be. That's the power that hasn't been relinquished.

> If the people in office get voted out, they leave. If they didn't, we might have a problem.

No, as evidenced by the our current situation, we still have a problem.

>Yea. It was pretty crazy when the Secret Service sided with GW Bush and the Marines sided with Obama, and Bush made his last stand to retain the Presidency at the Oval Office. I don't look forward to when/if Obama is voted out of office...

I feel stupid. What are you talking about? Or is this a joke scenario or something? Sorry if I'm being daft.

I'm being sarcastic about the idea that 'the people in power' aren't going to relinquish it.

If the people in office get voted out, they leave. If they didn't, we might have a problem.

>>If the people in office get voted out, they leave

This is dangerous that after they and someone replaces them the story repeats like a record player in a lop, only with louder volume. (I wish I could think of a better analogy)

Well, I mean, the scenario you're describing where a leader becomes a tyrant and is deposed of by their successor is basically a totalitarian dictatorship.

I think that's a bit of a (very large) stretch. I think the "President" and the military are separate enough in this country that we don't run a huge risk of "THE GOVERNMENT" (ie, a "leader" and militia to empower them) could or would act as a cohesive force against the US.

Usually when you see this, you see fractioned militia that support the next successor or what not.

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