How did we get from {Liberty & Justice for All}; to an egotistical, C-grade, reality TV show, wannabe dictator like Trump?

[TightLipps]

[DJB72]

Read your history books. Stuff printed before 1995. Physical books.

When did America become a democracy? The Founding Fathers wrote your Declaration of Independence and Constitution as a Republic, not a democracy. Democracies always end as a dictatorship because there's no checks and balances. The "will of the people" ends up moving from character to personality to persona.

Lincoln said you can please all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you can't please all the people all the time. Dictatorships come around when the elected leaders decide to fool the people instead of please them. And you only have to fool most of the people in an election year.

Reagan's policies were to try to reduce government involvement in most daily situations. Since his second term ended the level of control the US government has been trying to hold over the citizens has increased exponentially. It came to a head with the 2020 lockdowns.

If Trump were the despot he's painted as, he could easily have done what the rest of the world did and locked down earlier. He could have called an emergency session of both houses and suspended elections until the pandemic was over. He didn't - even though the constitution would have allowed him to. Are you certain Biden wouldn't?

Read history about how the Nazis rose to power in the 1930s. It wasn't on the policies of exterminating the Jews at the start. It was policies saying they just wanted to help struggling Germans recover from the Great War. They edited books before they started burning them. They disguised what would become the Holocaust as a way to let government administer the daily lives of everyone so they could all build a better Germany. They opened borders before they clamped down so they had people flicking in who would be grateful for the scraps from the tables.

They brought in gun control. They limited hunting and banned certain methods as "inhumane". Then they murdered over six million of their population by putting them into gas chambers disguised as shower blocks.

And ordinary people who had normal lives were desensitised to the point where they were prepared to kill the people who lived next door because they were wearing a yellow cloth with a six pointed star on it.

Don't worry. I'm sure it won't happen if it's Biden in charge...

Except the vaccines that have been proved to be responsible for ten times the number of deaths COVID caused were mandated by Joe... The lockdowns were tighter under Joe...

I'm not saying Trump is the right guy next year. But I don't think Biden is either. Kennedy's only running as an independent because the Denocrat Party rigged how the votes were going to be counted in the primaries.

Read about your Constitutional Republic of the United States of America and see how it's changed since 1980. You pledge your allegiance to the REPUBLIC the flag stands for. So learn what that means.

[Alex-Snow]

I agree with you 100% . U go girl!

[supercutebutt]

Sadly, the USA is full of dummies :(

[glennos89]

Not only the USA 😂🤷‍♂️

[Alex-Snow]

I agree with you 100% supercute!

[NamerOfStars]

The answer is quite simple: Obama- but not in the way you're thinking. In 2003, Barack Obama was totally unknown to everyone outside of specific subcommunities in Chicago. I lived there, and had never heard of the guy. Then Senator Fitzgerald, after a whopping ONE term in office, decides to retire, and Barack wins the Democratic nomination. Against him is Jack Ryan, a Republican who likewise has no political experience on this level. He'd been married to the actress Jeri Ryan, of Star Trek fame, and they'd divorced years ago. The Chicago Tribune, long a mouthpiece for the Democratic party, starts digging for dirt on him, and starts looking into his divorce records. The former couple agreed, but didn't release the custody records, claiming it could harm their son. Then, supposedly (I'm unaware of no evidence) at the behest of the Obama campaign, the Tribune began pushing for the release of the custody records. The judge, politically owned by the Democrats, complied- and those records alleged Jack had brought his wife to sex clubs and tried to get her to have sex with him (and possibly others) in public.

The allegations torpedoed Ryan's campaign, and he withdrew. The GOP nominated Alan Keyes, who'd recently gained fame for attacking Hilary Clinton's run for Congress, claiming she couldn't fairly represent the people of New York, since she wasn't one of them. Do you know which part of Illinois Keyes was from? Did you guess "Maryland"? Keyes got only a quarter of the vote.

This sent the message that a candidate didn't need political experience, so long as they had decent personal charisma, lousy opponents, and a massive media complex backing them. The 2004 Presidential election just reinforced that.

But it turns out that the American people are paying more attention than establishment political leaders and I gave them credit for, and they were coming to realize just how much of a stranglehold the media really had on the political landscape. In 1980, 90% of American media was owned by just 50 companies, which experts warned could lead to dangerous levels of concentration of power. By 2016, that same 90% was owned by SIX. That's how otherwise intelligent people think that Donald Trump is a "wannabe dictator" despite his Presidency suggesting just the opposite.

You know, like how the man who negotiated four historic peace agreements is a warmonger, or how the guy who made the RNC break into cheers at his pledging to protect gay Americans and appointed the first openly gay cabinet member is a homophobe? And now, how the man who followed the Constitution in allowing states to set their own Covid policies, refused to take a salary as President, and opened himself up to the media more than any President before him is a dictator.

[Anonymous]

Pendulum. When it swings hard one way it tends to eventually swing back the other way just as hard if not harder.

It's hard to say. In the time of Reagan I can tell you Trump would not have gotten elected. But I can also tell you before Obama he wouldn't have gotten elected either. Does that mean Obama is to blame? In a sense. But again as I said it's hard to say. You could say it began with the rise of the internet, trolls, and the slow March to people's "own truth". People choose thier own truth now. And there's all kinds of sources ready, willing, and most importantly able to SELL it to you.

Trump scares the 💩 out of career politicians. Because you can't embarrass or shame people in to not voting Trump. They're ready to die on that hill. Fortunately only a very small fraction are literally ready to die on that (capitol) hill. Trump got 74 million votes. But there were only about 2000 capitol rioters.

But the most important is NOT that Trumps viable candidacy exists. It's the "WHY"! Why did Trump win the Republican nomination to begin with. In my opinion, blame Obama. But blame the Republican party that in my opinion has taken a slow March AWAY from there ideals over the past 20 years. Trump in my opinion was a protest vote. He was a 🖕to every dusty old face the Republican party has been rolling out for each election. Telling us "these are your choices". Trump tapped into the anger, the disenfranchisement. His doesn't guarantee change but he promises a fight. And since the avg. Republican voter can't get the change they want I think a lot are saying (to quote a movie) "let's bring the whole diseased temple down".

In my opinion most people who vote for Trump don't even like Trump if they're honest with themselves and others. I think it's a case of the enemy of my enemy is my friend. I think each year people see their cost of living increase and and their salary or wage largely go unchanged. Yet the rich get richer. And the democratic solution is "here's a hanout". Most Americans don't want a handout they want a fighting chance is all.

[NaultD]

I do honestly believe our founding fathers believed this similar situation would happen and protected what they can to prevent it. The only surprising thing it took this long.

While everyone drools over the constitution as if it is written in stone, it is intended to change over time hence the amendment

"a minor change or addition designed to improve a text, piece of legislation, etc."

We are a government of the people by the people. With as much don could of done to hurt Americans he got cut off the pass limited to his station.

[shortster]

First off, Trump is not a dictator; he isn't even in power anymore. Secondly, the deep state would have to support him for him to become a dictator if he were to regain the presidency. They clearly don't. Thirdly, he would have to be in favor of their continued existence; he isn't. And finally, he still has to win the election. He might not even win the nomination; and there is a possibility of him not being on the ballot in several states. Let alone winning with enough votes for the election shenanigans that happened in 2020 not to derail him again in 2024. 30% of the vote in 2020 was by mail in ballots; and a recent survey found that 10-20% of those who submitted a mail in ballot admitted to committing one form of voter fraud or another.

[Lliam]

When was "liberty and justice for all" anything but a slogan in this country?

In what way was Trump dictatorial? More so than Dubya or Obama?

The reason Trump got elected was because the DNC admittedly bypassed the will of voters who wanted Sanders, and propped up the presumptive heir to the throne of the USA, Killary Klinton, who was so repugnant that even Trump could beat her.

[exitseven]

Because we had a liberal racist as a president that hated Americans , especially white ones. He was driving the country off a cliff.

Trump offered solutions and I don't think anyone thought he would do a y of them but he was better than 4 more years of failed policies.

[Anonymous]

When we embraced Keynesyan economics and a state that makes Orwell roll on his grave.

No other time in history would a guy Trump be taken seriously but considering we are dealing with psychos straight from your typical dystopian novel, he is normal compared to them.

[lightbulb27]

Bush.. clinton... bush II killing millions, obama x 2 ... and 26 trillion of debt not including all the off book accounting...

[Joshydavid25]

That's a fairly brainwashed take right there..

[strateguy632]

this question shows how low anti trump sunk. so pathetic who would want to be on that side?

[Anonymous]

Do you really believe that bombing the sh*t out of god knows how many foreign country's for many many years is liberty and justice for all 🧐🤨

[FunkyMonkee]

Outside of CNN where'd you get the idea he was a dictator?

[TightLipps]

I got it from your dad's (back-alley) hoe.

[FunkyMonkee]

Must've been your dad's back alley hoe. My dad never had one. We always kept our hoes in the garage with all the other gardening tools.

[milyjohn]

He's a billionaire, and you're on GAG. 😂

[Anonymous]

America is full of dumb people.

[riverrat3]

Greed