Why has this supposedly constitutional republic capitulated to a treasonous tyrant?

[triron]

I am bewildered.

[mobeau69]

1. Root cause: Ignorance

[MLAA]

2. Racism+ignorance

[mobeau69]

4. Racism stems from ignorance.

[tinrobot]

3. Because our system was based on honor and trust.

When a bunch of dishonorable Republicans support an untrustworthy president, this is what happens.

There's too many things in the Constitution that rely on people acting honorably. That was a given in the 18th century. I don't think it is today.

[bluedye33139]

5. This.

Our system is designed for cooperative effort by good people. Our system is not authoritarian, voluntary effort is prioritized above command or mandate, and the founders I think assumed that love of country would be stronger than love of party.

They also thought that they could punt on slavery. Clearly they had some flaws in their thinking!

I'm not sure what the solution is. My hope is that the electorate will correct this in November and America will start healing. But I'm not a natural optimist.

[onetexan]

7. So THIS!!

[brush]

14. I hope we can get past trump and move towards healing.

I'm not sure if the nation ever can until amends in some form are made to the crimes over centuries to POCs.

Is trump karma?

[wiggs]

6. Right. And a bunch of people, foreign and domestic, saw the flaw and exploited it. nt

[Wounded Bear]

8. Indifference and lack of participation...

The last few generations, our political system has been controlled by smaller and smaller minority segments of the populace.

Too many people just don't "like" politics and have been sitting out the process, relinquishing control to more radical minorities.

[JHB]

9. Because treasonous Republicans have blocked the constitutional remedies.

It really comes down to that. They've put party lockstep and ideological goals over everything else.

And they've been doing a version of this for a good quarter century. Push their things through, brazen out the pushback until it's a done deal, go all Looney Tunes Tasmanian Devil on any attempt to revers it, and b,are, blame, blame, blame, blame.

They had plenty of practice even before Trump, and his tiny hands are big enough to hold a Sharpie and sign the bills they really want signed.

[Binkie The Clown]

10. Half the people have below average IQs. Nuff said. nt

[iscooterliberally]

11. He ran against a woman that turned out to be the most slandered person for the last few decades.

Many people bought into that BS and either vote for the turd in the white house punch bowl or sat on their hands and didn't vote at all. That's pretty much the way I look at it. Hopefully most of those folks have learned from their 2016 blunder so we can flush this crap out of our system and rebuild our country.

[Boomerproud]

12. Fear.

nt

[greenjar_01]

13. The system of government we spend so much time telling everyone is so awesome isn't

The vaunted "checks and balances" turn out to be a system of violatable norms. If you have the Justice Department and a few well-placed judges willing to shamelessly support you, you can bypass Congress. Subpoenas are unenforceable. The Justice Department allows rampant violations of law, or it turns out what we thought were requirements are just unenforceable norms.

It turns out, our supposedly great system of government is actually pretty shitty, and completely vulnerable to bad actors. Two cheers, then, for American democracy.

[brush]

16. Regrettably, you are so right.

[triron]

17. My thoughts as well after all this shit.

[kentuck]

15. I am bewildered also.

Where are the Senate leaders? Where are the House leaders? Have they just given up?

[PandoraAwakened]

18. House hasn't given up.

That's why, since 2018, the House of Representatives has been controlled by Democrats. But, the House can't do anything without the Senate, which is why 400+ House bills still sit languishing on Moscow Mitch's desk, not allowed to come to the Senate floor for debate.

That's also why the House impeached the Orange Turd and the Rethuglicon-controlled Senate acquitted him.

Simple answer: TAKE BACK THE SENATE while holding the House. Then, we'll start to see movement.

[kentuck]

19. "But, the House can't do anything without the Senate..."

I guess we will just sit back and wait for that majority in November,

[PandoraAwakened]

20. I know, it definitely sucks...

that this is the hellhole we're left to stew in for the next four months as Miss 'Rona prepares a back-to-school lesson for the ages.

If we don't kick the Rethuglicons out of the Senate in November, we are royally screwed---just by judicial appointments alone, notwithstanding continued legislative inaction on everything that actually matters---and this is regardless of any anticipated wins with the Executive branch or the House.

Yikes, right?