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kpete

(72,006 posts)
Tue Jan 17, 2017, 11:52 AM Jan 2017

We The People - Get To Choose Whether Trump is Legitimate Or Not.

We Choose Whether Trump is Legitimate

Given what I wrote in my last piece about the country being in cardiac arrest, Byron York’s effort to parse the meaning of “legitimate president” seems like so much whistling past the graveyard. It’s a game of gotcha where the idea is that anyone who sincerely believes that President Trump wasn’t elected in a fair, square, and constitutional manner must be some kind of half-mad far left conspiracy theorist.

It’s true that you can distinguish between folks who believe the election was outright stolen and people who think it was unfairly influenced. There are those who think that Trump won according to the rules but that rules should be changed so that the loser of the popular vote doesn’t win the election. There are those who think that the FBI director’s interference made a decision difference, and since Comey’s actions were illegitimate, that makes the result illegitimate. There are those who think that the drip-drip-drip of Russian-pilfered leaks fatally undermined Clinton’s credibility, bringing her down to Trump’s level. They don’t think a foreign power should be able to change the course of our history through criminal interference in our political process.

Only a small minority think that actual count was off. People voted how they voted.

Getting caught up on the word “legitimate” is a waste of time. The important thing is that we now have a president who wants to help Putin destroy the European Union, dismantle NATO, and crush the pluralistic, ecumenical, secular Western left in the name of white supremacy and a petro economy. The question shouldn’t be whether Trump was elected legitimately but who wants to go along with his program?

There are parts that the Republicans like. Most of it, however, is so hostile to American influence and any common conception of American interest, that’s there is little division between Democrats and Republicans in opposing it.

At least that was the case until, perhaps, now.

Byron York is playing by the old rules, but those rules are obsolete.

We choose whether what Trump wants to do is legitimate. And, for Republicans, now is the time to choose.


http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2017/1/16/135425/746
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We The People - Get To Choose Whether Trump is Legitimate Or Not. (Original Post) kpete Jan 2017 OP
In every other democratic country, the winner of the people's vote wins and is legitimately BlueCaliDem Jan 2017 #1
Those 538 people are not even elected. world wide wally Jan 2017 #2
K&R. "President" is socially constructed and is an ongoing process ck4829 Jan 2017 #3

BlueCaliDem

(15,438 posts)
1. In every other democratic country, the winner of the people's vote wins and is legitimately
Tue Jan 17, 2017, 12:04 PM
Jan 2017

elected by the people. Period.

In the U.S., 538 people elect the president out of 136,628,459 million voting Americans. In this past election, not the people but a tiny percentage - 538 - of the tens of millions of voting Americans decided who'll go to the White House and 'lead' this country.

To me, if a candidate can't win the popular vote, it makes him/her illegitimate, so that makes tRump illegitimate to me and to anyone who understands how democracy works. Those who believe in totalitarianism believe he's legitimate.

But it's easier to corrupt 538 people (and the EC was badly corrupted this time around) than to buy and corrupt 136,628,459 million, and we all know - even the naysayers - that this EC was seriously compromised and corrupted.

world wide wally

(21,751 posts)
2. Those 538 people are not even elected.
Tue Jan 17, 2017, 12:16 PM
Jan 2017

From what I have gathered, they are appointed or selected from small groups of supporters. I'm not really sure how they become electors, but I know it is not an open election.

ck4829

(35,079 posts)
3. K&R. "President" is socially constructed and is an ongoing process
Tue Jan 17, 2017, 12:20 PM
Jan 2017

Trump only has the power and legitimacy that we agree to let him have, not every four years, but every day.

Trump's power is not set in stone, although it may be set in Putin's polonium, and just because his golden toilet is being moved to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, it doesn't make him a demigod that we have to obey or else.

Anyone who says they want to oppose him but says we need to wait and otherwise do nothing needs to follow someone else or get out of the way.

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