How Hillary Could Become President: Anatomy of a Miracle

[SticksnStones]

Step 1: Retake the House in 2018

Step 2: Appoint Clinton Speaker of the House (yes, it's constitutional)

Step 3: Impeach Trump and Pence



Ok, discuss ~

[oasis]

1. Works for me. Let's get on it.

[SticksnStones]

2. That's the spirit!

[herding cats]

3. Ok, then we need to get busy on the House!

Seriously, if we could retake some power there in 2018 it would be a huge victory for us!!

[putitinD]

4. or we could just build a time machine, and go back in time before the election and make sure

the big idiot doesn't cheat. probably not going to happen.

[SticksnStones]

7. Well I did preface it as a miracle occurring...

[butdiduvote]

5. This is actually what I was calling for in the first few days following the election.

I said let's just find a way to make Hillary Speaker of the House. Forget all of the other way-more-complicated fixes; put her 2nd in line for succession. Everyone made fun of me, though haha.

[Afromania]

6. well

Only problem is we sort of need Trumps dumb ass out right now. So you'd have to add a layer of actual investigation to whatever Pence did/does. Then impeachment and Hillary as president. It's roundabout and wonky as hell but we've reached the whatthefuckever portion of the show.

[SticksnStones]

9. Don't we get Hail Mary passes in politics, too?

I say yes...plus I find it relieves stress to dream of day with Hillary as President.

[Afromania]

15. Hey don't get me wrong

I'm not saying not to dream the dream I'm encouraging it because we've gone way past sanity, insanity, grab your ass insanity and the Twilight Zone was roughly 5 miles ago.

[SticksnStones]

20. ..

These are curious times, to be sure ~

[TexasBushwhacker]

49. I agree. Way too much could happen in 2 years n/t

[jmg257]

8. Anyone else you would think to install besides Hillary? The field seems wide open in this plan.

[SticksnStones]

10. I'm not done being heartbroken over this election

Not ready to fall in love again.

And as they say repubs fall in line, Dems fall in love ~

[butdiduvote]

32. Same

I want President Hillary. I spent 2 years getting excited over what President Hillary would do.

[oasis]

18. That would be up to the House of Representatives to decide.

Hillary would most likely be their choice since she's the most qualified person on the planet.

[yurbud]

11. we can't wait that long to get rid of them

[patricia92243]

12. I don't want to wait til 2018. The baboon needs to go before he has

been in office to two months.

[SticksnStones]

14. Yeah but then we get Pence or Ryan...

((sigh))

[onenote]

13. Skipped a step: convict in Senate by 2/3 vote

Where are those votes coming from?

[longship]

47. And they'd have to do it twice at the same time.

Impeach and remove Pence first, and Drumpf appoints a new veep.

Impeach Drumpf first, Pence becomes president and appoints new veep.

House speaker Hillary never comes near White House.

[ksoze]

16. Would be easier to build a time machine and change election

That scenario would indeed be a miracle. Right now I would settle for anyone but Trump at the top.

[global1]

17. Does Hillary Need To Be A Member Of Congress To Become Speaker?....nt

[SticksnStones]

22. Apparently, no

The Constitution does not require that the Speaker be an elected House Representative, though every Speaker so far has been an elected Member of the House. The Speaker is second in the United States presidential line of succession, after the Vice President and ahead of the President pro tempore of the U.S. Senate.

Source:
Speaker of the United States House of Representatives - Wikipedia

[rateyes]

19. You have to get 67 Senators too.

Won't happen.

[Jim Lane]

29. As long as we're in Fantasyland, we can handle that, too

A bunch of large blue states split themselves into many smaller states. The large influx of new Democrats gives the plan enough supporters to be two-thirds of the newly enlarged Senate.

Presumably the OP thought that that part of the scenario was too obvious to need mentioning.

[SticksnStones]

39. Ah...the OP (me) was counting on the utter disgust of loyal Republican Americans

And they vote the bums out.

Miracle...I did say miracle so yeah, I know ~

[njhoneybadger]

58. Seems unfair

that if California was a country its GDP would put it 6th in the world and it gets only two senators.We have an election and 3 million votes don't count.

[Jim Lane]

60. Yes, that's definitely a problem

My recollection is that, after the 2012 elections, if you added up the votes cast in the most recent election for each seat in the Senate (spread over different years because of staggered terms), Democratic candidates received a majority of the total votes. Republicans held the Senate majority anyway, because of the Constitutionally mandated malapportionment of the Senate. Hurray for Vermont, but most of the small states that are overrepresented are deep red.

[WillowTree]

30. Yeah. They always forget about the conviction by a two-thirds majority of the Senate.

Like that's going to happen.

[el_bryanto]

21. Who would give up their seat to Hillary?

How do you keep other ambitious politicians from not wanting to capitalize on this situation themselves (assuming its a real possibility)?

Bryant

[SticksnStones]

24. It is in fact, a real scenario albeit a far fetched one

No one has to give up their seat. One doesn't need to be an elected member of the House, they just need to be elected by the House as their leader.

[unblock]

27. yes, so far, the speaker has always been a member, but that's not actually a requirement.

it sounds weird for the speaker not to be a member, but actually it's not much different from the senate, which is presided by the vice-president of the united states, who is not a member of the senate.

one notable difference is that there's no provision for the speaker to break ties.

[BainsBane]

23. Give it up

It's not going to happen. Let's focus on what we can do to oppose Trump rather than indulging in fantasies.

[SticksnStones]

25. Why? What do you imagine we actually do here besides discuss stuff and toss ideas around?

Sure there's a strong element of rallying and reporting but more often than not, it's a place to discuss anything that supports democrats. I don't find that to be particularly indulgent.

Peace.

[BainsBane]

28. I don't see the point

anymore than imagining the tooth fairy is going to save us from Trump.

I badly wanted Hillary to be president, and the loss was very hard for me, but it's time to move on.

[SticksnStones]

33. There's a whole lot of us

who see all this corruption and manipulation coming to light and are furious and feel cheated.

And maybe a thread like this is cathartic.

That's all...

[DefenseLawyer]

26. Hillary Clinton will never be President.

I'm sure she has come to terms with that fact. You should too.

[SticksnStones]

35. THAT is almost word for word what my therapist said!

Huh. Go figure!

[LisaM]

52. I agree, but it's sad and unfortunate.

Thinking about what a seamless transition this would have been compared to the chaos we're seeing now (which was utterly predictable) makes me almost physically ill.

[kydo]

31. Actually, that's not just how get Hillary. If we just win the house

then impeach the orange bozo group, we still get our first female prez, Nancy. I'm cool Hillary, Nancy, basically any dem, I am so there!

Okay, my district was a flip. We flipped it blue. whoo hoo. And I am doing my part to keep it that way. Got a re-occurring donation going to Congresswoman Murphy's rel-election campaign. What you all doing to win the house back?

Cause if we can wait until after the 2018 elections to impeach orange fuck and we win the house we get a dem for prez, none of this eddie munster shit. But one, we must win the house and two, that's a long time orange turd has only been in there one month and look at the mess, can we make it till 2018, without ww3 or as a whole country? God help us all... PLEASE!

[WillowTree]

36. You do understand that impeachment alone doesn't remove them from office, don't you?

[kydo]

43. I understand many things, and I do know how it works

Your question would better be asked of the OP. I was commenting on winning the house which we need done period.

[WillowTree]

46. You said.......

"If we just win the House then impeach the orange bozo group, we still get our first female prez."

And I'm saying no, impeachment doesn't get you that. It will just get you a trial in the Senate where you're not going to get 67 votes to convict.

[kydo]

61. Again it was a comment on the OP

Which is after the miracle impeachment, (as it would be a miracle if this house really moved forward), and the miracle conviction, theory.

Because in reality we are fucked!

The point of my post that you commented on was since we are dreaming here, it didn't need to be Hillary. It could be anybody. (BTW I love Hillary. She won! And should be in the White House right now!)

But regardless we must win back the house. And that doesn't really mean much because in order stop this craziness it needs to be done ASAP before any more damage to our country happens. Waiting until after the 2016 elections might be too late.

Right now in the real world more then orange face is involved with this act of treason. Pretty much everyone in control of things is involved.

To cope we dream about impossible things. I was commenting on that. Not taking a bar exam on constitutional law.

[Doreen]

34. Nice dream.

This brings me to a question on how our government works though, if Trump, Pence, and Ryan were all killed at the same time who is the next person to go into the presidency? I am not suggesting killing anyone lets say there is an earthquake that does this. I am just curious because I just do not know how the line works.

[SticksnStones]

37. Better sit down, it hurts to consider the line up

After Ryan it's Orrin Hatch, then Rex Tillerson, then Steve Mnuchin

[Doreen]

41. Damn, it all suck a big one.

[WillowTree]

38. Orrin Hatch, the President Pro Tempore of the Senate.

[jalan48]

40. Why?

[SticksnStones]

42. Or...and hear me out...why not?

[jalan48]

44. It's extremely convoluted. Why subject Americans to this?

[SticksnStones]

45. No more convoluted than what Americans are currently being subjected to...

and it's just words in a thread ~

Peace

[jalan48]

48. Americans are up in arms about Trump and we want to take that energy and make it about Clinton?

No thanks.

[NoGoodNamesLeft]

50. Trump won't make it that long...

He'll be lucky to make it through the end of the month at the rate of the leaks about Russia.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

51. Dream on.

Let's say Steps 1 and 2 are accomplished, and Hillary is elected to Congress and becomes Speaker of the House. A long shot, but arguably possible.

After that it falls apart. Let's say Trump is impeached by the House and convicted by a 2/3 majority of the Senate, which is what would be needed to remove him from office.

Keep in mind that Trump and Pence would not be impeached or tried at the same time. So when Trump is removed, Pence becomes president. As president he must appoint a new Vice President to replace himself, according to Section 2 of the 25th Amendment: "Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress." That person, not the Speaker of the House, is now next in line for the presidency.

Of course, the impeachment of Pence could begin in the meantime, while his appointed VP is in the confirmation process, but as we saw with the B. Clinton debacle, that process is very slow. Maybe if the Dems controlled both houses of Congress they could hold out long enough to get Pence impeached, tried and removed before his VP appointment could be confirmed. But this would also create tremendous instability in the government, which could backfire badly on the majority party. Impeachment is a political act that can become an exploding cigar, and the Clinton episode only increased his popularity.

In short, it ain't gonna happen.

[SticksnStones]

54. Most of my dreams are the sweat soaked nightmares of Presidents Pence or Ryan

So yeah, I'll dream on...

[Larkspur]

53. She botched her 1st and 2nd chances to win the WH

She does not deserve a third, especially an irregular path to the WH.

[SticksnStones]

55. I wanna say "says you" but instead I'll say agree to disagree

[LanternWaste]

59. Wow! Yours is the perfect intersection of two fallacies.

Wow! Yours is the perfect intersection of two logical fallacies. Post hoc ergo prmopter hoc and It Does Not Follow.

Emotive responses, though convenient for a lazy mind, ad little of substance. It's merely more cheerleading.

Good luck!!!

[DFW]

56. Say hi to Godot for me when you see him

(I.e. don't we all wish!)

[itcfish]

57. 2 Years is too long

Chump can do a lot of damage in 2 years.

[Kimchijeon]

62. I'd rather just get rid of Trump/Pence and forget about that

People hate Hillary too much in reality, aside from the hugbox of DU.

[SticksnStones]

64. Yeah.....uh no.

You are aware of that pesky popular vote total. That didn't look like hate to me.

[Kimchijeon]

67. yes, but be that as it may-

the rightwing media hate machine loves to hate on Hillary/the Clintons nonstop, and there's a huge segment of the population that's been watching Fox news and listening to hate radio for decades. They've long since been brainwashed- so personally I'd rather not keep on trying for Hillary this or that, in any case.

I just feel the more important thing currently is just getting rid of the dingbats who are unjustly in the White House!
That's all.

[SticksnStones]

68. The republicans will just aim their demonization at whomever we put up next.

And a republican house and senate will never impeach their own.

538 today addressed the beating repubs might very well take in the midterms.

At this point, as long as it's legal, I'll entertain any notion of getting the White House back.

And Hillary Clinton, more than any other dem can take a republican pounding.

[butdiduvote]

63. Can we stop beating up on people for being heartbroken over the election ffs

For many of us, Hillary's presidency was a dream dashed. It's not just about politics. It was about having a woman who we saw many of our own struggles in ascend to the top, about feeling like we live in a country where women like us belong, about a sense of empowerment that others may get elsewhere but we get from Hillary.

We're not stupid. We know the chances are slim to none. We know there's a constitution; we don't need anyone to condescendingly tell us to read it. We don't need you to inform us there are other politicians on the Dem side who you personally like better. We know that. Hillary means something to us. Let us express ourselves without being shouted down to "get over it" or "go read the constitution, dummy" 5,000 times a day.

[SticksnStones]

65. I don't know if you meant to call me out on that but I'm in exactly that same camp

I'm still very much heartbroken about the loss. And all the revelations coming at us at lightening speed are dredging up a lot of that broken feeling.

HRC !

[butdiduvote]

66. No, no not you

I'm just seeing users repeatedly talking down to people for posts like your OP, and the smug condescension is very off-putting to me. We don't have to shut up about our feelings on, not just the current situation, but the election and Clinton's candidacy itself.

[BainsBane]

70. People cope with loss differently

For me, it's painful to see these sorts of posts because I so wanted her to be president and know that it isn't possible now. The fantasy makes it more painful for me because it reminds me of my dashed hopes.

I do feel we weren't able to publicly grieve on this site due to all the recriminations about the election, but groups like Pantsuit Nation have been cathartic.

[TheFrenchRazor]

69. sounds like a plan. nt

[Motown_Johnny]

71. Better retake the Senate too since Impeachment Hearings are held there.

You might need Nancy Pelosi "disappeared" too. Hillary being appointed Speaker is a bigger long shot than (D)s retaking both houses of Congress in '18.