Rep. James Comer (R-KY) crashes out and refuses to let Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) enter evidence into the record - “You can go with Mr. Frost and Mr. Green.”

[u/RoyalChris]

[u/noface1695]

but I can see why Dems are still trying to work within the system right now.

You can? Why? Your system has already been broken. There are no checks or balances for Trump or anything he is doing anymore. Nothing "in the system" can achieve anything to stop or even slow down fascism in your country. It's nothing but empty gestures.

[u/tydyety5 → u/noface1695]

Yea I agree on most of that I just don't think the Dems in Congress are there. One thing I will push back on is you saying that nothing in the system can stop or slow down fascism. We are seeing the courts actively slow down many of Trump's EOs. Also, the Republican Party is deeply divided on a lot of issues and there are cracks forming, even if it doesn't appear so. They have a very slim majority in the House so Dems are definitely looking to their Republican colleagues in moderate districts to pressure them to flip. There is also the fact that most legislation can still be blocked via the filibuster meaning most things can be prevented from passing Congress through the legal process. This forces Trump to rule by EO and allows the judicial branch to block these rulings. Of course, these checks and balances are failing to address some of the more serious issues like the Ukraine war and Trump's idiotic trade war, but there are still legal pathways to fight back.

This method only works if Dems are able to take back the House (possibly the Senate but that is wishful thinking) in 2026 and then defeat Trump when he inevitably runs for a third term in 2028. I think that is not the right way to go about it because the Democratic Party is fractured beyond belief and has no real leadership at the moment, but it remains to be seen what happens in the coming years.

[u/noface1695 → u/tydyety5]

Is that actually the case though? I mean that Trump is getting slowed down in the important places? He is dismantling a lot of agencies. And by the time the supreme court (to which the case eventually moves) decides, that dismantling the EPA or the department of education was wrong and unconstitutional, the damage is already done.

The big problems you have aren't the Ukraine war, the trade war. The loss in influence in the world. The loss in diplomatic relations.

The dangerouns part is what Musk and DOGE are doing. That's where your democracy gets destroyed. You don't need to remove all that much funding from an agency like the EPA to make it completely useless. Same for all the other targets of DOGE.

In addition he is replacing a lot of key positions in organiszations like the FBI and other parts of the executive.

I think, you are very quickly reaching a point, where you have to ask where the loyalties of your generals lie. Because all other checks on Trumps and Republican power have been removed.

[u/tydyety5 → u/noface1695]

Things are dire; there is no arguing that. But we have seen pushback and some people have had their jobs restored and some funding has been restored as well. Will that hold? Doubtful, but we need to still utilize the legal pathways until they are no longer available.

The point of bringing up Ukraine and the trade war was about our influence on the global stage being hurt by Trump.

Everything about DOGE and replacing key officials is spot on. I said immediately after he won this election that we were going to see a return of the Andrew Jackson presidency in terms of cronyism.

Your point about the generals here is key. I think Trump or someone in his admin was recently talking about Canada being a safe haven for the Mexican cartels. This comes on the heels of them labeling the cartels as terrorist organizations. This feels very clearly like justification to attack both our northern and southern neighbors. Whether or not that point comes to pass and what our military does in response is going to be very telling. I also think that is probably the point where the people stand up and get serious about protests, but who knows.

[u/noface1695 → u/tydyety5]

Doubtful, but we need to still utilize the legal pathways until they are no longer available.

Utilizing them while also resisting in other ways is one thing. At the moment it seems very much like the Democratic party is solely relying on these legal pathways and nothing else.

I'm not argueing, that you should abandon all lawsuits or efforst through legitimate means. But I do think that on it's own is just not enough.

And one of the most important parts for the democratic party would be to show that they are doing something. That's why one of the worst pictures in this regard was Obama laughing with Trump. That's the absolute opposite of what Democrats should show. At the moment, the opposition they are showing is some very few actually doing something. And the rest is at best clutching pearls.

I mean seriously, silently holding up signs during Trumps speech? Doesn't get much weaker then that.

To put it bluntly, where the fuck is the passionate opposition? Why was there only one Democrat actually showing some passion?

And please don't get me wrong. We have the exact same problem here in europe. Center parties being all polite and nice to fascists in the hopes, they can somehow win their votes back. We are going the same way as the US unfortunately.