And everything you just said after that, China is 100x worse at those things. So this isn't the "US bad, China better partner" gotcha you were hoping to be.
Also, I wasn't comparing the US to anyone, I don't care what China is doing. I was just listing the direction that the US democracy is heading in under Trump. And that direction is a systemic extension of presidential powers that go largely unchecked. The Wednesday ruling of the Supreme Court will be a watershed moment in this case, if they will not check his overreach on tariffs, I doubt that they will check anything that Trump is doing.
What did that coup accomplish for him? Last time I checked those people went to jail for a while and he was still not president till the next election.
> I do not hold out any hope that there will be an orderly transfer of power.
Kind of like how Antifa with the aid of blue city leadership has been burning down Teslas and assaulting Federal agents for a year now, just because Democrats lost the election and can't accept it?
You mean that kind of "peaceful" transfer of power?
Now, I believe two wrongs don't make a right, but clearly democrats aren't innocent angels in the politics game, but are using every dirty trick in in the book and outside the book to upset the election results while playing the victims.
This is exactly what I am talking about. Trump is right now shifting what is within a Presidents power. He is eroding the checks and balances which were set up to keep we the people in power, not a foreign government or a single person ruling in their own interest; We the People. And as you say, even if there is an orderly transfer of power, I do not see the state of the US democracy changing afterwards. You now have a position which is more powerful than ever, and a single person can do more than ever to bend the people to their will. Why consider other positions and opinions of your People, when you can just send the Army to silence them?
Doesn't matter if they wear a blue tie or a red tie.
And the majority of the voting American people have decided at the elections they want and support Trump's policies.
It doesn't get more democratic than that.
> It doesn't get more democratic than that.
It does get more democratic than that: You vote for congress. You vote in your state, you vote in local county elections, etc.
If now historically your congress, your state, your county had certain powers which are now being taken by the President, I would argue that everything gets less democratic. Your vote and your voice matters less and less. I'm not arguing against Trump in particular here. I am arguing for democratic principles.
Maybe I am misreading your position, but it seems like you do not see democracy as changing in the US?
And even in the "best case" scenario where trump does not win that next election, what are you left with then?
A new reality where potentially the office of the president has widely increased powers. Depending on what the supreme court says on wednesday the president will now be able to raise tarrifs at will, send the army into domestic cities at will, have the army kill foreign civil citizens we are not at war with at will and a massively expanded ICE agency which will be really hard to downsize for later administrations.