Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) proposed an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would allow President Trump to serve a third term in the White House so that the country “can sustain the bold leadership our nation so desperately needs.”

For the record, Trump is 78 years old. Assuming he survives and manages to stay in office, he would be 86 when we’re finally rid of him.

  • BaroqueInMind@lemmy.one
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    23 hours ago

    That would take a whole-ass new Constitutional Convention and require essentially unanimous agreement with every state in the union.

    This is simply the state of Tennessee dog whistling and begging their daddy Trump to give the state more welfare money.

    If you are a voter in Tennessee reading this, fuck yourself for allowing that shit stain senator into power, even if you didnt vote for him. Your state is full of disgraceful uneducated morons.

    • ParetoOptimalDev@lemmy.today
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      21 hours ago

      That would take a whole-ass new Constitutional Convention and require essentially unanimous agreement with every state in the union.

      This is only true if anyone actually tells Trump no.

  • Nightwingdragon@lemmy.world
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    21 hours ago

    Keep in mind that they don’t need a Constitutional Amendment to pull this off by hook or by crook. It’s just the “cleanest” way. They do have other options at their disposal:

    • Someone could come up with a “reinterpretation” of the 14th amendment that says it doesn’t apply to Trump because he served non-consecutive terms or somesuch. In this political climate, all they need is for it to be juuuuuust plausible enough to sound legitimate and that’s probably good enough.

    • Trump could just file a lawsuit, probably through Aileen Cannon’s court, and argue that the 14th amendment is unenforceable, similar to what they did when Colorado removed Trump from the ballot last year. Then they just yadda yadda yadda it up to the Supreme Court that could just hand-wave the rest of the 14th amendment away like they do every time the Constitution gets in their way, resigning the 14th amendment to little more than wasted ink on old paper.

    • Trump could just run anyway, under the “Yeah, what the fuck are you going to do about it?” rule that has served him pretty well so far. Of course, states would then try to have him removed from the ballot again, only for the Supreme Court to step in just like they did last time, and say that states aren’t empowered to actually enforce the 14th amendment. The Supreme Court decides to hear the case, but of course, delays it until the last possible moment. Then the Court rules that “It is now too late to have Trump removed from the ballot this late in the election process, so we are going to let his candidacy stand and let the people decide.”, essentially giving Trump a free pass while not directly ruling on the matter to ensure that future popular Democrat doesn’t try the same thing.

    • Congress could pass a law giving Trump an exemption from the 14th amendment, which he of course would sign into law. When the inevitable lawsuit is filed because this would be blatantly unconstitutional, the Supreme Court could simply chime in and say that this is a political matter that is not up to the courts to interfere in, and let the law stand. This would of course hold until a Democrat tries to run for a third term. Then watch how quickly they can act.

    .

    If any of these things seem completely ludicrous or unrealistic…these are all tactics that Trump has already successfully used in court in some form. Trump has the backing of the DOJ, a complicit Congress, a Supreme Court that has already both said and proven their willingness to accommodate Trump, especially if they can increase their own power or further shield themselves from scrutiny in the process, and about half of the state governments as well.

    The Constitution is not a magical, sentient, self-enforcing papal bull. It’s a really old piece of paper written by people who couldn’t predict the needs of society today any better than we can predict the needs of the society of 2275. It is only enforceable so long as our three branches of government are willing to enforce it. And with all three branches right now looking at the Constitution as less the law of the land and more of a nuisance that’s in their way, I wouldn’t be putting too much stock in those protections holding up for very long. There is a very real possibility that this administration really could suspend the Constitution, with not only the backing of the Supreme Court, but also the thunderous applause of about half of the voting public.

      • Dharma Curious (he/him)@slrpnk.net
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        19 hours ago

        I’m a transplant living in NET. Asheville is one of my favorite cities. It’s like a breathe of nearly fresh air whenever I get down there. Have you been to Firestorm? The coffee/book shop?

        • Porto881@lemmy.world
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          6 hours ago

          AVL is great, if not worsening and getting outrageously expensive these days. TBH I don’t even live in Asheville proper anymore, I actually like not paying $2k per month for rent. I’ve got my eyes set on Detroit in the next year or two.

          Firestorm is the anarchist bookstore, no? I’ve not been but it’s been on my radar for years. Might have to check it out this weekend now that you’ve reminded me.

          • Dharma Curious (he/him)@slrpnk.net
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            5 hours ago

            For a few years as a kid I lived in Black Mountain, but I barely remember it. I love Asheville for visiting, I don’t really know what it’s like to live there. The whole reason I’m in Tennessee is because it got too expensive in Virginia Beach. I can’t imagine it’s much better in Asheville.

            And yeah, anarchist worker cooperative. They’re amazing.

  • insomniac_lemon@lemmy.cafe
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    1 day ago
    FDR's corpse, having fixed the dust bowl and his resulting well-earned popularity leading to term limits being added into law, if he could see this headline

    A zombie driving a food-truck saying "Oh you would pull some horse-piss like this." while looking out his driver's-side window at a clown running at high speed while holding a just-revealed ridiculously-long-sword

  • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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    22 hours ago

    Wonder if any Democrats will vote for it.

    I mean, they will get a third chance to move right and blame the left when they lose.