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Record-High 62% Say U.S. Government Has Too Much Power (gallup.com)
41 points by giuliomagnifico 55 days ago | hide | past | favorite | 32 comments


This administration exactly why checks and balances are supposed to exist in the first place.


sigh The US government, at the moment, seems powerless and is being dismembered. It's been replaced by an imperial system that echoes what got the whole thing started.


I see it being cut up and sold off wholesale.


I see just the opposite. This current administration is trying to prevent the kinds of authoritarian excesses and illegal acts that occurred under BHO and JRB from ever happening again.

Perhaps America will once again be a place with "freedom and justice for all"!


> This current administration is trying to prevent the kinds of authoritarian excesses and illegal acts that occurred under BHO and JRB from ever happening again.

It’s telling that you didn’t mention these alleged excesses or explain your argument that concentrating power in the executive while removing safeguards somehow prevents future abuse. Without a coherent argument and supporting evidence, it’s hard to see how this will lead to a useful conversation.


Free countries are not ruled by decree.


America has a strong executive, as mandated by the Constitution.

We'll have a much better idea of how things are going by the 2026 midterms. Then our democratic republic can vote accordingly. :-)


All levers of the government, as I understand it, are controlled by the President's party. This would seem to suggest that the normal mechanism of passing laws and budgets would be straightforward, eliminating the need to rule by decree. As this does not seem to be happening, it suggests the US government is inoperative with all control ceded legally or otherwise to the executive.

Hence my decree comment.


I'm not sure of your understanding of America's government.

Conservatives control all three branches of government to an extent. The Senate GOP doesn't have 60 members, so the Dems can block legislation (the GOP hasn't invoked the "nuclear option" that would prevent that). That's why there's a government shutdown, 100% of that is on the Dems.

The Supreme Court exists only to interpret law in terms of constitutionality. Even with a conservative majority, it shouldn't, and almost certainly won't, violate the Constitution.

As I said above, events leading up to the midterms, and the midterms themselves, will determine the way forward...quite democratically. :-)


> That's why there's a government shutdown, 100% of that is on the Dems.

Back in my day, the filibuster existed to encourage compromise. The idea that this is "100%" on the Dems is absolutely ridiculous.

There's not much I agree with Trump on, but I do agree with what he said back in 2013: "A shutdown means the president is weak."

Mr. "Art of the Deal" really makes the best deals.


> 100% of that is on the Dems

How do you figure? Or is the presumption that the GOP compromising by not (further) gutting healthcare subsidies just accepted as wishful thinking at this point?

> almost certainly won't, violate the Constitution

They arguably already have [0]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_v._United_States


If you think we're having elections in 2026 you're wildly out of tough with reality.


I'd gladly wager some real money were such a thing feasible. We'll see who's "wildly out of tough [sic] with reality"!


America will be autocracy. Current administration is dismantling last protections of democracy. There are people who dont want it to happen and those who want it to happen.


The fact that these opinions exist in earnest and without a hint of sarcasm is why we shake our heads in disgust and disbelief over the pond here. Good lord.


[flagged]


You are woefully misinformed. There are protests initiated by fringe right wingers, but even those fringe right wingers would be approximately centrists in the US. Virtually nobody wants a DJT-like figure in the UK, for many reasons.

I'd be more critical of the news sources I consumed, if I were you.


I still can't fully tell if this is satire or delusion.


If it's satire they've been running the joke for a long time



Seeing the downvotes, I'm fascinated with the effectiveness of propaganda in 2025. Truly amazing!

The midterms should be fun!


and 98% support expanding those powers every time 'their team' is in power as if the situation could never change.


You are exactly right. We all need to realize that the left misused government power against the right just as Trump is now misusing it against the left.

I hope people retain these opinions of government power when their "side" gets back into power and they use that power to shrink the government so much that this cannot happen again in our lifetimes.


> We all need to realize that the left misused government power against the right

How? The arguments I've heard require both of the following to be true:

1. Medical misinformation is a cornerstone of political thought in the right instead of non-politically-aligned anti-scientific nonsense.

2. The government suggesting to media companies that they limit the spread of that misinformation, and those media companies voluntarily implementing systems that do so in order to keep their customers and employees from dying, constitutes government coercion of speech.


House arresting the population for a few years and shutdown any discussion... Yea, def not a misuse of power...


Neither of those happened. Less than half of states had bona fide stay at home orders with the force of law, and they certainly did not last years.

(Many states put out "stay at home orders" that in fact were merely strongly worded suggestions when it came to individuals)


True, de jure, many states didn’t have enforceable stay-at-home laws, but de facto, closures, mandates, and social pressure still kept most people at home for ~year.

You obviously had money, no kids, and AC. Glad you had a better time of it than many.


You do realize all of those things initially happened before Jan 6th, 2021, when DJT was president? This is the pot calling the kettle black here. As for the free speech chilling, the current administration has targeted people who talk ill of the president, which is a much more direct and egregious chilling effect on speech than what happened during the lockdown. Biden's admin did no such thing. Platforms may have taken down alleged "misinformation" (which they are also doing for the current admin, too!), but the Biden admin didn't target anyone who talked ill of him or his admin. If you have counter examples, feel free to provide them.


I said nothing about trump. Both parties are guilty of huge abuse. Biden did not fixed it when he got in office. Stop picking sides and see it isn't binary and both parties are rotten.


Look at the grandparent comment to what I replied to. I'm not picking sides, they did.

I agree, both parties are rotten, but in a thread pointing out the left abused power where the right did not, you need to swing the opposite way to end up there.


Biden didn't fix what? There were no lockdowns, or anything like it, by the time Biden took office.


This is exactly the sort stuff the top level comment was complaining about.

Regardless of what team you're on if you can't come up with a few things that were done that were bad and a bunch more things that were said and advocated for by politicians that were way worse then you are the problem.


I can come up with a few things that were done that were bad. GP made a very specific claim of a bad thing that was done, and I can't come up with things that never actually happened. If you don't understand the difference between those, you are exactly the type of low information voter that grifters prey on.




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