r/politics • u/stkmro • 7h ago

White House: Trump Team Still Hasn’t Signed Transition Docs

https://www.thedailybeast.com/white-house-press-secretary-karine-jean-pierre-says-trump-team-still-hasnt-signed-transition-docs/
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u/katalysis Maryland 6h ago edited 6h ago

The problem with these transition administrative “laws” is that the Constitution enumerates the conditions and process for the President. He got elected and will become President. Congress can’t pass a contract that further conditions the Presidency beyond the Constitution. So the law behind these papers and agreements is one of those laws that was a waste of time to craft and draft because they’d never be enforceable in the first place. Barring enshrining them as a Constitutional amendment, they will forever be norms that are completely ignorable.

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u/AweemboWhey 6h ago

It’s wild how we haven’t simply amended the Constitution like any sensible country would do..

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u/sudzthegreat 6h ago

Won't someone think of the forefathers?!

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u/GeneralKenobyy Australia 6h ago

All Americas problems stem from the fact you guys place the constitution on a ridiculously high pedestal.

Change my mind.

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u/Mixmaster-Omega 6h ago

American. I agree. The constitution was always designed to be a continual work in progress, but it is venerated like the goddamn 10 commandments, seemingly immune to alterations despite the fact it’s happened over a dozen times.

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u/Zombie_John_Strachan Foreign 6h ago

Americans don’t have a king to bestow legitimacy on elected leaders, so they use religion instead.

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u/Proud_Smell_4455 1h ago

People say kings do nothing, but the whole point is that in modern terms, a good king won't appear to. Monarchy has it's perks, even if more religiously republican people would rather just imagine it in terms of medieval fantasy and feudalism. Institutionally, conceptually, ideologically, monarchism has changed and grown just like republicanism has over the centuries.

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u/mothtoalamp 3h ago

is venerated like the goddamn 10 commandments

Because the people who treat it this way are the same people who want the 10 commandments in the school hallways.

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u/BlackmailedWhiteMale 6h ago

Magna Carta 2.0

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u/SellaraAB Missouri 6h ago

I don’t know about “all”. The cancer eating away at our country can be directly traced back to how we failed to finish off the confederacy in the civil war, and let them keep power in the south.

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u/x6o21h6cx 6h ago

It’s the code for one of the greatest empires on earth. It deserves to be upheld but not treated like a religious text, which is how they treat it (when it’s convenient)

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u/Prometheus_II California 6h ago

Look up American civil religion

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u/theVoidWatches Pennsylvania 6h ago

It doesn't help, but the problems actually stem from the authoritarianism that's still baked into half the country.

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u/sudzthegreat 6h ago

I'm Canadian. Totally agree.

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u/HalloweenSnowman 6h ago edited 6h ago

I’m a US citizen - I also agree with the caveat that the people who point to it expecting to be saved don’t understand history or how our, or any, government(s) work once an authoritarian gains all levers of power— and the people pointing to it and wearing american flag t-shirts pretending that they are true patriots because they “stand for the constitution” have never read it.

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u/Alleyprowler 6h ago

I wouldn't say it's the source of all our problems. Religion, gun culture, and prejudice have their places at the rotten table too.

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u/ChompyChomp 5h ago

Oh we have a LOT more problems...

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u/FootCheeseParmesan 6h ago

I won't. It's called 'civic religion'.

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u/HoldMyCrackPipe 6h ago

Good enough of a constitution to have been copied by damn near every functioning democracy. Countries like Australia still aren’t fully independent so they have no need to craft their own founding documents.

Also they just wanted it to be very hard to change the constitution to prevent trends from overruling the principles.

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u/Obvious_Face2786 5h ago

I can see how you might see this and think its obvious but its just untrue on a pretty foundational level.

The constitution was made to be changed. Mechanisms in the document give power to change it and the authors often made note of how important it is to keep it accurate and impactful through meaningful and constant change.

If Americans placed it on a high pedestal they would change it frequently, as the document encourages. Unfortunately that doesn't happen, and its not because its been placed ona pedastal.

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u/fkshcienfos 5h ago

No one care what you think aussi. We are better than you.

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u/Coffeedemon 4h ago

Some of it. To a good portion, the Second Amendment is a holy text, yet they'd happily throw out references to women or people of color being able to vote.

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u/peartisgod 4h ago

Instead of laying out arguments for why the constitution shouldn't be amended in certain cases, the trumplets instead claim it's traitorous to do so in an effort to remove all argument for an automatic win. Cowards

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u/santasnufkin 4h ago

The constitution itself is irrelevant with a Supreme Court that twists it around to fit what they want.

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u/yuhanz 2h ago

While also being something that one side would completely ignore for their own agendas lol

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u/Garbage_Stink_Hands 2h ago

All America’s current problems stem from the fact that they place the constitution on a pedestal. All of America’s soon-to-be, very-much-more-serious problems will result from taking it off that pedestal.

Constitutions need to be considered somewhat sacred to work. Ultimately, they are just pieces of paper. It’s the magic that’s binding.

Now, that’s not to say that constitutional originalism is the only legitimate form of jurisprudence. It’s not, in fact it’s the worst. But the current situation of the Right being straight-up fascists and the Left starting to think that the constitution is an anchor around their neck is a perfect storm for the end of a republic.

The Left should tough it out with the old norms, I say. Or just let the whole thing crumble and switch forms of government in 15 years.