Anyone in Congress who supported Trump or any member of Trump's second administration will be so reviled that they will never be able to show their face in public again!

We know now how well that works

The question is will it actually be intact.

The Trump regime will have established executive branch precedent, a template for future Republican presidents to engage in a lawless abuse of power.

After Watergate many believed there wouldn’t be another Nixon – but we got Trump, who is worse. There will be a future Republican president, another Trump, who witnessed Trump’s corruption, Trump’s contempt for our democratic norms, contempt for the rule of law, contempt for the courts, who witnessed Trump violate court orders with impunity, who will like Trump establish a fascist authoritarian regime of corruption, incompetence, and abuse.

That’s the Trump threat to democracy; that’s how Trump is destroying democracy.

We will have to put reforms into place that dismantle the power the presidency has amassed over the decades, ensures the strongest protections for peoples right to vote, and protects the very structures of our government from internal sabotage. These reforms need to codify the tings that perhaps were just assumed that people working in good faith would do, because we can no longer trust that anyone elected to office will operate in good faith.

Right on. We have to put limits on the Presidency so this never happens again. No Imperial Presidency,

We must overhaul of the way we vote, clean and ungerrymander the slate nationwide, and drastically restrict national campaign time.and how they are paid for..

Constitutional changes will be required to fix both the political structure and the electoral system. Unfortunately, with a polarized society and complete loss of good faith from republicans, that seems out of reach. A broken system can’t fix itself.

considered him to be a buffoon and took him lightly--a big mistake. In '16 too many of us were overconfident that Hillary would win. Here in WI, Jill Stein of the Green Party received more votes than Trump's margin of victory and those votes did not come from Republicans.
In my more than 50 years of voting I've had 1 hard and fast rule: Always vote if possible and always, always, always vote for the Democratic candidate even if I didn't like them that well because their election would always help the Democratic Party control whatever legislative body into which they were elected.

Trump took advantage of those flaws and destroyed many norms.

You wrote:
Always vote if possible and always, always, always vote for the Democratic candidate even if I didn't like them that well

I assure you, that's how we got here. I mean no offense to you, but please realize that many people voted for Trump because they bought into the Republican version of this line. Always, always vote for the Republican, no matter how disgusting or clearly corrupt. It's tribalism, and it's killing our country.

Look, I always vote for the Democrats, too. I did vote for a Republican once this century, a woman who ran a statewide office here in Illinois (Judy Baar Topinka) but I later regretted it. But I also realize that the tribalism - my tribe no matter what, no matter who, no matter how evil - is what lead us to a Donald Trump in the White House, not just once but twice. I don't have an answer, but I am sure tribalism is part of the problem.

Tribalism. Sad that one of the main ways to identify the tribe is to promote Us vs Them.

After the midterms, we may be able to stop the bleeding, but it will likely take until 2028 to begin rebuilding.

But brace yourself for disappointment on the consequences, because most of the criminals will get pardons.

In any case, most violations of the Espionage act have a max 10 year sentence, not life.

This is precisely how we got into our current mess.

I think too often we used compassion, empathy and support for wayward or corrupt people and politicians. Look where it got us. Sometimes evil and corruption are just that - evil and corrupt.

I'm beginning to believe evil lives forever.

And the GOP would weaponize it to use against us.

We didn't realize it would cost us our country and democracy to "move forward."

If we had taken care of business in 2020 we wouldn’t be here now

The list is long.

The same way the French are hard wired to love life

Might be something worth pursuing.

And his "Flying Monkeys" have scrubbed the records by now. I still want him to have to live out on the street and beg for his Ketamine, and share a tent with Deplorable I.

Every last damn one of them.

blindfolded with a cigarette in the mouth as the firing squad loads the guns.

We need another round of Munich tribunals complete with a gallows for some and life in solitary for others.

Nope. Banishment. Kick their sorry asses out of the country for daring to do what they have done. Why spend another cent on these monsters? Let them have a taste of their own medicine. 'Persona non Grata' is the only way to go.

Trump administration.

... I'll vote "D". And donate "D".

As to punishing these criminals, that would be a nice bonus. But not an absolute litmus test.

who will prefer Trump. And they are every bit Americans by our definition of who gets to call themselves "American". They will be the enemies in the camp among us all, plotting our downfall and willing to play the long game to get it.
Will we be willing to not underestimate them this time, not to be complacent again? To be vigilant this time? Probably not. Our great national sin has been one of pride. We were convinced that the United States was the greatest nation in the world and not the kind of country that the things happening now could ever happen. No, that only happens in lesser nations, not the mighty and powerful United States of America.

Since we really did it to ourselves by not caring enough to be vigilant to keep our Republic (sorry Ben) we should really own it because it never should have happened.

If and when we get back into power there will need to be a Congressional investigation, just like after the Kennedy Assassination or 9/11. Musk and his DOGE brats are definitely guilty of computer crimes and violating privacy laws, and possibly espionage if they are working with Russia, which I suspect that they are.

We need to reinforce checks and balances and strengthen the Legislative Branch and the Judicial Branch against a corrupt Executive. We must enact laws that disqualify felons from holding high office, especially the Presidency and Vice Presidency. Make violation of one's Oath to the Constitution a codified crime, and perhaps include betrayal of the Constitution as part of the legal definition of Treason. Strengthen our system of democracy, limit the power of the President.

Oh, yes, and rebuild the agencies of the federal government and make it explicit that only Congress can fund, defund, create, or dissolve any federal agency. The Executive does not have these powers and must follow the law. He or she can not rule by diktat with Executive Orders. Establish the legal independence of certain agencies from direct control of the President, especially the DOJ. And add some more Justices to the Supreme Court, establish ten year term limits on the Court, and reverse the Presidential Immunity ruling. No one is above the law. Including a President.

A purge is necessitated, and accountability brought to bear up and down the line. The politicization of the Military is VERY concerning and a major investigation is warranted, but will not happen in this Congress, unless they can make it Democrats' fault.

Ron Desantis, Tulsi Gabbard, Josh Hawley, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Mike Lee, Elise Stefanik, Ron Johnson, Glenn Youngkin, Winsome Sears, Micah Beckwith...etc etc etc.

There's a permanent mark here... I have no fear that AOC, Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris, Andrew Cuomo, Gavin Newsom, JB Pritzker, Jay Inslee would EVER assume the unassailable powers of a king EVEN if millions of "US" marched through the streets carrying them aloft on a flaming throne swaddled in leopard skins and a gold crown on their heads!

We're DEFINITELY not just ONE election cycle away from anything like solving this mess. Lincoln facing reconstruction? Did not live to see it... we got Andrew Johnson instead and lucked out with US Grant's troubled tenure. FDR? Addled during the end of his rule.. somehow Truman defied his programming and did some unexpected right things and some wrong things but the Republic was kept and Eisenhower didn't become viceroy (and MacArthur didn't try for it).

For every Othello...there's 20 IAGOs out there. We're stuck on the horns of the Schumer dilemma! Their party got good at promoting ever more fire & brimstone confabulists while the Dems have nurtured an ethos of Judge Hardy's with a plan to retire rich!

*though it was nice to see Al Gore out there speaking like a fire & brimstone preacher!!!

I believe we are headed down this road again. After Oklahoma City the right wing neo nazis and white supremacists went deep underground.

Rush Limbaugh, Fox and others made hate speech okay.

Trump unleashed Charlottesville, January 6th and helped the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys and others become nearly mainstream.

The Turner Diaries dystopian view is MAGA, in my opinion.

I think we will see another horrific example of domestic terrorism before Americans wake up.

Nuremberg type trials should happen for some of these people but they won’t, sadly.

do a DOGE to what's left and start over. Hopefully a whole new generation can build a 'more perfect union'.

If we survive, and I believe we will, a Democratically controlled House and Senate ought to work on amending the Constitution to prevent much of the stuff we are having to endure now. Some provisions need to be modified to be more explicit and specific about the 'intent' of the original language.
And the PARDON POWERS need to amended significantly. Precedent means nothing as this Court has proved. So let's get busy updating the Constitution to ensure equal justice under the law when we get the power back and ensuring voting rights for all citizens.

You have a demented narcissistic whose decisions are now based on defending his distorted ego and nothing else. He is a runaway train with absolutely nobody around him to rest the controls away from him. He is hurtling us into a calamitous circumstance and there are literally no guard rails. The dollar will crash our economy will collapse and WWW3 is inevitable.

held responsible, including tRUMP. I just hope Garland never regains office again, I am still disappointed in him.

The biggest thing we need to do, is send a giant msg to tRUMP and thugs w/ the upcoming 2026 elections. STOMP their behinds and take over the House and Senate. Send a clear and unmistakable message to tRUMP and thugs.

none of that WE NEED TO LOOK FORWARD bullshit

but refused to have their justice departments do as much as even investigate them---
they wanted to "look to the future, not the past"---

Well, "past is prologue". By their failure to bring past criminals to justice,
they emboldened them--- and helped bring us the Trump that we have now.


So I agree--- we certainly better not make that mistake a THIRD time!

when you let repukes off the hook for their crimes, they DOUBLE-DOWN

Enough of a majority and still have some R on board. Not an easy task. Part of why we're here is not holding anyone accountable in the first place. Remember you still have around half a country who support this who probably still don't want accountability and who will continue to vote R, of those who do vote, if not for psycho then for some other R who is also bad.

the enemy of the good. That helped get us here.

It's not like Dem leadership couldn't see this coming either, a la:

But it's also those who refused to vote for Clinton or Harris or democrats in general because they didn't align with them perfectly on every issue.

Our political system needs to be restructured. The supreme court and a bunch of their recent decisions need to be bulldozed...for starters. I can not envision a "nice" process that achieves effective reform.

No wait maybe I want to change the synonymous name to the orange Hitler !

when Dems held the House, Senate, and Presidency they failed at the most important job they had. Stop Trump. I'm no political genius but it was obvious to me after the 2020 election Trump would try to come back in 2024. Yes, the Dems did a lot of good things during that period. The most important thing they failed to address, stopping Trump and jailing him for his crimes.

All of these right wing traitors needed to be jailed and some deserve the penalty for treason, the death penalty. I wrote this a while back and posted it here. Some here said it was impossible to implement. Some said it was too much like what Republicans want in reverse. Bullshit, its what is needed to correct the path dictator Trump has forced this country on. This should be job 1 for the Democrats.

................................................................................................................................................................................

The New Democrat(ic) Party Platform (or what it should be)

For once in this country’s long history of the rich and powerful enriching themselves at the expense of the American citizen justice MUST be served. No more getting off with no punishment free to go retire in a mansion somewhere. The perpetrators mentioned here have ignored our rights as set forth in the Constitution and committed treason and sedition resulting in costs to the American taxpayer of billions of dollars. American citizens lives have been ruined and American citizens lives will be lost as a result of the greed and corruption of the people responsible for these events. Remember, Treason can carry the death penalty in this country. Sedition carries long prison terms.

Justice MUST be served!

Trump Administration
1. Donald Trump: Treason and Sedition: Seizure of all monies and properties to be sold and funds used for restitution
2. Elon Musk: Treason and Sedition: Seizure of all monies and properties to be sold and funds used for restitution
3. JD Vance: Sedition: Seizure of all monies and properties to be sold and funds used for restitution
4. All White House staffers, Cabinet appointees and staffers jailed on charges of sedition with punishments determined as to involvement and severity of their crimes against this country and the Constitution.

Supreme Court
1. All Trump appointed Supreme Court Judge appointees removed from the bench and investigated as to their involvement in decisions that impacted the 2024 elections resulting in damage to fair elections and enabling the crimes committed by Donald Trump.
2. All Supreme Court Justices who took gifts, money, bribes, gratuities etc. immediately removed from the bench and jailed to face charges for their crimes.
3. An investigation into the events surrounding the retirement and replacement of Justice Stephan Breyer during the first Trump Administration.

Congress
1. Any and all Republican members of Congress who facilitated and enabled Donald Trump and the Trump Administrations illegal actions arrested, jailed , and brought to trial for sedition.

Laws and Regulations
1. The Voting Act passed and voting rights restored and enforced in ALL states in the United States with severe penalties for States that attempt to interfere, suppress or disenfranchise the right of citizens to vote in a fair election.
2. The restoration of the Fairness Doctrine.
3. The dissolution of any corporation that allows the spread of misinformation in publications, social media, the Internet in general with laws that enforce these policies.
4. A reversal of Citizens United and the elimination of the influence of money in the political process with limited public funds fairly and equally distributed to those running for elected office in this country.
5. All Trump EO’s invalidated and reversed.
6. DOGE dissolved and participants jailed for sedition.

Trump Pardons
1. ALL Trump pardons given during both the first and second Trumps terms rescinded and ALL prison terms reinstated with prison terms to be served in full.

Antitrust and Corporations
1. Any and all corporations with Owners/CEO’s who enabled and funded Donald Trump will have their corporations dissolved and broken up with the Owners/CEO’s charged with sedition.

Signed
We….The People

Don’t Forget and DON’T Forgive!

for the rest of the world to ever trust America again. If we do nothing after multiple coup attempts, then the rest of the world will assume it is just a matter of time before we tip over permanently, and will start mitigating their exposure to America. This will be very bad for the U.S.

I’m basing this on my observations over the last 20 years or so.

To cover his entire administration for all crimes during both his terms. There won’t be any arrests or convictions for these criminals. They can get called before Congress and try to get them on contempt or perjury but it will have to be a new crime after he’s out of office.

I don't see your name amongst those who voted.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220245534

Thanks for the link.

that we need to do everything possible to hold them all accountable. And there are also many fundamental changes that need to be made within our current system of government.

Basically, in 2024, a slight majority of Americans voted, democratically, to end our Democracy.

Trump has destroyed our "pardon process", blatantly using it to free criminal behavior that he encouraged or approved. No president or governor should be allowed to overrule the law.

We also need a far reaching overhaul of our ludicrous "money in politics" addiction. I'm sure I am being naive, but outlawing lobbyists seems like a good place to start.

See the Electoral College for one glaring example.

Rec

Suggest cross post to The Way Forward too

The Hague was too slow and too lenient with the Nazis.