Could the public force Trump to resign?

Nope, Buttercup you voted him in. The impeachment process requires a chargeable act after he is sworn-in In January. The Vice President make Trump in some ways look like a Moderate.

No. And why would he? From his point of view, he has a mandate.

The only legal way to get him out is by impeaching him, and the challenges in doing so would be huge. He has to have done something wrong.

The US is not a parliamentary democracy like Canada, the UK, or France, where a vote of confidence (that is lost) can bring down a government.

Yes they can but we don’t want to go there, the public is large enough to do whatever it wants.

“The public” does not speak with one voice; many people are seemingly happy that he won.

Lyndon Johnson declined to run for re-election because of his unpopularity among the public and within his party.

Nixon walked before he had to run. He resigned to avoid being impeached.

@janbb Oh OK, it must be a lot of propaganda here then. I thought U.S.A was miserable about it. Personally, and no offense, but now with Trump at the helm, people’s opinions of America has certainly been altered. (To say the least!). @Tropical_Willie This ‘buttercup’ would have voted Clinton if she was American, but alas I am British.

Coming from South Africa, I foresee a lot of racial tensions and possibly civil war?

@LornaLove Don’t mean to mislead you. Many people, like me, are absolutely miserable about it but others, like all the people at my hair salon, are satisfied. The country is very split.

And I can certainly understand the rest of the world looking down on the US or being fearful. None of us know what is coming but the Republican agenda is pretty clear.

I don’t think there will be civil war but I think we are in a period of great civil unrest similar in some ways to the 60s.

I thought U.S.A was miserable about it.

Clinton got more votes, but it was close. Much of the USA is miserable about it.

We already have racial tensions, and yes, the racist Trump supporters are emboldened and are already making that worse.

No, we won’t have another civil war. It’s bad but not that bad. Most people are concerned about going to work and taking care of their families.

Almost half of eligible voters did not participate in the election. A lot of people are oblivious to the world outside their direct line of sight.

I wouldn’t even try before seeing what happens at least a little. I was never for either of these candidates and I share in the embarrassment many feel knowing the rest of the world is laughing at us and this joke of an election we represent. But, I have heard one decent argument recently that made me wonder what might come of Trump.

If anything, he’s not average. His ventures, fails or successes, have never been average. His being elected is unprecedented. He’s not the kind of guy who’s going to be okay with just being an okay president. He’s going to want to be the best, and that with a ferocity only a true megalomaniac could muster. Whatever comes of it, at least it won’t be a mundane stagnation.

The public officially has no legal power to force a president to resign. This must be done through the impeachment process. But impeachment does not mean removal. Impeachment is merely a formal accusation of misconduct against a sitting president, known as an article of impeachment. It requires a majority vote by the House to pass an article of impeachment. Then, the actual case is tried by the Senate and a conviction requires a two-thirds vote by that body. Every charge of misconduct requires a separate article passed by the House in order to be tried by the Senate.

We have had one president impeached: Andrew Johnson in February of 1868 for violating the Tenure of Office Act. He illegally dismissed Secretary of War Stanton, a radical Republican who resisted Johnson’s lenient Reconstruction policies.

Johnson was the only southern senator under Lincoln who didn’t leave Washington at the outbreak of the Civil War, but his sympathies were still with the South in many ways which made him very unpopular with both Democrats and Republicans. He was a compromise Vice President during Lincoln’s second administration with an eye toward a lasting peace with the South. Upon Lincoln’s assassination, he became President. His forced dismissal of Stanton was the last straw.

He was impeached, but the Senate narrowly failed to reach the two-thirds votes to convict and he finished his tenure as president.

If Trump were convicted of rape in his upcoming trial, this would be enough to bring the impeachment process into action. But it is doubtful that a Republican congress will ever convict another sitting Republican president, even for moral turpitude of the highest order.

“May you live in interesting times!” Will echo for at least the next four years. From a 1966 speech by Robert F. Kennedy, an ancient Chinese curse.

The “public” have already spoken, he won a democratic 21st century election, sore losers can’t start changing the rules & shit, that’s not how it works.

@Call_Me_Jay “A lot of people are oblivious to the world outside their direct line of sight.” Yes, and it’s the Democrats living in big cities. They are surrounded by people who share their misguided philosophy and can’t see beyond the city limits. Get out of the cities and talk to real America if you want to know how America feels. This is why the electoral map is red.

@MollyMcGuire Might you entertain the idea that various groups can’t see the world outside of their direct line of sight and maybe we all need to learn a bit more?

Not really. This is a lifelong observation for me.

Having lived in both bumfuck rural nowhere dripping in rednecks and dense urban sprawl crawling with liberal hipsters I guarantee you Molly is correct. People in urban areas are clueless on average as to what life outside the city is like. Both have their merits but the rednecks understand city dwellers a little better than you would think. The sense of community in small rural towns is something that is completely alien to people who have spent their lives residing in the city.

Thanks @ARE_you_kidding_me .

@ucme no fair, a vast majority did not vote for the ass. Myself included. I’ve never regretted closed Catholic adoption more than now, when I cannot prove on paper that two of my grandparents were born in Ireland.

@MollyMcGuire you’re quite correct that the affluent and thriving cities grow ever more disconnected from left behind rural America. But what we should be paying attention to is the fact that the growth of red regions in the country is almost a DIRECT reflection of the growing impoverishment in the places reddening up. And I ask you to find me a single place in this country that has improved economically under conservative management. You folks stranded in all those Republican strongholds should wise up as you sit there and watch all your talented kids flee that archaic conservative bullshit for the coasts.

@Espiritus_Corvus I don’t know if it’s true, but I heard the rape accusation was dismissed by the victim out of fear of retaliation. Apparently she was getting a lot of death threats from Trump supporters.

I think the good citizens of bumfuck Nebraska with their strong sense of community have voted for a new sheriff to clean up the town rather than a new president for the United States of America. However they have spoken and that is it. It cannot be unsaid.

@Seek Hey, I get it, he’s a wacko & him winning the presidency is a world class clusterfuck.
If I were a yank i’d be fucking furious too, justifiably so, but he won, short of shooting the prick or him dying of a rage induced heart attack, he ain’t going anywhere.
Bite down hard & put up with it, don’t let the moron get the better of you.

Marmalade Mussolini is something up with which I will not put.

What choice is there?

Protesting
Writing my Congressperson
Calling my Congressperson
Organizing with others to protest, write, and call
Refuse to “play nice” with new policies I disagree with
Refuse to stand idly by while my friends, family, neighbors, and total strangers are harassed, belittled, and bullied by Cheeto Hitler’s extra-special forces.

I’m going to tilt against every goddamn windmill any fascist scumbag wants to put up in my way.

@Pandora Yes, it appears she dropped the charges against Trump for the second time. Gloria Alred’s daughter and law partner, Lisa Bloom, is said to be working on the plaintiff to refile, but the woman is afraid for her life and the lives of her family..

Marmalade, Cheeto?
That would make his wife Malaria a Treacle Tart…no?

I don’t believe in slut shaming a woman because she happens to be married to an asshole.

Nowt to do with being married to it, although that fact, along with others, marks her out as of questionable intelligence & therefore fair game.

@Seek that’s what you should do anyway if it’s not something you support. But put up with this orange demagogue and its face on the news we really don’t have a choice. He is in that position and it is not likely to change. We don’t have to sit idle like you are saying either though.

One person who clearly is resigned to her fate, Hillary, she looked like a fucking ghost yesterday.

The election is over and the votes have been counted. For those that don’t like the outcome, the only avenue left is to throw a hissy-fit. Kinda makes you proud to see such a rational reaction to political events.

It’s like when we got lumbered with Thatcher, I was just a kid at the time but everyone fucking loathed the bitch, you just roll with the punches & get on with life & we had 11yrs of that shit.

Having lived in both bumfuck rural nowhere dripping with rednecks and dense urban sprawl crawling with liberal hipsters I can guarantee you that neither @MollyMcGuire nor @ARE_you_kidding_me are correct. People in rural areas are as clueless as to what life in the city is as what city dwellers are to what live outside the city is like. Rednecks don’t understand city dwellers nearly as much as they like to think they do. Most never even pause to consider the world beyond the county line. The sense of community in small rural towns is an over-hyped, over-stated festering pile of bullshit. That “sense of community” is mostly just everyone nosing into everyone else’s business.

@LornaLove The public elected him. No reason they’d try.

No, the public elected Hillary Clinton.

^^^ Everyone knew the rules and both candidates campaigned based on the electoral map. Hillary focused on the battle ground states and lost everyone of them. It’s a bit late to change the rules now that the game is over.

@Darth_Algar That’s usually the perspective of someone who lived primarily in the city and has made excursions or short lived settlements in the country.

@ARE_you_kidding_me

It’s the perspective of someone who’s lived 27 years in bumfuck rural nowhere and around a dozen years in the city/suburbs.

@Jaxk

Do you deny that the greater number of voters elected Hillary Clinton for President?

Chiming in late. As many have mentioned there are plenty of Americans happy about Trump’s election. Even a portion of the people who are unhappy are trying to promote giving him an honest chance and let’s see how it goes. Then there are also a large portion of people very unhappy, scared to death, and hoping nothing totally disasterous happens during his rule.

Regarding city and rural, I think both groups don’t understand the other group very well lots of assumptions are made that are incorrect on both sides. I think the more rural, religious, completely misunderstand the intentions of people from cities who are also more secular. I think people from cities and densely populated affluent suburbs, especially outside of the Bible Belt, have no clue what it’s like to live in rural America, especially regarding topics like gun control, and the perspective of more rural areas regarding religious freedom, connection to the land, taxation, and the feeling of community they have. City people have community and neighbors also, more than rural people might assume, but it’s different.

I’ve said for years there should be an exchange program in schools in America where kids go for a semester to another region of the US. Maybe we can have people, adults, with more understanding across the nation within a generation or two.

Hilarious that the only ones in actual denial attempt to flip it around with something that if Trump had secured, would barely have gotten a mention. But then, that’s how denial works, pitiful delusion.

the perspective of more rural areas regarding religious freedom

They have religious freedom. NOBODY is interfering with their practice of religion.

Quite the opposite, Christian fundamentalists have an over-sized influence on the rest of us.

@Darth_Algar – I’m saying that the system worked as designed. It was a tight race but Hillary lost and no one is to blame but Hillary. Lament that the rules weren’t fair if you like but it won’t change the outcome.

“The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.”

The Democrats got the finger.

@Jaxk

Pay attention. I’m talking about the public, not the Electoral College (which doesn’t actually convene to cast their votes until the latter half of next month, so technically speaking Trump hasn’t actually won that yet), the public. Got it?

@Call_Me_Jay I completely agree with the fact that they have religious freedom. However, I see now their perspective after spending time in the Bible Belt.

Many places have not paid attention to separation of church and state for over 200 years, and so now when public schools change policies, and law suits are filed regarding schools and local government, they see it as the government taking away their right to practice their religion wherever they want.

@Jaxk No one is saying this election is invalid. People are questioning if we should continue in the future with the electoral college. This has been discussed before. Even before the Bush and Gore election. It unfairly weights the vote. My personal vote to the electors is worth less or more depending on what state I live in. I don’t change. My worth as a voter does. It’s starting to feel like black people being only 3/5 of a man.

@JLeslie – Yes it has been discussed before. The notion that it unfairly weighs the votes of individuals is what I’m at odds with. We are a union of states. Congress was set up to give the states a voice in our government. The Senate was set up to do that by giving each state two Senators regardless of population. The house is designed to give the population a commensurate voice. The electoral college mirrors that exactly. With all the push to move all power to Washington the idea that states should have a voice in our government is under attack. Is the Senate also unfair? Is our entire system of government unfair? Many would say yes, I disagree.

@Jaxk I do understand your points. I am in agreement with two senators from every state. This is part of the checks and balances, Congress having representation from each state a minimum of 3, which includes two senators from each state. This is to counter the executive office and have influence regarding the Supreme Court. I’m just not sure that the uneven weight should also apply to electing the executive office. It’s already weighted in congress.

I really can see both arguments, it’s just as someone who moves around a lot I personally feel my voter influence change with each move. It’s weird.

There are a lot of aspects of this election worthy of reflection. For instance, there are the Russians capitalizing on the notorious gullibility of culpable Americans. As far as Clinton’s weakness as a candidate, there is absolutely no doubt that her “unsuitability” has been loudly engineered in a 30 year effort on the part of the right. There is no question that Sanders was shunted to the side by the DNC, and it’s quite understandable that party sentiment was strongly set in the mode of “it’s Hillary’s turn”. As for those people, convinced that our chances are better with Trump, God knows, I hope you are right.

@JLeslie – As a conservative living in California, I can understand. My vote doesn’t count a whit. I vote anyway just to say I did. Still I don’t want the system changed. I dream of the day that California voters wake up to what they’ve done out here. Alas, it’s not likely to happen in my lifetime.

@Jaxk Well, California is kind of one of those states that is the present day conservatives nightmare. Lol. :)

Yeah Jaxk. Pick one of those prosperous red states for “better living”

Yes. I feel like David looking up at Goliath while searching for pebbles for my slingshot.

Unfortunately for conservatives, any place that draws educated people is pretty much a hopeless case for knucklehead conservatism. The fertile ground is ALWAYS the places those people dessert.

It’s worth noting that when the Electoral College was set up the number of seats each state has in the House of Representatives was meant to grow with the population of that state. That has not happened in a century. In 1911 (when the population of the United States was less than ⅓rd what it is now) the total number of seats in the US House was fixed at 435. So the system doesn’t even function as designed anymore.

@stanleybmanly ever look at the political profile of people in STEM majors? I know a lot of very highly educated people who would identify as conservative. The whole idea that coservatives are any less educated than liberals on average is not skewed as sharply as the left would like to think.

It’s worth noting that when the Electoral College was set up the number of seats each state has in the House of Representatives was meant to grow

It’s also worth noting that when the Electoral College was set up, states got seats in the House and Electoral votes based on their population INCLUDING slaves, but that voting power was given entirely to white men.

The system was designed to reward the worst people.

It’s still working.

@ARE you kidding me It is not my contention that all conservatives are knuckle dragging dummies. Indeed, the people orchestrating much of the show are straight up geniuses when it comes to understanding and manipulating their constituents. But the steady growth of whacko absurdist conservatism as exemplified in the rise of Trump, is a great crisis for the movement which I don’t think your friends fully appreciate. Those who do understand this- guys like George Will, David Brooks and even Romney see the catastrophe for what it is, as the intellectual footing for the conservative movement is now left to folks like Ann Coulter.