this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2026
24 points (100.0% liked)
askchapo
23216 readers
232 users here now
Ask Hexbear is the place to ask and answer ~~thought-provoking~~ questions.
Rules:
-
Posts must ask a question.
-
If the question asked is serious, answer seriously.
-
Questions where you want to learn more about socialism are allowed, but questions in bad faith are not.
-
Try !feedback@hexbear.net if you're having questions about regarding moderation, site policy, the site itself, development, volunteering or the mod team.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
He's gonna try his very best to cancel the midterm and all other elections for the simple reason that he enjoys playing dictator and "triggering the libs", but I think that election stuff is all pretty "set in stone" constitutionally, and election results are something the capitalist class has pretty solid control over without cancelling them and still recognizes as a pressure valve for working class outrage.
Alternatively, if either of those two premises fail (constitutional protections for elections and capitalist control of elections), then cancelling the midterm would be plausible in my view...but then why didn't previous presidents do it?
Birthright citizenship is literally stated unequivocally in the constitution.
You're referencing this executive order (Wikipedia), right? (For what follows: I am not a lawyer, this is not legal advice, I am just some Internet dweeb!) I think the order has been struck down as unconstitutional. Not that ICE is gonna respect that, not that the feds are gonna follow the laws that they wrote unless it benefits the capitalists they serve. As I said, Trump will try to cancel midterms like he tried to cancel birthright citizenship, but he won't be able to do it unless it is a matter of survival for the capitalists.
And it is my view that the elections serve capitalists as a class, if not the current ruling faction of capital, since from their perspective, this is a democracy. If, say, PSL had a chance of winning, then elections would get yeeted into the Sun. But since both parties are captured, in particular the Democrats, then the occurrence of elections is safe for the system.
Nope. The supreme court (Partisan trump loyalists) are voting on it later this year.
You give a good argument of why a strategic, non-unhinged (hinged?) president wouldn't cancel elections and then ask why the previous ones didn't. It's like you "but why male models"ed yourself. Or am I misunderstanding something?
Basically, in the last couple sentences, I am saying that even if someone rejects one or both of the two starting premises (i.e. that elections have strong constitutional protection, and that election results are under capitalist control), then why have midterms never been cancelled before, and if never before, then why now?
OK, so you're asking, from the perspective of a lib who thinks Rs and Ds are actually opposed, why one hasn't seized power previously. Hm. I think they'd say that all previous presidents really did love american norms and institutions in their own way and trump is a unique bad guy, first ruzzian president, etc.
Yeah pretty much.
My response would be "no good presidents lol
"...or on a day where I'm not absolutely fucking out-of-control furious at life and 🧊, I would carefully but firmly explain that Trump is really the logical conclusion of the 
project as opposed to some aberration.