[ModernMech]

And that Republican majority can pass bills through the Congress, and the Republican president can sign them into law, and the elected Democrats get to have their say. But MAGA can't just come in and completely trash everything people did just because they disagree with the priorities that came before them. How would you run a country that way, if you have to start from scratch every 4 years? How could you operate a business that way, if things you do can just be made illegal by decree? How can you run a research agenda if your secured funding can just be pulled at will?

[transcriptase]

I’m certain you felt the exact same way when Biden spent his first weeks in office doing the exact same thing, issuing executive orders to systemically reverse everything Trump did in 4 years.

It must have been deeply upsetting when the White House press secretary was asked at the time why he was skipping congress, and she said that Biden was not going to “delay action” by going the legislative route.

And I’m sure you’ll feel the same way when the next Democrat president does it too right?

[ModernMech]

Biden was my 10th option for POTUS, and I felt about his overreach the same way I feel about Trump's. But Biden is gone, Trump is POTUS, and what Trump is doing still represents a new overreach into territory that, again, the other side would not like if it were applied to them, yet you seem to be reveling in it.

> It must have been deeply upsetting when the White House press secretary

yes.

> And I’m sure you’ll feel the same way when the next Democrat president does it too right?

yes. You're trying to catch me in a "gotcha" but I don't support abuse of power no matter which side is abusing that power.

[encoderer]

Possibly you’re a victim of the super polarized environment today but this is hard to believe. You’ve written dozens of comments attacking the current administration. How much ink did you spill over Biden 4 years ago?

[ModernMech]

How about instead of questioning me personally we focus on the discussion at hand? My personal politics don't matter, but since you're making it about that, I'm a leftist so I don't see how it's hard to believe I don't agree with Biden on most things.

Like most people on HN, I don't comment about politics here often, but I made my displeasure known at the time in other social circle. I'm here now, as I think most people are, because this is some next-level shit. Comparisons to anything Biden did are strained.

I generally don't find it hard to maintain a consistent view of executive power no matter who is wielding it, because it always comes back to: what if it was wielded against you? This is the question everyone who is in support of this right now needs to be asking themselves.

[encoderer]

The last time democrats wielded this much power they created the new deal.

The last time republicans wielded this much power we became a global power.

Both Roosevelts.

Both hated by their opposition.

History looks kindly on both.

Trump is not a Roosevelt, but in a way neither were they in their day.

I’m a centrist. I believe the greatest living president is Clinton and it’s not even close. I hope leftsts become pragmatic again and choose a Clintonesque nominee next time.

[transcriptase]

Wait you believe the greatest living president is the one responsible for the whole concept of “if we make China rich they’ll become a friendly democracy”?

The policies that backfired so spectacularly that the working class voted in Trump for some degree of reversal?