SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. with President Donald Trump. (Photo: Getty Images)
Though It 'May Seem Nuts,' Experts Say Trump Endorsement of Two-Year Extension of His Term Should Not Be Ignored
"Even if this is just another absurd trial balloon, it is the latest sign that the president may have little intention of leaving office no matter the circumstances."
May 07, 2019
Amid growing fears that Democratic political leaders are not taking seriously the possibility that President Donald Trump could refuse to yield power if he loses in the 2020 election, progressive critics are voicing concern over Trump's retweet over the weekend of a post calling for two years to be added to his first term as "pay back for time stolen" by the Mueller investigation.
Written by right-wing Liberty University head Jerry Falwell, Jr. and boosted by the president Sunday evening, the tweet stated Trump "should have 2 yrs added to his 1st term" as "reparations" for the recently completed Mueller probe.
"It may seem nuts," Adolph Reed, Jr., professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, said of Falwell's tweet in an email to Common Dreams, "but I do think this is worth paying attention to."
"The Trump administration," said Reed, "obviously is contemptuous of procedural democracy, as are Republicans in Congress and elsewhere."
From Reed's perspective, "the Republicans' decades-long campaign to demonize and undermine popular and democratic institutions, suppress voting, forge a political alliance based on the most dangerously reactionary and irrationalist elements of the society and committed to eliminating all restraint to capitalist class power is particularly chilling."
"The confrontation between the House Democrats and the Trump administration over access to his tax returns and the executive branch's requirement to honor congressional subpoenas," said Reed, could prove far more consequential in the long run than "the daily theater of palace politics."
In a column on Monday, Esquire's Jack Holmes echoed Reed's alarm at the president's apparent endorsement of a two-year term extension:
Even if this is just another absurd trial balloon, it is the latest sign that the president may have little intention of leaving office no matter the circumstances. He has already been named--albeit as "Individual-1"--in one federal indictment, which led to his longtime fixer, Michael Cohen, going to prison this Monday morning. The evidence he abused his power and obstructed justice is damning...
Democratic leaders in particular must come to grips with the fact that he probably won't leave willingly. He can't afford to--it could land him in jail.
Trump's retweet came as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) warned that Trump would refuse to give up power if Democrats don't win resoundingly in 2020. In order to to achieve such a victory, Pelosi said, the party should not run too far to the left.
"We have to inoculate against that, we have to be prepared for that," Pelosi told the New York Times. "Own the center left, own the mainstream."
Progressives were quick to reject and denounce Pelosi's suggestion that running on bold left-wing policies would be electorally harmful for Democrats.
And as historian Kevin Kruse pointed out, Trump could contest unfavorable election results regardless of the Democratic Party's approach or policy platform.
In a column published by Common Dreams on Tuesday, Jeffrey Isaac, political science professor at Indiana University, expressed concern that Pelosi herself is not sufficiently worried about the possibility that Trump could refuse to leave office.
Responding to Pelosi's remark that Trump may not "respect the election," Isaac wrote: "I don't believe that commentators have treated this comment with the seriousness that it deserves. And yet, alas, I fear that neither has Pelosi herself taken the full measure of the comment."
"What cannot be right is to claim that Trump is a danger to the republic, and to orchestrate House investigations in a politically serious way that focuses attention on this, and at the same time to meet with Trump in the White House and even feign to do deals with him," Isaac wrote, citing Pelosi's negotiations with Trump on infrastructure. "This president must be opposed, consistently and unambiguously. Period."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Amid growing fears that Democratic political leaders are not taking seriously the possibility that President Donald Trump could refuse to yield power if he loses in the 2020 election, progressive critics are voicing concern over Trump's retweet over the weekend of a post calling for two years to be added to his first term as "pay back for time stolen" by the Mueller investigation.
Written by right-wing Liberty University head Jerry Falwell, Jr. and boosted by the president Sunday evening, the tweet stated Trump "should have 2 yrs added to his 1st term" as "reparations" for the recently completed Mueller probe.
"It may seem nuts," Adolph Reed, Jr., professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, said of Falwell's tweet in an email to Common Dreams, "but I do think this is worth paying attention to."
"The Trump administration," said Reed, "obviously is contemptuous of procedural democracy, as are Republicans in Congress and elsewhere."
From Reed's perspective, "the Republicans' decades-long campaign to demonize and undermine popular and democratic institutions, suppress voting, forge a political alliance based on the most dangerously reactionary and irrationalist elements of the society and committed to eliminating all restraint to capitalist class power is particularly chilling."
"The confrontation between the House Democrats and the Trump administration over access to his tax returns and the executive branch's requirement to honor congressional subpoenas," said Reed, could prove far more consequential in the long run than "the daily theater of palace politics."
In a column on Monday, Esquire's Jack Holmes echoed Reed's alarm at the president's apparent endorsement of a two-year term extension:
Even if this is just another absurd trial balloon, it is the latest sign that the president may have little intention of leaving office no matter the circumstances. He has already been named--albeit as "Individual-1"--in one federal indictment, which led to his longtime fixer, Michael Cohen, going to prison this Monday morning. The evidence he abused his power and obstructed justice is damning...
Democratic leaders in particular must come to grips with the fact that he probably won't leave willingly. He can't afford to--it could land him in jail.
Trump's retweet came as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) warned that Trump would refuse to give up power if Democrats don't win resoundingly in 2020. In order to to achieve such a victory, Pelosi said, the party should not run too far to the left.
"We have to inoculate against that, we have to be prepared for that," Pelosi told the New York Times. "Own the center left, own the mainstream."
Progressives were quick to reject and denounce Pelosi's suggestion that running on bold left-wing policies would be electorally harmful for Democrats.
And as historian Kevin Kruse pointed out, Trump could contest unfavorable election results regardless of the Democratic Party's approach or policy platform.
In a column published by Common Dreams on Tuesday, Jeffrey Isaac, political science professor at Indiana University, expressed concern that Pelosi herself is not sufficiently worried about the possibility that Trump could refuse to leave office.
Responding to Pelosi's remark that Trump may not "respect the election," Isaac wrote: "I don't believe that commentators have treated this comment with the seriousness that it deserves. And yet, alas, I fear that neither has Pelosi herself taken the full measure of the comment."
"What cannot be right is to claim that Trump is a danger to the republic, and to orchestrate House investigations in a politically serious way that focuses attention on this, and at the same time to meet with Trump in the White House and even feign to do deals with him," Isaac wrote, citing Pelosi's negotiations with Trump on infrastructure. "This president must be opposed, consistently and unambiguously. Period."
Amid growing fears that Democratic political leaders are not taking seriously the possibility that President Donald Trump could refuse to yield power if he loses in the 2020 election, progressive critics are voicing concern over Trump's retweet over the weekend of a post calling for two years to be added to his first term as "pay back for time stolen" by the Mueller investigation.
Written by right-wing Liberty University head Jerry Falwell, Jr. and boosted by the president Sunday evening, the tweet stated Trump "should have 2 yrs added to his 1st term" as "reparations" for the recently completed Mueller probe.
"It may seem nuts," Adolph Reed, Jr., professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, said of Falwell's tweet in an email to Common Dreams, "but I do think this is worth paying attention to."
"The Trump administration," said Reed, "obviously is contemptuous of procedural democracy, as are Republicans in Congress and elsewhere."
From Reed's perspective, "the Republicans' decades-long campaign to demonize and undermine popular and democratic institutions, suppress voting, forge a political alliance based on the most dangerously reactionary and irrationalist elements of the society and committed to eliminating all restraint to capitalist class power is particularly chilling."
"The confrontation between the House Democrats and the Trump administration over access to his tax returns and the executive branch's requirement to honor congressional subpoenas," said Reed, could prove far more consequential in the long run than "the daily theater of palace politics."
In a column on Monday, Esquire's Jack Holmes echoed Reed's alarm at the president's apparent endorsement of a two-year term extension:
Even if this is just another absurd trial balloon, it is the latest sign that the president may have little intention of leaving office no matter the circumstances. He has already been named--albeit as "Individual-1"--in one federal indictment, which led to his longtime fixer, Michael Cohen, going to prison this Monday morning. The evidence he abused his power and obstructed justice is damning...
Democratic leaders in particular must come to grips with the fact that he probably won't leave willingly. He can't afford to--it could land him in jail.
Trump's retweet came as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) warned that Trump would refuse to give up power if Democrats don't win resoundingly in 2020. In order to to achieve such a victory, Pelosi said, the party should not run too far to the left.
"We have to inoculate against that, we have to be prepared for that," Pelosi told the New York Times. "Own the center left, own the mainstream."
Progressives were quick to reject and denounce Pelosi's suggestion that running on bold left-wing policies would be electorally harmful for Democrats.
And as historian Kevin Kruse pointed out, Trump could contest unfavorable election results regardless of the Democratic Party's approach or policy platform.
In a column published by Common Dreams on Tuesday, Jeffrey Isaac, political science professor at Indiana University, expressed concern that Pelosi herself is not sufficiently worried about the possibility that Trump could refuse to leave office.
Responding to Pelosi's remark that Trump may not "respect the election," Isaac wrote: "I don't believe that commentators have treated this comment with the seriousness that it deserves. And yet, alas, I fear that neither has Pelosi herself taken the full measure of the comment."
"What cannot be right is to claim that Trump is a danger to the republic, and to orchestrate House investigations in a politically serious way that focuses attention on this, and at the same time to meet with Trump in the White House and even feign to do deals with him," Isaac wrote, citing Pelosi's negotiations with Trump on infrastructure. "This president must be opposed, consistently and unambiguously. Period."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.