• moakley@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      The other presidents left the system intact so their mistakes could be corrected. They left the ability for the US to have decent presidents after them.

      • SuperNovaStar@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        2 months ago

        Not for lack of trying. Other presidents have absolutely defied Congress or the Supreme Court, filled the government with cronies, or otherwise completely abandoned common decency and the rule of law. If Trump is more destructive than any president before him, it will be because technology put more advanced tools of destruction at his disposal, not because he is somehow more evil or power hungry than anyone before him.

        • moakley@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          And if Trump had been president in 1801, how do you think he’d have treated his slaves? If he’d been president in 1830, do you think the Trail of Tears would have been any less than an overt genocide?

          Come on. This isn’t a real discussion if we’re just going to make up hypotheticals about what different presidents would do in different contexts. But even if we do base this on such speculation, Trump is still by a wide margin the worst president in American history, because it’s hard to imagine him not committing those same crimes but worse.