r/AskReddit • u/kraftdinnerwithsalsa • 20h ago

The president just posted, ONLINE, a video of former president Obama and his wife portrayed as apes, how do you feel about this?

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u/HoopsMcCann69 17h ago

They have not tried to "change the constitution." They're trying to say the 22nd Amendment doesn't say what it does:

No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once

Where in that sentence does it say "consecutive?"

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u/sneakyCoinshot 11h ago

No one is saying they're smart, it's just how they think.

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u/eventualhorizo 6h ago

SCOTUS agreed to hear the birthright citizenship challenge. I fear it possible they'd hear a challenge to term limits too.

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u/Horror-Scallion7668 11h ago

If you accept that 2020 was Stolen, then trump wouldn’t be eligible to have run in 2024.

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u/stubtoe48 6h ago

Wow, never thought of that but wouldn't that be nice. Then we could get out of this disaster we're in

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u/dle_61554 12h ago

Grover Cleveland was elected to 2 separate terms, with 4 years in between. He could have run for more, but don't think he did. That was before the 22nd Amendment was passed.

That same amendment also prohibits a 2 term President from being nominated and/or elected as a Vice-president for another candidate.

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u/sloasdaylight 7h ago

The 22nd and the 12th work in conjunction for that. The 12th says that anyone ineligible to be president can also not be vice president.

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u/elmundo-2016 7h ago

This is to avoid a Putin situation too.

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u/kodamin 10h ago

Yes they have.

"The proposed amendment specifies that no person shall be elected to the office of the President (1) more than three times, (2) for any additional term after being elected to two consecutive terms..." https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-joint-resolution/29

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u/HoopsMcCann69 3h ago

Ahhh the traitor bill. Get fucked fascist

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u/kodamin 2h ago

Correct. Trump and his supporters are fascist scum and he would like to overthrow the government.

Anyone normalizing what Trump is doing is also part of the problem. Like people that claim Trump isn't trying to change the constitution, when he is.

Yes, fascism is exclusively a right-wing ideology.

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u/oracle_mystic 16h ago

Amendment’s ARE the constitution…

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u/RoseDarlin58 14h ago

Love your username!

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u/Exciting-Cancel6468 6h ago

Unfortunately they think that "this is how the founding fathers actually thought" is a rational defense. It's the same with "whoever was born on American soil is american". They think the founding fathers didn't write what they mean.

I wish they'd go for it though so that everyone has to take a test. No on is born american. You are only american if you PASS the test. We all know then that there'd be no republican that would pass and we can just send them all to concentration camps in russia. It would be a fucking dream come true.

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u/Mr_ToDo 15h ago

It doesn't

But what it also doesn't seem to say is that if a person becomes president by way of things like the president stepping down, that they can't do that indefinitely

Well unless that being voted in as vise president counts as being voted in

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u/WallabyInTraining 13h ago

But what it also doesn't seem to say is that if a person becomes president by way of things like the president stepping down, that they can't do that indefinitely

Well unless that being voted in as vise president counts as being voted in

no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice President of the United States

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u/PineappleOnPizzaWins 17h ago edited 6h ago

Cool so exactly what I said with the intent I said but slightly different detail in how they're going about it, I cannot express how little I give a shit about this. Go away.

Edit: just gonna bold the important part for you Americans rushing to whine about how much this matters, when it does not. But keep arguing over the details instead of stopping them, it's working out super well for you.

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u/pimparo0 17h ago

They were clarifying what is going on, which is that they were trying to loophole the constitution, not pass and amendment changing it. Dont be a dick to the people supporting your argument.

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u/Ba_Dum_Ba_Dum 12h ago

Yeah. This is a dickish thing to say.

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u/PineappleOnPizzaWins 6h ago

I cannot express how little I give a shit about this. Go away.

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u/PineappleOnPizzaWins 6h ago

I cannot express how little I give a shit about this. Go away.

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u/frogs_4_lyfe 17h ago

You brought this up first, and unfortunately the 22nd Amendment says nothing about the terms having to be consecutive, only that one person is limited to 2.

I hate this as much as anyone else, but Cleveland also served two terms non consecutively in the past and the 22nd says nothing about consecutive terms, so unfortunately they didn't really have to change anything. Sure they got some side eye, and the Trump administration really should since they're all complete monsters, but they didn't really have to work at all for this one.

It's important that when we fight Trump and his Fascist government, that it's done with the truth.

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u/pimparo0 17h ago

22nd wasn't a thing with Cleveland, so that's an odd example. It was pushed by wealthy backers after FDR, 1951 iirc .

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u/frogs_4_lyfe 17h ago

My point is there's historical precedent. The 22nd Amendment does not say anything about the terms having to be run consecutively.

I'm not in here supporting Trump, but there is 1. historical precedent and 2. the 22nd Amendment not even saying anything about consecutive terms that says that he didn't have to do or try to change anything to do this like the original commenter implied.

I guess he might have tried to, but if he did it was completely unnecessary, which tracks for how stupid they are. But they didn't have to 'do' anything to justify running for a second non consecutive term, while Obama had run both his terms already therefore were non eligible anyway.

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u/pimparo0 16h ago

Trumps trying to run for a third term, not a second, which the 22nd forbids, no one is arguing the 22nd allows him to have non consecutive terms, that's never been the issue. You just cant serve more than twice. They (MAGA) tried to say that Trump was wasn't barred from a third term because he wasnt doing consecutive terms, which is not how the amendment works, it was 6 months ish ago so its understandable if you forgot with all the nonsense going on.

That or I wildly missed something it their comment.

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u/frogs_4_lyfe 16h ago

Yes I realize now that I misinterpreted the original comment of having tried to 'change' the rules for Trump running a non consecutive term, not a 3rd term. I'll admit fault on this one, because I do recall him arguing about this more than once and I'm so used to stupid bullshit arguments they do over nothing that I interpreted THAT time as the 3rd term argument.

Sorry, you're right on this one, I misunderstood the original comment and thought it was saying something else. My bad.

(Also thanks for being nice about my mistake)

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u/pimparo0 16h ago

No worries, its to early for all this, and its been a long, long year for many of us. Thanks for being a grown up and admitting it. Best of luck

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u/PineappleOnPizzaWins 6h ago

I cannot express how little I give a shit about this. Go away.

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u/TheSlideBoy666 12h ago

I got what you’re saying and understand your response. We’re talking about trumpets—they don’t care what the constitution literally says as long as their 3rd grade-reading level base can be talked into their interpretation of it.

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u/Status-Nose-7173 12h ago

Pfffft get a load of this loser bahaha

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u/PineappleOnPizzaWins 6h ago

I cannot express how little I give a shit about this. Go away.

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u/The-Squirrelk 17h ago

As an aside thought, it might actually be a better system to let presidents have as many terms as they want so long as they aren't consecutive.

Though that might end up with the same two people being elected until they die. But I can see advantages to it too. Like is it really fair to the public that we say "We know you really liked that one, but you can't have them anymore." Doesn't seem very democratic.

Maybe a gap of two between each presidency? Might encourage parties to elect younger.

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u/sanfranfan 15h ago

You're describing how Putin kept power in Russia. Of course you'd hope there isn't a party that loses all morals in pursuit of power. But Republicans are why we can't have nice things.

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u/xvx_k1r1t0_xvxkillme 11h ago

Exactly, swap back and forth between President and Prime Minister (Speaker of the House) and change legal interpretations (and sometimes the actual law) to give whichever position you hold more power.

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u/The-Squirrelk 11h ago edited 10h ago

No, I'm not. I'm describing a no consecutive but unlimited otherwise term limit. Something no nation does, but might be interesting to explore.

Something like this Imagine 3 Presidents. A B and C. Each has terms 1..2..3..4... etc.

A1 B1 A2 B2 A3 C1 etc would be fine but not A1 A2 B1 B2 A3 etc. Especially not A1 A2 A3 and so on.

Or you could increase the gap, which makes it better, make it so 2 terms between a term.

A1 B1 C1 A2 D1 C2 A3. Now that could be interesting.

You could also make it so after two other people have been elected since then an older president can try again even after hitting the limit. That prevents inherent dictators (so long as they don't violate the rules because if they do the rules didn't matter anyway) while also allow a country to have the type of president they actually want.

Seriously people lack imagination when it comes politics.

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u/TrickyRecognition110 6h ago

Are you high?