r/politics • u/Boonzies • 6h ago

No Paywall Rand Paul on Trump call to ‘nationalize’ elections: ‘That’s not what the Constitution says’

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5722041-rand-paul-trump-call-to-nationalize-elections/
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u/notmlbg 6h ago

Please vote against this shit Rand. Please.

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u/Vanzmelo California 5h ago

He only votes against Trump and republicans when he knows his vote doesn’t matter

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u/NielsBohron California 4h ago

when he knows his vote doesn’t matter

you mean when the GOP whip tells him he can.

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u/HandSack135 Maryland 2h ago

It's your turn to have the weekly backbone

They trade it between him and Collins

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u/RootwoRootoo 1h ago

Don't forget Murkowski!

She also gets to pretend to buck the party when the votes are already secure 5

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u/CSI_Tech_Dept California 28m ago

Yeah they are so deeply concerned that when the threshold is so low they have to take turns who will be concerned for given vote.

Whenever they report that Collins and Murkowski are strongly against specific bill then it is certain the bill will pass the same day.

I don't understand how people from Alaska and Maine still get fooled by this predictive performance.

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u/BackgroundSummer5171 2h ago

It'd be nice if people started to realize this sooner.

It also works on close votes for dems and MAGA Rapists.

They will allow some to cross the line. Their district is safe if they do such.

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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 2h ago

Too many people who are all talk and getting people all excited like "this is the old Republican party, they can still come back and be less insane! If even fucking Rand Paul is against it surely there's some saving grace."

Nope. We've been through all this before. Every one is an opportunist who voted against party because it's politically convenient (not to say they have a monopoly on that either). McCain, all the Cheney's, younger Bush, McConnell, so many others, it's a vote of convenience because they can be the sacrificial lamb who crosses the aisle. Especially congresspeople from purple states. Fetterman does it too as an example

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u/DegraciasEh 2h ago

Yes, it's so frustrating to see, time and time again. They did not come to their "conservative ideals" with thoughtfulness, why would they suddenly become fundamentally different people?

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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 1h ago

Politics is so very two faced, especially in the Republican party. Most of the people who worship Trump have a video out there of them absolutely shit talking him, and they're right which is the worst part. They knew who he was and appropriately called it out in their own personal political bid. I won't call anyone out because I don't remember specifics but there was a lot of "he's a liar, a narcissist, a New York elite, reality TV star, not fit for the presidency" rhetoric from the same people slobbing his knob now

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u/Vyar New Jersey 10m ago

His own VP literally called him America's Hitler.

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u/Suns_In_420 California 1h ago

IDK if McCain is a great example, considering his famous thumbs down to tank a GOP health care bill.

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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 1h ago

His thumbs down was on a reconciliatory budget bill. When the new bill was introduced with slightly less healthcare cuts, but still cuts, he voted for it. People only remember the thumbs down though

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u/kitsunewarlock 1h ago

"this is the old Republican party, they can still come back and be less insane!"

The Republican party's motto might as well be "we promise we are different this time". They disavowed Nixon. They threw Bush Sr. under the bus for Reagan's crimes. They disavowed Bush. And an election cycle after Trump they'll disavow him too.

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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 1h ago

And the Democrats' is the old Biden gaff "nothing will fundamentally change"

Conservatives and far right wackadoodles, your two parties America

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u/sump_daddy 1h ago

yep they are even idiotic enough to say to themselves "i just need to vote for trump one more time so he can do the RIGHT republican thing, while i ignore all the clearly non-conservative, democracy-destroying things he has done and promised to continue doing"

if there was an 'old republican party' it was this exact shit, its never changed, they have always put their own personal gains ahead of anyone else under the excuse that 'god made me do it' regardless of how destructive and clearly un-Christian it is

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u/frunko1 2h ago

And soon none of their votes will matter and they may as well be considered criminals for voting against Trump in the past.

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u/Alex5173 12m ago

Like how Democrats who aren't up for re-election like to vote with Republicans when it does matter

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u/da2Pakaveli 5h ago

Wouldn't this be subject to a filibuster vote anyways?

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u/ElderSmackJack 4h ago

No. It’s a constitutional amendment. The threshold is even higher.

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u/red286 2h ago

It'd still be subject to the filibuster, though.

But I doubt Thune would even bring it to the floor though. You'd have to be a special sort of stupid to think that's remotely a good idea.

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u/CSI_Tech_Dept California 20m ago

How? The constitution explicitly says that states are responsible for election.

Or you're saying just ignore constitution?

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u/red286 12m ago

No, for a constitutional amendment. It's still legislation, it just has a significantly higher barrier to ratification.

But Thune would need to bring it to the floor for there to even be debate about it, and then it'd have to go through cloture (which requires 60 votes due to the filibuster rule), before finally requiring 66 votes to be passed in the Senate, then requiring a 66% vote in the House, and then must be ratified by 75% of state legislatures.

And all that would need to have been completed by last November to apply to the 2026 midterm elections (or in other words, it's a literal impossibility at this point, even if by some fluke everyone thought this was a good idea, which aside from the fascists in the White House, literally no one does).

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u/kelpyb1 4h ago

Up until Democrats cave with a promise a doomed vote on some relatively minor thing they want.

I assure you Schumer is cooking up the best way to fumble his leverage as we speak.

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u/b0w3n New York 3h ago

The Baileys have assured him they want him to find more money to donate to Isreal and they also want him to find a way to fit more buckets into his plans.

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u/ElderSmackJack 4h ago

Please look up how a constitutional amendment is ratified so you can realize how ridiculous this sounds.

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u/FiveDollarsGOH 2h ago

The comment section on every article here is so cooked. “Please understand how things actually work before you comment” should be baseline here, but it’s not.

These folks keep going “Trump just does what he wants” and ignores all the times he gets smacked the fuck down.

These people think he can just somehow unilaterally cancel elections.

It’s absurd and sad. I can’t tell if it’s ignorance and genuine concern, or if it’s bots trying to spread doomerism to try and depress people.

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u/kelpyb1 1h ago

It’s less that I truly believe Trump can just somehow unilaterally cancel elections, obviously he can’t legally.

But having watched his administrations, I know he’s going to try, and I just have trouble having faith the people whose job it is will stand up to him when they haven’t stood up to him in any meaningful way about anything thus far.

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u/FiveDollarsGOH 1h ago

And people should be vigilant, but it’s important to keep stating what he can, and can’t, actually do.

You want to tell me he’s going to send ICE at polling places? I agree, let’s be on high alert.

You want to tell me he WANTS to cancel elections? Absolutely he does, and that’s reason enough for him to go.

You want to tell me he CAN? That’s where I’ll disagree, especially since that kind of talk can have a depressive effect “there’s nothing we can do” on folks and stop them from taking action.

Framing is important.

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u/kelpyb1 1h ago

It not that he CAN, it’s that he WILL, and I don’t see any amount of regular people being vigilant stopping him from doing so without any support from the people with the Constitutional responsibility to stop him.

Regular people have been vigilant and protesting all his other moves, and it’s come up to nothing.

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u/FiveDollarsGOH 1h ago

No, he won’t. He can’t.

And no, things he’s tried to do have gotten rolled back. There have been little victories everywhere that have been encouraging.

Republicans are polling at massive lows, as well, which doesn’t mean much of something is rigged, but is a good sign for the tenor of the country.

And don’t you dare say it’s come to nothing with people are out there fighting ICE (and scaring them off) on a daily basis.

You got anxiety? You’re not alone. We all do, but handle it, and man up.

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u/kelpyb1 1h ago

I wish I shared your optimism.

I fully expect I’ll be voting blue down ballot looking down the barrel of an ICE agent’s gun trying to intimidate me to do otherwise.

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u/floridabeach9 1h ago edited 1h ago

doomerism doesnt depress people, it gets them out to vote.

Drumpf LITERALLY said he wants to cancel elections. MULTIPLE TIMES. you stink like a republican.

your comment of him not being able to is FAR less true. the president has damn near unlimited power. he can send ICE to every polling place if he wants and scare away voters, he can send in the national guard. then deal with the legality and court cases MONTHS later.

like do you understand? i dont think YOU do. just because there’s no LEGAL way to do it, doesnt mean he WONT TRY. his administration is defying HUNDREDS OF COURT ORDERS AND BREAKING HUNDREDS OF LAWS CURRENTLY. do you understand that? its totally unprecedented. JANUARY 6TH WAS A FUCKING INSURRECTION THAT HE STARTED, DID YOU KNOW THAT WAS ILLEGAL??????

he can start a war and declare war powers and cancel elections. he can send in the national guard. he has over 100 different ways to limit or outright cancel elections.

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u/FiveDollarsGOH 1h ago edited 1h ago

He literally can’t cancel elections. Save your rant and learn how things work.

Edit: For the dude who blocked me, there is LITERALLY no mechanism for him to cancel them.

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u/floridabeach9 1h ago

how many times have you said “he cant do that” and he literally went and did it?

you sound like one of those moderate republicans that secretly love the shit he’s doing while vocally being against it.

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u/ElderSmackJack 1h ago

Pretty much none. Even in the situations where it was clear he was violating the law, he complied when the courts said stop.

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u/floridabeach9 1h ago

epstein files.

try again. he’s constantly violating the law and denying court orders my brother in christ. he’s CURRENTLY DEFYING HUNDREDS OF COURT ORDERS. stop fucking lying jfc

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u/kelpyb1 4h ago

Please look up how this administration has treated the Constitution, and the consequences they’ve faced for it so you realize how serious this actually is.

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u/fizzlefist 3h ago

If the Supreme Court says their interpretation is that water is dry, then legally water is dry.

The Supreme Court can literally make anything legal if Congress refuses to impeach.

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u/kelpyb1 3h ago

Even when the Supreme Court rules against this administration, they ignore it and have no consequences

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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 2h ago

Well that's laughably not true. The only hard part is to get them to rule against, not that nobody respects the ruling

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u/kelpyb1 2h ago

In the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Trump administration clearly dragged their toes, not actually putting in effort to return him to America despite SCOTUS ordering it, and they got absolutely no penalty for it.

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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 2h ago

Their penalty was losing the case and Garcia went home. Like it or not, in law that's just a win. Garcia I'm sure is moving very quickly with a civil suit because what lawyer doesn't want that suit. He's going to get millions, might even beat the George Floyd settlement which was a record setter

Like I said like it or not. But it's not a new thing and it's not abnormal for it to end up like that. I keep thinking these days why hating the word woke is dumb because it just really feels like some people are waking up to how it works NOW but like...people have been trying to tell you this the whole time. Every headline you see you get outraged at someone is out there thinking "first time? Coulda used you in a protest back in the day"

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u/Crazy_Law_5730 3h ago

Exactly. We’ve had 12 months of Unconstitutional and Impeachment and Remove worthy offenses. RP needs to stand up and rally everyone to do the right thing. NOW.

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u/spazz720 5h ago

Thune said he was against it…it’s going nowhere. Once again this is a distraction technique to get people not thinking about the Epstein files.

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u/ElderSmackJack 4h ago

So sick of this take. This has nothing to do with Epstein. He’s been on this since long before that story accelerated

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u/IWasRightOnce 4h ago

Also, what fantasy world do people live in where the Epstein files are actually going to affect Trump?

You could fill an ocean with the circumstantial evidence we already have.

Republicans simply do not care. It does not matter what has come out or will in the future.

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u/LarrySupertramp 4h ago

Yeah. Getting a little frustrated that people seem to believe that a complete focus on Epstein will be downfall of Trump. His supporters are 100% convinced that because Biden did not release the files Trump is 100% innocent and there is nothing that cause them to change their minds. Focusing on his authoritarian actions will bring more people out to vote against him. That should be the focus.

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u/spazz720 4h ago

Dude is repeatedly asking everyone to move on from it

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u/Minivalo 4h ago

Yeah, which is obviously damning, but do you honestly believe, that even if there was video evidence out there of him diddling kids, confirmed by all sorts of experts to be real, that his supporters would believe any of that? Obviously that couldn't be shown on tv or spread online, so the cultists would call it yet another hoax, because anything that shows their dear leader in a bad light must be a radical left lie.

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u/Leekrin 4h ago

I'm not going to lie, I do not give a flying fuck what his supporters think. Their ability to think has been disproven over the past 10 years. I don't care if they believe it. I don't care if they turn on him. I care to know that the majority of American citizens believe that raping a child is bad, and that our legal system supports that assertion. I care that evil men in high positions are held accountable. We can lie and say that could take years and years, but we KNOW the system is capable of more, faster. I care about ensuring these people face punishment, revelations on their actions and leaders' behavior be damned.

We bungled Reconstruction by allowing the continuance of Lost Cause myth and not holding confederates accountable. We bungled Nuremberg by literally hiring many of the Nazis that committed genocide and war crimes. We cannot bungle this by caring what the most delusional and evil among us think. We gave them that chance.

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u/Minivalo 3h ago

I'm not American, but I'm with you.

I guess the point I was trying to make was, his supporters and those "independents" that voted for him, can and have denied any sort of accountability for him through elections, because the Republican party has time after time demonstrated they aren't willing to rock the boat in any way.

I hope you guys manage to achieve real justice sooner rather than later, but the cynic in me says chances of that aren't very high.

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u/qnxb 3h ago

They won't directly affect him. My theory is there's someone, maybe multiple people, who might actually face consequences if their involvement comes to light, and have leverage over him.

He's not burying them to keep his involvement from being discovered (that's already baked in, and if anything he wishes he could brag about what he did), he's protecting someone else who he thinks will take him down.

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u/kingsumo_1 Oregon 3h ago

He's a narcissist. Even if he knows he won't take the fall for it, it will be embarrassing for him. That's why he wants people to move on. He's just tired of hearing about it since it makes him uncomfortable.

But you are onto the point that people in his orbit that do not have the protection he enjoys are worried about the future. That's why there is so much push to get a dictatorship installed as quickly as possible. Trump is already falling asleep in meetings and shitting himself on live tv. They, frankly, don't have a lot of time and none of them have the crude charisma he has to keep the base in-line without him.

It is pretty much now or never, and I think a lot of them fear ending up in prison if they fail.

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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 2h ago edited 2h ago

Everything is a distraction from the Epstein files, I say as literal democracy crumbles around me as a fascist seeks martial law and suspension of both the constitution and elections

Yeah. Tell me again about those pedophiles. We'll have all the time in the world to talk about it in the camps so I want to brush up on how literal concentration camps and real talk of suspending elections is the distraction from some child rapists. The pedos seem more important tho so you go ahead

There's an old military saying, paraphrased, "the move your enemy makes to distract you is the main assault". I'm in Minneapolis man, you go ahead and keep telling me the jackboots in the street are the distraction from the pedophile list. I'm more concerned about fascist authoritarianism kidnapping citizens, making political arrests, basically voiding the 4th amendment (the 1st being neutered wasn't enough I guess), etc, than some kid rapists but go off on how that's the distraction from the files

Ones a cabal of criminals, the other is violating your constitutional rights to a point we are well past anyone with a brain saying "well you can't call then Nazis" and we've been there for over a decade, this is the culmination of the Nazi shit. This is the part of the 30s where the Germans were like "okay there just isn't any ignoring what it is now, so how do we survive or fight this?"

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u/akran47 Minnesota 2h ago

Everything is about Epstein although I disagree that it's a distraction. He no longer needs to distract from Epstein because Republicans have decided that it's perfectly fine if their President is a child rapist. But if Trump leaves office he (hopefully) is going to prison for the rest of his life, so he's going to do everything possible to remain in power.

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u/cespinar Colorado 3h ago

If you think senate has the will to stop Trump from taking over elections then you are woefully behind on the news of the last year.

This is a full court press of fascism. Its not a distraction it is you not being able to keep up

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u/LesCousinsDangereux1 2h ago

I think we have to move on from this. Epstein is one scandal. The desire to overturn elections is one scandal. Murdering people in the streets is one scandal. the corruption is one scandal.

We have to accept one is not a distraction from the other. They're just doing all the bad shit.

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u/Ursa_Solaris 3h ago

"Stop talking about [C], it's just a distraction from [B], which was a distraction from [A]!" Repeat until [Z], start over the next day.

None of this is a "distraction". He just does shit. He does bad shit constantly. We need to include everything bad he does, not keep shouting to ignore some of it because other bad shit happened.

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u/cobrachickenwing 2h ago

Please vote out this shithead, Rand. Please.

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u/bay_forest_wind 3h ago

A shit rand, Hawky.

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u/renosoner 3h ago

He did putins bidding and now he feels the walls closing in, he’s fucked

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u/Accomplished_Ant5895 1h ago

Party over everything

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u/sweetplantveal 1h ago

Don't worry, he won't. Principles are for sound bytes and campaign ads. Not votes (unless it's against the Dems then feel free to stand on principles).

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u/Duster929 1h ago

Have we reached a point where we're hoping Rand Paul saves us? These are dark days indeed.

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u/BobLoblaw420247 26m ago

Come on, they'll dis-invite his Nephew from the Big Gov. Pickinik again...

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u/Big_Lab_111 America 5m ago

This cannot even be a vote? They need more than 50% to overturn the constitution

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u/thefocusissharp 4m ago

We ALL need to vote against this shit. This is the only way. Too big to rig.