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Comment by diffxx | Hacker News Reader

I don't agree that this is what living in a democracy means. It has been known since ancient times that democracy is vulnerable to hostile takeover by a populist demagogue. Sometimes, paradoxical as it seems, it is necessary to overrule the people to preserve the democratic system.

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Maybe, but who is doing the overruling, how do prevent it from being abused for political purposes, and how do you keep the overruled people from becoming very cynical and dissatisfied with democracy as a result?

Keep asking those questions while trump implements project 2025. I’m sure once you figure it out, the stooges behind it will give up all that juicy executive power.

The executive is already 90% filled with people who not only are one party, but share a particular, distinctive ideology, who have demonstrated their willingness to subvert the institutions they work for in service of that ideology: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/resistance-from-with.... (Remember this happened before Trump did anything. It was based purely on federal workers’ moral objections to Trump’s stance on immigration.)

If Project 2025 succeeds behind its wildest dreams, it won’t even come close to even balancing things out.

> The executive is already 90% filled with people who not only are one party, but share a particular, distinctive ideology

Polls suggest not.[1]

> (Remember this happened before Trump did anything. It was based purely on federal workers’ moral objections to Trump’s stance on immigration.)

The article said not.

[1] https://www.govexec.com/management/2016/07/poll-clinton-open...

> If Project 2025 succeeds behind its wildest dreams, it won’t even come close to even balancing things out.

You're pretty optimistic about that. Trump has amply demonstrated that he can be ruthless. And he'll bring on people as cabinet secretaries and undersecretaries who will be of the same mind.

No, its pessimism. Trump doesn’t have what it takes to restore the system to even a semblance of balance. I’m not sure it’s even possible given the decay in government-adjacent institutions like the law schools and bar associations.

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