Asklemmy

Because in the US you have to have a legislature willing to impeach the president. and the legislature is currently being controlled by Trump's party. also the courts. he has 100% control of the government and he's doing whatever he wants. the only thing that could stop him now is a revolution.

Why didn't Germany impeach Hitler in 1939?

impeach DEAR LEADER DUMPY????

So this is necessarily going to oversimplify things because it's a comment on a website. I invite anyone who wants to add more insights or clarifications to do so:

So lets start with the issue of how this would happen: The only ways to remove US president from are political, not legal. We can either vote them out, or impeach them. Impeachment is not a legal proceeding held in courts, it's a process that is kicked off by a vote in the House of Representatives and finished with a vote in the Senate. So whether or not a president can be impeached almost entirely depends on the political makeup of the legislature. Right now the Republicans have a majority, so unless they all have a stroke tomorrow and wake up with a conscience, such a vote will not pass any time soon.

So now we move on to the question of why our politics is this way. On a very fundamental level, the US isn't a real democracy. I'll try to highlight the factors I think are most relevant:

1. We have a very powerful capitalist class that is able to use its immense wealth to deeply influence politics. While this has always been the case to some degree or another, (fluctuating with some significant historical events) the Citizens United https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._FEC Supreme Court decision essentially codified the right of these capitalists to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence politics. The result of this is that the vast majority of our politicians in significant positions support capitalists, as they likely wouldn't be there without their assistance. This unites them in various matters having to do with benefiting the capitalist class, either directly through low taxes, lax regulations, etc, or indirectly through supporting the capacity for the state to engage in violence, as this violence is necessary to both maintain their power against the working class as well as go around the world stealing shit from everyone else. Even if Democrats and Republicans disagree on a broad range of issues, they will generally be united in matters that secure their power and the power of their donors. So even if they dislike some of what Trump does, or at least the optics of how he's doing it, they're not going to push back too hard because some of the stuff he is doing is stuff they value anyway.

2. US elections are structurally designed in a way that limits people's choices and overall influence on the outcomes. First Past the Post voting, a voting system in which the winner is merely the person who got the most votes, even if they aren't the one which a majority of people want. In a race between 3 candidates, a, b, and c, a gets 34%, b gets 33%, and c gets 33%, a wins even though he not only barely has more votes than the other candidates individually, but also that the other candidates are collectively more popular than him. More people DIDN'T want him than did, but he still wins. This means that lets say candidates b and c are politically closer to each other than they are to a, even if they disagree on some stuff, then the result of both of them running and allowing a to win is that now neither of them get a candidate who is even close to what they want. This means that in a system like this, a 3rd party ALWAYS acts as a spoiler. This effectively pushes 3rd parties out of serious competition for the race. Fewer parties = fewer choices = less likely that there is a candidate who you will like to vote for = less representation in government. And because people are unlikely to vote 3rd party for the above reason, this makes those voters essentially captive to the other party, because if they don't vote for them, they will get the worse option. Meaning that party has even less incentive to try to attract these voters by listening to their interests.

3. The other structural issue is gerrymandering. Elections are based on districts and those district boundaries are decided by politicians. So the same people who can benefit from how the districts are set up are the same people who get to actually do the drawing. There are all sorts of ways to gerrymander https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering to get a favorable result for your party. So not only does this allow parties to cheat, it effectively allows politicians to pick their constituents, further freeing them of the competitive need to be responsive to their needs.

4. Through the use of the aforementioned state power and tons of propaganda, any semblance of a labor movement has been crushed. The US does not have a class which is politically united by common material interests. Without this uniting force and without the solidarity that comes from directly working with others, the US has effectively been able to divide the working class along other lines. Racial, cultural, etc. It's also pretty easy to make them irrationally fear each other because if you never actually meet with someone, you're more likely to believe what others tell you about them. Between the war on drugs and war on terror, the government spent over a decade making people afraid of foreigners and various other minority groups.

The result of all of this is that the US does not have any real left flank. It has no significant political force that's primary concern is the welfare of everyone. Instead we have the stupid loud Nazis and the college educated closet Nazis who wear nice suits and talk good. In the past decade or so as the illusion of shared prosperity deteriorated, it's become more clear to more people how broken things are and they are disappointed in the politicians who made it that way and/or fail to adequately and honestly commit to addressing these issues in the future. Neither party will address these issues for the aforementioned reasons, so now we are seeing essentially a marketing battle. Republicans are really charismatic towards people who align with them culturally and know how to rile them up to engage in politics. Democrats are... boring. They are empty suits. They look like your image of the stereotypical politician. Perhaps with the exception of Obama, who was a uniquely charismatic figure in politics in this period of history even if he wasn't much less corporate than any other politician. So 2016 rolls around, people are discontent after a disappointing 8 years of Obama letting them down, and the election was between a TV personality who knew how to get people riled up and an ancient politician who was so out of touch with regular people that she barely seemed human. Nobody was getting excited to go vote for more of the same and she certainly wasn't going to score any voters off charm. Fast forward to 2020, we end up with Biden after the DNC did everything they could do block out a more likable candidate and I'm reasonably sure that the ONLY reason he won was in reaction to just how terrible Trump's term was. Then we get 4 more years of empty suit, people get disappointed, and now we're at 2024. Remember how They put up yet another boring politician nobody trusts or likes. Meanwhile, remember how we spent over a decade making people afraid of foreigners? Well even though both parties are responsible for some combination of those policies and messaging, who is going to be better at capitalizing on that fear and hatred? The boring closet Nazis? Or the really loud, dumb Nazis who play into people's fear and hatred? So surprise! They pick the loud Nazi over the next empty suit the Democrats ran. But hey, to the politicians and the capitalists they represent, this is still preferable to an actual left wing candidate winning. Keeping people divided and distracted is currently the best way for them to maintain power.

So now that we have the fascist in power, the people who need to do their job to stand up to him either can't or won't. Ask yourself how you can expect a politician to resist one fascist when they are actively supporting another fascist committing a genocide? Are these people who have the political principles or will to be genuinely against state violence, overreach, or violations of human rights? And even if they did, they don't have the majority needed to do anything about it.

So yeah, I wouldn't expect Trump to get impeached any time soon. The soonest it could possibly happen would be after the mid-term elections in 2026, but that's assuming the Republicans don't do anything to get in the way of that election. (Also, I don't actually know, is the Senate up for grabs in the next election? Only about 1/3rd of the seats are in contest each election, so I don't know if the current makeup is such that the Senate could change hands next election.) I'm not optimistic about this, but who knows?

White Americans have yet to feel the harm. Trump's policies have hurt minorities mostly. The white farmers have been promised subsidies to offset the losses from tariffs. There's no real sense of community in the US either. People only vote for their narrow and specific self interest.

American here.

Because Americans are stupid.

Well, enough are anyway.

This is the country that made a convicted felon and adjudicated rapist with one failed presidency under his belt our leader...again.

We did already impeach him...twice. But now Republicans are in total control (see stupid Americans comment above), so Republicans would have to impeach him this time, but they're all spineless fascists, so that isn't happening. In America impeachment is just the first step, then the Senate has to actually remove them. After the first two impeachments the spineless fascist Republicans in the Senate refused to remove him, even though it was at the very end of his first term and gave them the perfect opportunity to permanently rid themselves of him. But again, they are spineless fascists.

Why do many Americans support him? It's a combination of stupidity, ignorance, hate, and fear. Humans who don't receive a proper education or upbringing end up being easily manipulated by those things. That's the case here in America. Expect it to get a whole lot worse.

We did. Twice.

Impeachment is essentially the official accusation. This then has to go to trail in the Senate, and the Senate has never been un-corrupt enough to convict him.

In the words of Gomez Adams, "Well aren't you a lady killer?" "Acquitted!"

Because impeachment is only the first step of the process, and removing him from office would require a 2/3 majority after he’s impeached. Currently, his supporters hold a majority in every branch of the government, which is how they’ve been able to pass so much heinous shit in such a short period. So there’s no chance of that 2/3 vote happening under the current congress.

He's been impeached twice already. What will a third impeachment accomplish? We've already shown that it's just theatrics and he doesn't give a shit...

Trump's party has a majority in both Congressional houses. Also, for impeachment to become a conviction, you need 2/3 of the vote in the Senate to get Trump pushed out of office. That will require several of Trump's party's senators to vote for impeachment. During the last Trump impeachment, only one of Trump's party voted for impeachment and he is no longer a senator.

If we get majority in 2026, he will be impeached. That's why he's attacking all things voting. Districts, machines, and methods.

Because the political machinery is captive to the ruling class.

We impeached him twice. He just didn’t get removed.

Why they vote for him in the first place lol

Because America is a completely corrupt society hiding behind the facade of a first world country. It's an example of how capitalism rewards the shittiest people who have no empathy for others unless they can benefit from them.

You'd need a majority in Congress and a super majorty in the Senate to be successful. Both houses currently support Trump. He was impeached twice in his first term but not removed because of a lack of a Senate super majority.

He's still very popular, many peooke are disappointed bevase he's not more aggressive.

An example, reading some comments in the FT about the No Kings protest and many of the comments said Trump should arrest all the protestors for being commie traitors

US Politics is absurdist theatre for the rest of the world

Trump was impeached twice in his first term. Impeachment in the US does not mean removal from office and too many on his side protect him

The funny thing is that they tried to impeach trump twice the first time he was president. Both times failed because there weren't enough votes in the senate to actually impeach him.

So, even if 'muricans tried again, it's likely the impeachment would fail again because of their senate

Why can’t the U.S do the same, if Donald Trump is so bad?

We don't have a legal mechanism for it. In the US Constitution, the people do not have a direct power of impeachment. As a Federalist system, the US Federal Government was designed as a government of governments. So, the power to impeaching the US President is given to Congress, not the people.

Impeachment is a two step process in the US. The House of Representatives (the larger of the two houses) is required to pass Articles of Impeachment which list the reasons for removal. Those are then taken up by the Senate (the smaller house) which tries the President and requires a 2/3 majority to convict the President.

While it's easy to get a sense that everyone hates the US President, especially here on Lemmy, his popularity isn't all that far behind previous US Presidents. Yes, he is net unpopular, but not so much that his removal is politically possible. His own party (Republicans) still supports him, and they hold majorities in both houses. As such, they are neither going to pass Articles of Impeachment, nor would they convict him (and most certainly not at the 2/3 level needed in the Senate).

Why are some Americans even supporting him?

The US is rather starkly divided, politically speaking, at the moment. And people will overlook a lot from the leaders of their own party, if it means keeping the other party out of power. Trump is the latest, and one of the more extreme examples of this. His claims that he could shoot someone and not lose any votes may be close to true. There was a special election in 2017 where the Republican candidate had credible allegations of sexual misconduct with a minor. This was for a Senate seat from Alabama, which one would normally expect to vote overwhelmingly Republican. Moore did end up losing, but is was closer than one would expect, when one of the candidates is likely a pedophile.

Again, if your only source of information about US politics comes from Lemmy, you're getting a very skewed view. Yes, he's not popular at the moment, but there is a large segment of the US population which agrees with him. And that means we're kinda stuck with him until 2018.

just sayin', russians had no qualms or juridical implications when they removed nicholas ii.

Because Republicans vs Democrats has almost reached North Korea vs South Korea status. Republicans want their "democratic" glorious leader and Democrats want profits. And neither care about the people.

It's a two step process: a majority of the House must vote to impeach, then the Senate has a trial where you need a two-thirds majority to convict and remove them from office. House Democrats actually impeached Trump twice in his first term when they had the majority (once for blackmailing Ukraine, and again after the January 6th attack), but Republicans in the Senate blocked conviction.

Right now, Republicans have the majority in both the House and the Senate, so there's not even a chance of impeachment, much less conviction.

Because it doesn’t work anymore, especially with the Republicans in charge. They know that if trump goes they’ll be held to account, too, so better to keep the PoS in office so they don’t have to deal with any fallout. They’d have to follow through with removal from office. Impeachment has become nothing more than wagging a finger and a furrowed brow

no one really liked him being there, even his own party

This is the difference. Trump is still liked by roughly half the country. And the Republican party still fully supports him.