Rich wrote:Russia in the 1920s ended up as a dictatorship despite the fact that the Soviet Union was a federation and its largest constituent was also a federation.
Ended up? It never was a republic. Monarchies aren't an example of federation. The communists just appropriated the language of republics. Russia has oblasts, republics, krais, and autonomous okrugs. Russia calls itself a federation. It's actually an empire. North Korea is officially known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). China is known as the People's Republic of China. There is virtually nothing republican about these places, nor anything federated. In the US, states are sovereign. They have their own laws, their own courts, their own rules of procedure. They have simply delegated foreign policy, regulation of interstate commerce and national defense to the United States.
Non-Americans and many Americans as well do not seem to understand federation--e.g., why Trump just can't order states to lockdown their populations in response to coronavirus.
Rich wrote:Russia ended up with Putin despite the fact that post Soviet Russia was a federation.
Putin still had to step down for Medvedev, and had to get a constitutional amendment to keep power longer than his heretofore term limits. Meaning, Putin needed a plebiscite to remain in power. He's better thought of as a populist rather than a dictator. He's hated by the West, because he didn't sign on to the LBGTQ agenda. Obama was a constant apologists for Putin, until Putin finally rolled Obama. Russia has a President that appoints the prime minister, meaning there isn't a clear separation of powers in Russia.
Rich wrote:China ended up with Chiang Kai-Shek, despite the preceding regime having extremely high levels of regional autonomy.
But not a truly federated system, like the US or postwar Germany. Prior to the revolution, China was a monarchy.
Rich wrote:China ended up with Xi Jinping because of a lack of democracy not because it wasn't a federation.
China is a one-party state. It's not a democracy or a republic.
Rich wrote:Weimar Germany was de-facto a federation but ended up with Hitler.
Okay, well you have a point there. However, Hitler was granted power by the Reichstag's enabling acts. Still a dictator though. His effort to take power by force in the 1920s failed miserably and landed him in jail.
Rich wrote:The Spanish Republic was effectively federated but still ended up with Franco.
The Spanish Republic was "declared" during a civil war deposing the monarchy. It was hardly a well-defined federation by any stretch of the imagination. Like Russia, it was an empire structurally. So tagging it with the name Republic doesn't make it so. I can go and put a Ferrari sticker on my car, but it doesn't make my car a Ferrari.
Rich wrote:Mussolini became dictator by ending proportional representation in Italy.
Which he could do much more easily, because Italy wasn't a federation. In the United States, each governor has control over their own national guard, or military. That is why civil war broke out in the US more easily than it would seem possible.
Drlee wrote:Either the Senate would force Trump to resign and Mrs. Pence would have to try to beat Biden or they would force Trump to refuse to debate again letting his failure stand.
That peyote is really something, isn't it?
"We have put together the most extensive and inclusive voter fraud organization in the history of American politics."
-- Joe Biden