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That's the secret to Conservative power in America.
Step 1: Make everything illegal
Step 2: Accept bribes to overlook crimes of allies
Step 3: Punish the shit out of your opponents.
Congrats! America is now Russia, with better food and shittier fascists.
No, it's not legal, but at this point there are no federal officials left who are willing to enforce the law when Republicans break it.
Two centuries ago, a somewhat obscure Scotsman named Tytler made this profound observation: ‘A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy.’
Also if you have sex with a minor is illegal but if you are the President then it's OK.
He’s been doing multiple crimes a day for most of his life. The thing about a “law” is that unless it’s enforced it doesn’t mean shit
It's hilarious that everyone here is assuming he's not just straight up lying about giving that money to everyone and not just the people who vote Republican.
They are very interested in state voter information.
Nobody is getting any money
Oh people will get money. It's just that the ones who will get aren't the ones who need it
It is hilarious that every MAGA idiot and apparently you think that he is going to pay anyone that money. He has made similar promises before, breaking his promise time after time.
They won't even let you stand outside a polling place and hand out water bottles to people waiting in line.
Oh no lol that only applies to Democrats.
If you're a Dem. Saw Maga groups outside our local voting polls last election. They were cooking and handing out water.
Step 1: Have money.
Step 2: Rape children (and adults).
Step 3: Put an "R" next to your name.
Congrats, you are now immune from consequences.
It's still illegal; it's just that nobody will enforce the law against the orange bastard. The motherfucker was literally convicted of 34 felonies and hasn't paid any fines or faced a minute of jail time, FFS.
He had a whole goddamn sentencing hearing where they sentenced him to nothing. Explicitly.
It's also legal to give someone money after the fact for a job well done, and it's definitely not a bribe.
From June 26 2024:
The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that a federal anti-bribery law does not make it a crime for state and local officials to accept a gratuity for acts that they have already taken.
We live in the stupidest timeline.
He will not give the money. He makes a promise. He breaks the promise. Please people - don't be stupid. Do not believe this idiot.
Americans refuse to apply the law to trump for some reason
Edit: Y'all acting like he's been POTUS his whole life. Dude is a career conman-rapist-fraudster
Conservatism is entirely about the laws applying differently to different people. The king is special. The nobles are a little less special. The peasants are trash. The slaves are worse. That's the conservative world. Hierarchy. So of course they don't want to apply rules to their chief.
They are worse than children.
The law only matters to us poor folks. It isn't applied to the rich.
Well he did make it so tha tnothing he does in office is illegal, even if it’s illegal.
If no one prosecuted you for it, it might as well be.
I hate the orange turd but your comparison is not 100% right. He'd gift 5000$ to everyone, not just who voted for him. I think that's still illegal tho
It's not illegal. He gave out those COVID dividend checks and it was the most popular thing he's ever done. It's just a gross incentive for votes. The government needs that money for governance activities. It's like ripping the bathtub out of someone's house and gifting it to them "for free!"
I mean it's probably not typically allowed under any normal laws and regulations, but they can always find a loop hole to do something like that in a legalish manner (like under a state of emergency, or with an executive order SCOTUS upholds, or hijacking a program meant for something else).
We're fucked
Technically, the equivalent would be you standing outside a polling place with a sign saying “I will give every adult in the area $500 if Candidate X wins”.
Ostensibly, you could just be lying (just like Trump) - and that would probably be covered under your 1st Amendment rights.
It’s stupid, but there is enough of a disconnect between action and reward that it might skirt past.
No, that's not how that works.
18 U.S.C. § 597 - U.S. Code - Unannotated Title 18. Crimes and Criminal Procedure § 597.
Whoever makes or offers to make an expenditure to any person, either to vote or withhold his vote, or to vote for or against any candidate; and
Whoever solicits, accepts, or receives any such expenditure in consideration of his vote or the withholding of his vote—
Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both; and if the violation was willful, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.
"I will give you money if you vote for me"
Is different from
"I will give everyone money if I win"
The first is paying someone to vote and is outlawed by the law you cited. The second has a disconnect between the money and the vote. Everyone gets the money, even those that voted for the other guy. Thus it might be legal.
That seems pretty straightforward. So the law is correct, it's just useless because the system founded on these laws is broken.
What if someone says, "5000 will be on the table if I'm really happy. Candidate x winning will make me really happy"?
Turns out the president is above the law, and can only be impeached, given the rare condition that the opposition party has a supermajority in Congress, of course!
It's very different. One is "I will give YOU money if you vote for me" and the other is "I will give EVERYONE money if I win". The main difference is that one is not discriminating against who people voted for. The first is buying votes, the second is a campaign similar to "I will retroactively lower taxes for this year if I win", which I don't think anyone would see as problematic but it's exactly the same outcome as the one you're finding problem with, i.e. give people money.
It's a stupid campaign because anyone with half a brain understand that he's not going to do it and that that money would have to come from someplace else, but it's still a campaign promise similar to any other promise politicians make to ask you to vote for them.
In many countries it is legal to promise a tax rebate when you are in office. Many cons (oops, I mean conservatives) use this as voting bait for people with no critical thinking skills, and then turn around and give their corporate masters and billionaires huge tax cuts that make those same voters loose critical services that makw them pay out of pocket.
In other words, "Heres $200 to vote for me so i can make your life way more expensive on a yearly basis through medical care, less regulation, less infrastructure repair".
This is the same grift, but more blatant and obviously something that would never get fulfilled, which is why the number is so big. Bigger numbers make critical thinking fail harder, especially when times are economically tough. It tends to get cons reelected even when they are not doing well in polls, speaking from the Canadian experience in this.