Trump praises Chinese leader taking power and forming a dictatorship

[Dalistar]

This man is a danger to everything we stand for. How can you just stick your head in the sand and act like this President is sane? America for as long as we have been around have been the one place the world could depend on to stand against tyranny. Now we applaud it?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...t-a-shot-china

Times like this you look back in history to see what men more intelligent then any we have around today in government would think on being president for life.

https://www.gilderlehrman.org/conten...l-parties-1799

I seriously am starting to wear a tin foil hat and think that Trump really is working for Russia to destroy our democracy.

[Deleted]

Most nations outside of the Western world are not primarily interested in democracy but in any system which allows them to develop their nations. We have this notion in the Western world that liberal democracy is the final idea which everybody will accept in due time. Many people think it is a purely economic issue. However, I don't believe China will convert into a democracy even after it becomes a high income country. China’s leadership has succeeded in many ways: it has allowed China to prosper economically, lifting hundreds of millions out of poverty, creating a substantial and comfortable middle class with expanded personal (if not political) freedom. And the Chinese Communist Party has managed to ensure a relatively long period of political stability, with orderly leadership transitions absent the political violence that had accompanied nearly all others until Deng Xiaoping’s ascent.

[ifrah]

"form a dictatorship"
Yes, because all countries without term limits are dictatorships. /s

China is not really too far from qualifying as one. Even though they have the glorious "People's Republic" in their name.

[dunhildas]

Germany has no term limits, ergo, within the same logic, Merkel is a dictator.



So let's recap, "WE NEED TO GET RID OF THE 2ND AMENDMENT! Also Trump is dictator that is working for Russia!"

[Flatspriest]

OK. People keep bitching about America being the "World Police" yet that is exactly what they want us to be and do when there is a situation they don't like happening elsewhere. It's China. If their government wants to do the stupid thing of becoming a dictatorship, then it is on them, not America.

[Macaquerie]

Most nations outside of the Western world are not primarily interested in democracy but in any system which allows them to develop their nations. We have this notion in the Western world that liberal democracy is the final idea which everybody will accept in due time. Many people think it is a purely economic issue. However, I don't believe China will convert into a democracy even after it becomes a high income country. China’s leadership has succeeded in many ways: it has allowed China to prosper economically, lifting hundreds of millions out of poverty, creating a substantial and comfortable middle class with expanded personal (if not political) freedom. And the Chinese Communist Party has managed to ensure a relatively long period of political stability, with orderly leadership transitions absent the political violence that had accompanied nearly all others until Deng Xiaoping’s ascent.

The transfers of power only look orderly from the outside because the Party wants to present an image of harmony and stability, behind the curtain there are bitter power struggles for even the most minor symbolic posts. Xi Jinping has managed to end much of this by eliminating most of his serious rivals and replacing them with loyal cronies, but if history is any guide, whenever a leader feels that secure in his grip on power, he can't help but abuse it which inevitably creates some epic disaster down the line. The reason why term limits are so important is that they shift a leader's primary focus from just staying in power as long as possible to actually trying to accomplish as much as he can during his time in office.

[Gorgodeus]

"form a dictatorship"
Yes, because all countries without term limits are dictatorships. /s

Name one that isn't.

[Gorgodeus]

Germany has no term limits, ergo, within the same logic, Merkel is a dictator.



So let's recap, "WE NEED TO GET RID OF THE 2ND AMENDMENT! Also Trump is dictator that is working for Russia!"

Stop trying to act like one can compare no term limits with democratic elections, and no term limits with fraudulent/pre-determined elections.

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Most heads of states in representative democracies have no turn limits - my country is one of them.

Pretty sure Denmark does not kill/jail political opponents to ensure the ruler stays in power.

[dd614]

He was making a joke at a big function and people laughed.

Christ, why are liberals so humorless? It must suck going through life without human emotions just hating everything. You people are so desperate to attack Trump you'll latch onto anything. Sad!

[Zelk]

Name one that isn't.

Angela Merkel is entering her 4th term as we speak

[JohnBrown1917]

Pretty sure Denmark does not kill/jail political opponents to ensure the ruler stays in power.

That was not your question though, most european countries don't have term limits.

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He was making a joke at a big function and people laughed.

Christ, why are liberals so humorless? It must suck going through life without human emotions just hating everything. You people are so desperate to attack Trump you'll latch onto anything. Sad!

lol the excuses you guys come up with.

[Uzkin]

That was not your question though, most european countries don't have term limits.

But now that he has further elaborated his original question it is obvious he meant to ask: "Which dictatorship, without term limits, isn't a dictatorship?".

[The5thVegetable]

I hope we ultimately find out that Donald Trump was a massive troll all along and all he wanted to do was stand on top of the world so he could piss on it.

[Deleted]

That was not your question though, most european countries don't have term limits.

Only because they don't have "terms" at all, and they serve as long as their parliaments let them.
When you don't have a parliamentary system, term limits are common.

[P for Pancetta]

And that's perfectly fine. Wish we had something like them.

But it's still important to note that a shitton of countries have no term limits.
If you're arguing against their government, at least do so with good arguments.

Chinese government is in Taiwan, Mainland China doesn't have a government it is ruled instead by the Chinese communist party. Neither does China have it's own army instead the communist party got an army. You clearly know very very little about China, and how it came to be. Currently the only way to be part of anything important in China is through the communist party. Obviously because such a long time has passed since the communist party took over China they are the de facto government of the People's Republic of China and their army is the de facto army of the People's Republic of China.

Besides that Xi Jinping isn't just the president of China, he's also the head of the communist party as well as the highest ranking official of their army. He got absolute power now as he has been killing and removing his opposition and opponents for years. He most certainly beginning to qualify as a dictator especially since he made it clear he isn't planning to step down anytime soon.

You wish you in the Netherlands had something like China? Where Mark Rutte a proven idiot with little international sway representing a party riddled with scandals and full of criminals would rule until his death or until replaced by an even bigger fool?

[Independent voter]

That was not your question though, most european countries don't have term limits.

Most EU countries don't get to vote for their prime ministers, prime ministers are too important for the masses to elect so the political parties elect the prime minister.

[Uncle]

We are seing the consequences of decades of brainwashing about "Democracy is the best thing ever". But it simply not true at all, it never was, and it will probably never be, democracy worked in ancien Grece when Athens had at most 40.000 inhabitants, but even then, they were stucks with the same problems we know: lies. At their times, a charismatic man could be elected and run the city almost indefinitly, look at Periclès, today, we have journalists, who are, contrary to their claims, not doing their job of information, but instead are lying in the name of a propaganda (hello Clinton-Trump 2016).

The truth is democraty don't and can't work when the population is above a certain amount, look at history, in truth, monarchy was the best form of governement, not perfect of course, but clearly the best, and contrary to the popular believing, wars were rare; in fact, since the occident as switched into democracy, the world never saw so much wars, World War I and II were the most infamous of course, but they were not the first wars in recent democracy history, and they were not the lasts, even today, as we talk, there are wars around the world, many of them are because of democracy.

You can critisize China for debing a dictatorship, wich is absolutly true, but it doesn't change anything to the fact they are doing well, meanwhile in USA, you have a president whose term will be sabotaged by opponents because of lies spreaded by journalists (propagandists) and weak-minded people, EXACTLY the same way the republican sabotaged the two terms of Obama by spreading lies and propaganda; but in the end, nobody cares about the people.

[JohnBrown1917]

Most EU countries don't get to vote for their prime ministers, prime ministers are too important for the masses to elect so the political parties elect the prime minister.

A lot of EU countries also have presidents.

And that is not how it works, the party that leads the coalition provides the PM, they don't elect them.

[Deleted]

democracy worked in ancien Grece when Athens had at most 40.000 inhabitants, but even then, they were stucks with the same problems we know: lies. At their times, a charismatic man could be elected and run the city almost indefinitly

They didn't elect them. It was the draw of a dice.

[JohnBrown1917]

Only because they don't have "terms" at all, and they serve as long as their parliaments let them.
When you don't have a parliamentary system, term limits are common.

We got 4(or 5 in France) year terms here.