Trump's nomination is the first time US politics has left me truly afraid

[hopper]

You're all a bunch of loons. You're no better than the idiots on the far right who called Obama a Muslim socialist.

You mean idiots on the far right like Donald Trump, leader of the Birther movement and who recently suggested Obama is in cahoots with ISIS?

I think Trump thinks Obama is empathetic to ISIS not that he supports ISIS.

[hopper]

The great irony is that if Trump succeeds, the GOP will be far more moderate afterwards then it was before Trump.

However, it will also be far less neoconservative, neo-liberal and globalist and if you fit in any of those categories, chances are you going to be just as disenchanted as if the party had kept going further and further right in the movement conservative tradition.

Yeah more populist on economic issues(not nessecarily really more moderate) and less interventionst on foreign policy.

[hopper]

The doctor analogy is completely inappropriate. The main job of the chief executive of the country is to act as an executive. The President doesn't create laws, and the President doesn't interpret laws. The President will sign or veto legislation sent to him, will put together a cabinet that will handle the nitty gritty of governance, will appoint federal judges, and will provide direction via the bully pulpit. That's it.

The President also has broad executive authority to act autonomously, is commander-in-chief of the military, and conducts foreign relations (along with the Secretary of State, who in the "unitary theory" of the Executive, serves at the pleasure of the President).

And if Trump, who shows little regard or even understanding of our system of government and Constitution, oversteps his legal authority, who is going to stop him?  Do you think, what, Congress or the DoJ or the Supreme Court is going to send federal marshals to seize him in some kind of coup?  No.  His actions will have to be legally challenged by a damaged party and go through the entire judicial system - a process that could take months - or he would need to be impeached and convicted - a process which could take months - all while Trump continues to hold the reins of power.

There is a difference between authority and power.  There are a lot of things the President doesn't have the legal authority to do, but has the power to do nonetheless.

Well damaged at te Presidential Level for now anyway.