Kilobugya wrote:Well, all this debate points to many problems :
1. How can a single person have the authority to order, alone, the end of the world ?
2. Why have such a long "lame duck" period, where a defeated president is still in power, able to sabotage, unleash his frustration and anger, ... ? Here in France we have... one week before the second turn of elections and the new president assuming office.
3. How did the numerous mechanisms in the Constitution to remove an unfit president (Electoral College, Impeachment, 25th Amendment) fail so badly ? Shouldn't it point to a need to change all that ?
Those are the real questions. That the military, in situation where the normal mechanisms already failed, and where a crazy defeated man was at real risk of
ending the world they were right to step in and say "hrm, no". Exactly like Stanislav Petrov was right to say "hrm, no". That doesn't mean I condemn military seizing power, but there is a huge difference between the military seizing power and them refusing to carry out a clearly abusive order from a lame duck president.
1. One person really shouldn't have that authority. I'm not really sure know why we treat Presidents as enlightened monarchs when it comes to national security, for some reason.
2. I think that that's probably due to institutional and legal inertia more than anything. Our Constitution is very old and is difficult to change, especially in today's political environment. We decided to clean up the election/succession process a little bit with the 20th and 25th Amendments. The lame duck period used to be even longer.
3. Extreme political polarization and the cowardice of many of our leaders prevented these measures from being taken.
Above all, I think there is a baseline assumption by many that the President is inherently responsible, rational, or reasonable. Our founding fathers regarded a strong executive with an inherent degree of suspicion, but much of the legal framework that we've built on top of the Constitution over time is way too trusting of the President, in my opinion.
The Black Forrest wrote:Antipatros wrote:Watching January 6th unfold live on TV, and then seeing many Republicans slowly morph from their initial state of outrage into insurrection apologia was the final nail in the coffin for me.
Well? Ask yourself this? Did 45 make them that way? Or….where they always that way and 45 only enabled them to be that outspoken about their hate?
I am more concerned this proud to be ignorant stance……
I think that this process of radicalization among some on the right has been occurring for a long time. 45 just turned the heat up to 11.