Are there any recent books that lay out for the general public not only what the constitutional duties of the president are, but what the entire range of activities a modern chief executive must engage in and what skills are required to perform them successfully? Clearly messaging and management skills are important, and clearly Trump is completely lacking in both.
It would be nice if voters could go down a checklist and hold each candidate up to scrutiny in a systematic and complete way.
Our candidate debates are completely lacking from this point of view. They are mishmashes of questions, one-upmanship, and soundbites. They are gameshows and entertainment. They emphasize out-of-context policy details over competence and character.
We certainly don’t make hiring decisions in academia this way (my only hiring committee experience).
We elect presidents; we do not elect Popes. I could care less what goes on in someone’s private life; as long as they are doing their job. I never judged Clinton for the knob polishing. I actually thought he was OK. I ask ya, who wouldn’t want a BJ in the Oval Office? I doubt it was the first time it happened. The human foible follows us all.
If the general public read books on government we would have different elected officials.
I look at a candidate’s posse of advisors and campaign managers. They are indicative of the larger group an executive will draw upon. The weirdos around Trump should have clued people in if they were capable of noticing.
There is a very good reason why America is a republic and why getting rid of the electoral college is a very bad idea. The reason Rome was a republic was what was learned from the fall of Athens which was a democracy and its a cautionary tale of avoiding mob rules. A pure democracy is what killed the worlds greatest philosopher Socrates because he warned Athens not to go to war with Sparta! They not only killed him but lost the war.
In answering the question if there is a better way to choose a president? Yes, there is, but given the climate and discourse that we find ourselves in, such as the age of misinformation, the lack of transparency of the voting process, and mostly apathetic populace it is nearly impossible to address this issue without first experiencing a total collapse of the system itself in order to address the issues that plagues it. It’s an interesting question to ponder but not a realistic expectation to have in this life or the next.
I am afraid I feel there is a disconnect between what the duties of the job are and what the requirements of the job are.
The duties are often harsh and onerous. They require multiple skills, and huge amount of endurance – just look at how the office ages those who hold it for two terms. Mostly they kind of suck.
The requirements for the job on the other hand look to me to basically be “win a popularity contest” now that we’re in a hugely media-saturated age where celebrity rules over all in desirable traits.
Our system of checks and balances is not real. Great on paper but burned down by 300 pounds of bad - haired stupid. Fuck that. I want my America and the rule of law back. THAT is what I want to hear from our nominee. And trash talk. Then we get that person elected…no matter the cost…and then there is NO better way to select a president.
Rule of law!? Lol democrats are releasing Child rapist back in the community. Democrats are refusing to arrest people for stealing things up to $500, In San Francisco you can literally go to any store take whatever you want and if it’s under $500 you won’t be prosecuted… are you a democrat? Lol
Clearly that’s not true at all. Using plain kitchen table talk instead of diplomatic, political and complicated claptrap President Trump communicated quite well and resonated with voters and he still does.
Patriotic and America First should be the qualifications for all elected officials especially US Presidents and President Trump has that in spades. (card game pun intended). Anti American leftist socialist liberals and Democrats don’t have patriotism anymore, it’s been lost in their efforts to make America fit into the mediocre global standard.
That is not going to happen under President Trumps 8 years! Make America Great Again and Keep America Great is his message and he is managing it just fine!
Yeah sorry mob rules has already proven to be fatal to civilisations of the past. You claim to know the constitution but yet demonstrate to have no real understanding why we an electoral college in the first place?
The desire to smash the status quo, challenge widely held values and institutions and champion the marginalised is absolutely liberal in ethos. Opposing it is resolutely conservative. This is the historical reality, but we are at a unique point in history where the status quo is fairly consistently liberal, with a liberalism that upholds the values of freedom, equal rights, and opportunities for everyone regardless of gender, race, and sexuality. The result is confusion in which life-Long liberals wishing to conserve this kind of liberal status quo find themselves considered conservative and those wishing to avoid conservatism at all costs now find themselves defending irrationalism and illiberalism.
Sure there should be suggestions and discussions how we can improve in picking our leaders but succumbing to the idea of a popular vote hoping that it will address this issue is not only flawed thinking but a recipe for making it worse and history has already proven that to be true!
In Ireland, the governing party may or may not be able to cobble together a new government. Whether or not this happens or there is a new government without the governing party, there will be 60 SIXTY positions to be filled. Not the thousands as in the US.
There is a need for a strong professional civil service with the politicians at the top.
Is there a better way to select a head of government? Yes, it’s called a parliamentary system. It has two great advantages over the US system, votes of confidence and (in most parliamentary systems) the most important separation of power - a head of state and a head of government. The head of state possesses the powers but cannot, except in extreme circumstances, use them. The head of government can use them but does not possess them.
We could start by simplifying the voter registration process. All voters should have voter IDcards and registered not less than 30 days prior to election day and eliminate same day voter registration. Absentee ballots should be gor those on Military Duty, those in nursing homes or because of their job ( truck drivers)that would make it difficult to vote.
Have the DOJ and Congress get off their ass and have a REAL audit of voter rolls under supervision of of US Marshals if necessary. Attempt to do something about voter turnout manipulation with ward leaders paying hush money to people to vote or not vote depending on the candidates and reduce the number of people rising from the grave to vote.
A voter IQ test would be great, but the Libtards would say it discriminates against minorities which is the usual excuse.
We have a good method of choosing a President. If it were limited to legal voters and honest counts, we would be assured that the election was fair and the elected President should be allowed to serve his/her term without harassment.
The Electoral College is a good thing as it keep the highly populated metro areas from running roughshod over the sparsely populated rural areas (you know, the ones that keep food on the dining tables in the highly populated metros) and forcing their agenda of liberal policies on the entire nation.
If we required our legislators to speak the truth no matter where they are (rather than be immune from prosecution when they speak in the House or Senate) we could eliminate the liars from our midst at the ballot box.
Can you imagine a scenario where the entire nation is run by a communist asshole like deBlasio? Can you imagine the income inequality gap if the nation was run like the shithole that is California?
Our election system will never be perfect. Anything we can do to lessen the occurrence of illegal voting and election fraud will make it better.
It would help if there were quality candidates from other political parties that would outclass Dems and Repubs to give voters a " REAL CHOICE" of candidates included in the debates.
We don’t need a BS primary. Three months for Dems and Repubs is enough and debates with other parties candidates would begin on national tv without interference from ALL MEDIA.This will never occur as Dems and Repubs have a stranglehold of a monopoly on the election system with the states ballot access laws.They run a closed country club , similar to keeping blacks out . No other political parties need apply.
So you want to deport all illegals in the country.
You want congress be responsible.
You want to prosecute lawmakers/both parties the break the law.
You want to have special prosecutors for Hillary ad Barack to investigate their connections to Russia and a host of other alleged wrongdoings.
The list is endless if you want rule of law as it applies to everyone not just the little people.
Using plain kitchen table talk instead of diplomatic, political and complicated claptrap President Trump communicated quite well and resonated with voters and he still does.