From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Fri Mar 14 2003 - 00:50:24 MST
Alex writes
> My view of the current [American] President is that
> he was not elected by the people and should never
> have made it to the White House.
Nonsense. He played by the rules which, in our case
are in accordance with the Electoral College. Or are
you talking about the hotly contested Florida election?
Well, someone had to decide who was going to be president
(i.e., how the rules were going to be interpreted because
in the U.S. the time is long past where mere innocents
can know what the law says). It turned out that it was
going to be either the Florida Supreme court, or the
U.S. Supreme Court, and the latter ruled against the former.
That's all.
> This is all an aside as my original post was simply a
> question as to "how do you remove a person from elected
> office in the US?" My question was in order to give me
> a better understanding of what safety guards are in
> place to stop someone like Any President from doing
> something utterly mad?
The President can be impeached, (which means that a certain
kind of vote takes place. Clinton was the only president
since the time of the Civil War to be impeached. After this
step, he can legally be removed from office, though I am
foggy on the details.
> For example, breaking international law, illegally invading
> another country or even forcing the country to follow a
> course of action that is against the wishes of the majority
> of the public and could conceivably start a second cold war.
First, no president (or Prime Minister for that matter) ever
gets elected who is not a "team player". So in true cases
of delusional behavior or incipient insanity, the leader in
question alienates his own people first. No President can
order, for example, the arrest of a Congress person; the order
simply would not be carried out by any sane General.
Second, one does *not* want---as you seem to suggest---that
the PM or President instantly respond to what "a majority
of the public" wants. The majority of the people is a
fleeting thing, a mob often prone to demagoguery or to being
taken in by surface appearances.
When you write "international law" and "illegally" invading
another country, you seem to be suggesting that national
sovereignty no longer exists. That is, of course, far from
the truth.
Lee
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