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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
The electoral college was created in part because the Founding Fathers thought the people would be too stupid to understand the vote. Like, some of them were genuinely worried that someone would stick George III into the running and people would vote for him.
Most countries just do the "x person must be a naturalized citizen" thing.
edited 15th Feb '17 8:49:01 AM by Zendervai
"I still don't get why this "must be born in the US" is a requirement - I mean, if this election has proven anything, then that being born in a country doesn't make you automatically less like to serving foreign interests."
It's because the early U.S. was afraid that Europe would subvert their politicians and elected a puppet ruler in service to France or Britain. America has a strain of nativist paranoia that's been there since the beginning. In fact, I would challenge the idea that we started as a Melting Pot. The way the early US is described, I get more of a Hidden Elf Village kind of vibe.
"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."After I posted above, I was thinking of something similar. Like it's always been an interesting factoid that this was the reasoning, especially because something like that could have hypothetically happened since for instance Napoleon's brother was married to a woman from a prominent Baltimore family
.
However, I'm having Fridge Horror now at the fact that by implication, the only non-native born people the drafters considered likely to run for the Presidency were foreign princes. Like it never occurred to them that someone who was an immigrant could be sufficiently patriotic (and let's be honest, also financially successful) to qualify. In fact, there might be decent reason to suspect a conscious nativist motive. Or at best, there doesn't seem to have been a lot of thought about the idea that people would want to emigrate to America.
Well, the early US usually accepted European immigrants, and wasn't adverse to trade with Europe. But they were convinced that Europe was basically a Forever War, too many small countries in a small area with bad blood between them. So they didn't want to get untangled in overseas wars. Now, they'd deal with them militarily and diplomatically in the Western Hemisphere, hell they bought/divided/conquered most of North America with/from Europe.
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.We had both tendencies tugging us in different directions. In the early years, white immigrants were more than welcome - but the Founding Fathers (particularly the Antifederalists) wanted to keep America the hell out of European affairs, because getting tied to a European power could not possibly end well. Hence, a sort of "no divided loyalties" check.
edited 15th Feb '17 9:04:34 AM by Ramidel
The "fake news" backlash continues. I wonder how far the networks will be willing to take it...
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Trump approves FEMA disaster declaration for 34 California counties hit by storms
. That defunding threat was just hot air, seems like.
https://twitter.com/20committee/status/831872441597194241
From former NSA intelligence analyst John Schindler, when asked "what do you think is going on inside NatSec right now after Trump's "intelligence" tweet this morning?"
Wow. It's going to be leak central at the CIA, I think. How nuts is this becoming?
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"It's hard to say exactly what it will take to cause the Trump administration to fall apart. I think we still need a few more cracks that may or may not materialize before the bottom truly falls out.
Under a hostile congress we already would be heading for impeachment hearings at the very least. Under the current congress it's going to take a bombshell of truly epic proportions. Which I would normally rule out as a serious possibility, but Donald Trump is Donald Trump.
Another day, another diplomatic blunder.
President Trump said he “can live with” a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
“I’m looking at two states and one state,” Mr. Trump said, appearing in a joint news conference at the White House with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. “I like the one that both parties like. I can live with either one.”
Mr. Trump’s comments were a striking departure from decades of diplomatic orthodoxy, and they raised a host of thorny questions about the viability of his position. The Palestinians are highly unlikely to accept anything short of a sovereign state, and a single Israeli state encompassing the Palestinians would either become undemocratic or no longer Jewish, given the faster growth rate of the Arab population.
Mr. Trump did not address these dynamics, preferring to focus on his confidence that he could produce a breakthrough agreement. “I think we’re going to make a deal,” Mr. Trump said, describing that as personally important to him. “It might be a better deal than people in this room understand.”
edited 15th Feb '17 10:15:57 AM by iflewaway
somethingRussian Spy Ship Patrols 30 Miles off the Coast of Connecticut
Russia seems to be testing us. I totally expect the conservative media to cover this, yo. /s
EDIT: Fox News were the first to report the ship's location. I wonder how conservatives will take this. On the "Trump Regrets" Twitter, there are people who voted for Trump but dumped him over how much he kisses Russia's ass.
edited 15th Feb '17 10:27:21 AM by BonsaiForest
That's actually fairly normal as far as Russia goes; they do that sort of stuff all the time to test boundaries.
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Until Trump's base loses confidence in him, he's secure in his position, and thus far Trump's "floor" of 40% seems pretty much impenetrable.
edited 15th Feb '17 10:30:04 AM by CaptainCapsase
Congressional Republicans are more worried about their own base than they are about the general electorate, particularly in the House where there's major structural factors favoring them; if the Republican base turns on Trump, the Republican congress will as well, but thus far there's no real indications that's happening beyond wishful thinking; his approval rating has a seemingly impenetrable floor of 40% of the electorate, and unless the Republicans are BTFO'd during the midterms, they're not going to suddenly start caring about what people other than their primary voters think.
edited 15th Feb '17 10:33:52 AM by CaptainCapsase
Now, the former Obama voters and swing voters are already leaving him in droves. And that might be enough, remember how narrow his win was. And if said swing voters team up with Dems, turnout in large numbers, associate Trump with the Republican party, the Democrats taking the House and holding their own in the Senate is not an unlikely scenario.
edited 15th Feb '17 10:44:24 AM by Rationalinsanity
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.

edited 15th Feb '17 8:46:52 AM by DrunkenNordmann
We learn from history that we do not learn from history