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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
I wouldn't mind a sort of cursus honorum thing where the President would have to have held either a job as (say) Governor, Secretary, Senator or Representative. But getting that put in would require an amendment, and furthermore, as has been said, it'll reinforce existing power structures. (Case in point: one country that already does this is Singapore, which uses that rule to protect the People's Action Party's position.)
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I mean, the alternative is getting another complete idiot populist who has no idea what they're doing who'll run the country into the ground. I'm perfectly fine with requiring presidential candidates to have some sort of political experience. If people want outsiders or whatever, let them prove their outsidery-ness at the state level before moving on to the presidency.
edited 9th May '18 11:01:50 AM by danime91
I believe that people should be allowed to vote for who they want.
Mostly because "requirements" like these have historically been used in voter suppression and could just be used as a method of keeping candidates as part of the system.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.Trump's going on about how "everyone" thinks he deserves the Peace Prize.
Yeah, I have a feeling that between acting like you are entitled to it, the shit with Iran, and not achieving anything concrete in North Korea, that you have a ways to go there Cheeto.
edited 9th May '18 11:13:26 AM by Rationalinsanity
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.![]()
The presidency has too much institutional power to risk giving the controls to a know-nothing. A cursus honorum of prior elective office is exclusionary, but we have to drop the idea that everyone is cut out for the presidency. They're not. And yes, having a history of elected office makes a candidate part of the political establishment, but that's also the best way, short of making a granular laundry list of extremely specific laws, to ensure that the norms of governance are respected.
- Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877)
- Grover Cleveland (1885-1889 and 1893-1897)
- Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921)
- Dwight Eisenhower (1953-1961)
- George W. Bush (2001-2009)
- Donald J. Trump (2017-)
Some of these did quite well.
edited 9th May '18 11:28:44 AM by CharlesPhipps
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
And what's that list?
In what way would we call Grant "Trumplike"?
True, the administration was fairly corrupt, but I don't know if Grant himself was, and he actually fought against white supremacists.
Oh God! Natural light!Before Trump, every POTUS either had prior governmental experience or a military service record backing them up. Trump’s the only one to lack both, and it shows.
edited 9th May '18 11:51:10 AM by TrashJack
"Cynic, n. — A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be." - The Devil's Dictionarythis is satisfying.
Lawyer sentenced in Mueller probe reports to prison
[1]
Alex van der Zwaan, 33, arrived at FCI Allenwood Low, a low-security federal prison near Allenwood, Pa.
He was sentenced last month to a $20,000 fine and 30 days in prison, and is expected to be released on June 4, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons's website.
In reporting to prison, van der Zwaan becomes the first person charged in special counsel Robert Mueller's probe to be incarcerated.
He pleaded guilty in February to one count of lying to federal investigators about his contacts with former Trump campaign aide Richard Gates. His crime does not appear to be directly related to the central question of Mueller's investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
edited 9th May '18 12:13:47 PM by megaeliz
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My idea of prior political experience for the Presidency:
- Vice President
- Speaker of the House
- Senator
- Cabinet Secretary
- U.S. Rep
- Governor
- Career Ambassador
- General/Admiral
A person doesn't have to be all, or most of these, but they should be a familiar face, and have a public record of elections, administration, or legislation. My opinion on the matter is that a person going for the most powerful office in the world should have some experience in public service where their actions had national implications. The exception here are governors, because being the executive of a state can be translated to being the executive of the nation.
edited 9th May '18 12:23:28 PM by CrimsonZephyr
"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."If I recall, much of the corruption done by Grant appointees was exposed by other Grant appointees.
He also stopped a depression from spiraling out of control when some guys almost cornered the gold market, resolved tensions with Britain that paved the way for the special relationship, and championed immediate suffrage for freed slaves.
Personality wise, Grant was known for being quiet, determined, concise, and humble. He had administered the largest military apparatus the US had ever created up to that point and regularly interacted with President Lincoln and cabinet members. He didn't come into the office a novice.
Sort of-a bunch of his appointees were hideously corrupt and did a lot of damage before some of his other staff found out. The scandals destroyed his administration and most of his political clout, discrediting his allies and allowed Hayes to sweep into office, which was a disaster by any measure.
Grant himself seems to have been very straight laced and upheld the office well-but he trusted the wrong people, and he spent more than a century getting his tenure roundly trashed by everyone. Many people upset that his failures allowed Hayes to end Reconstruction and lay the foundations for Jim Crow, some for his perceived corruption, and then the rest-the ex-Confederates for keeping his boot on their throat during his entire administration and stamping out their attempts at insurrection.
edited 9th May '18 1:02:42 PM by ViperMagnum357
Grant, as others have noted, was not within a thousand miles of "Trumplike" and that's a pretty serious slur to throw at the man who destroyed the original Klan.
Grant and Eisenhower both, it should be noted, had a great deal of experience managing coalitions courtesy of their military experience. As General-in-Chief Grant had to keep multiple generals, both real and political, from ripping out one another's throats, and Eisenhower had it even worse since he was juggling officers and governments from multiple nations.
edited 9th May '18 1:36:27 PM by AmbarSonofDeshar

https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2018/05/09/day-475/
Day 475: Unprecedented and coordinated.
1/ A report from the Senate Intelligence Committee concludes that Russia conducted an "unprecedented, coordinated cyber campaign" in order to undermine confidence in U.S. voting systems starting as early as 2014 through Election Day 2016. Senators report that the Russians targeted at least 18 states looking for vulnerabilities, and in six states they tried to gain access to voting websites. In "a small number of states" they actually breached election computer defenses. The committee said it found no evidence that vote tallies or voter registration information were changed, but that Russian hackers were "in a position to, at a minimum, alter or delete voter registration data." (New York Times / The Hill)
http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/386833-senate-intel-report-says-russia-waged-unprecedented-cyber-campaign
[PDF] Russian Targeting of Election Infrastructure During the 2016 Election: Summary of Initial Findings and Recommendations. (Senator Burr)
https://www.burr.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/RussRptInstlmt1-%20ElecSec%20Findings,Recs2.pdf
2/ Top White House officials withheld information sought by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, siding with senior FBI and national intelligence officials that the information could endanger a top-secret intelligence source. The decision marks a rare moment of agreement between the White House and the Justice Department. After the White House and Justice Department refused the request, Nunes publicly suggested that he may try to hold Jeff Sessions in contempt for refusing to comply. Some administration officials worry that Trump will change his mind and support Nunes' argument that "Congress has a right and a duty to get this information." (Washington Post)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/risk-to-intelligence-source-who-aided-russia-investigation-at-center-of-latest-showdown-between-nunes-and-justice-dept/2018/05/08/d6fb66f8-5223-11e8-abd8-265bd07a9859_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.9a5e5ca0ab71
3/ One of the women who accused Trump of sexual misconduct has won her primary bid for state office in Ohio. Rachel Cooks accused Trump of kissing her without her consent in 2005 and went public with her claims in 2016. She is now the Democratic nominee for a seat in the Ohio state Legislature. (CNN)
https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/08/politics/rachel-crooks-ohio/index.html
4/ Trump mused about taking away press credentials from media outlets over "negative" coverage of him. "Why do we work so hard in working with the media when it is corrupt?" Trump tweeted. "Take away credentials?" Trump was apparently responding to a segment on Fox and Friends, which cited a study from the Media Research Center – a right-wing media watchdog. The study says 91% of network news stories about him are negative. (The Independent / The Hill / Politico / Washington Post)
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/09/trump-media-credentials-576798
Notables.
North Korea handed over three American prisoners to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who are now on the way home from Pyongyang. Trump plans to greet the three men when they arrive at Andrews Air Force Base. North Korean state media said the men were detained for either subversion or committing "hostile acts" against the government. (CNBC / Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missiles/north-korea-releases-detained-americans-ahead-of-planned-trump-kim-summit-idUSKBN1IA08I
Don Blankenship lost in the West Virginia Republican Senate primary on Tuesday following the coordinated effort by Mitch Mc Connell and Republican leaders to sink his bid. Blankenship called himself "Trumpier Than Trump." (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/08/us/politics/blankenship-west-virginia.html
A group of Republicans are trying to force a vote to save the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in defiance of Paul Ryan. House GOP moderates filed a discharge petition that would trigger a series of votes on four immigration bills if 218 members sign on. They need every Democrat to support the petition and 20 Republicans to break ranks to trigger the votes. (Politico / CNN)
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/09/daca-congress-vote-republicans-577301