[ExI] my unified theory etc

[Adrian Tymes]

On Wed, May 11, 2016 at 9:16 PM, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:

> Then she realizes she can now order senators murdered, and pardon whoever
> did it, then declare the deceased enemies of the state.  Then the surviving
> senators can be told they can run along home now, their services are no
> longer needed.
>
>
>
> Where is the flaw in this reasoning please?
>

That last bit.  Sure she could (assuming she gets elected), and in fact
every prior US President has had that ability.  Maybe there is no precedent
for that much desire born out of that much hostility in the 20th or 21st
centuries, but if you read back to 19th century there have been close cases.

What ultimately stops that is fear of we the people.

If she were to do that, her rule would not be seen as legitimate.  She
would have people - including much of the military - in open revolt.  She
almost certainly would not get to serve out her term; whether she would
survive her term is another story.   And whatever her technical expertise
or lack thereof, she is a veteran enough stateswoman that she knows this
would happen.

(One of the fears about Trump is that he might not know this, and thus
might try that if he gets mad enough at being told "no", with the
predictable result.  He would more likely first try to have them jailed on
blatantly false charges, which would have a similar but lesser effect.  A
smarter way to do this would be to simply greatly expand corruption
investigations - how much of Congress do you think isn't in violation of
the laws already on the books - and focus them on the opposition, but
neither candidate seems clever enough to do this.  Sanders might be that
clever but does not seem that vindictive.)

Similar circumstances are why the US military does not (publicly, in any
way that could be traced to us) just assassinate foreign leaders we
dislike, unless we consider ourselves to be in open armed hostilities with
them anyway.  (Thus: bin Laden was targeted, but Jong-un is safe for now
since, while he may say he's at war with us, we disagree.)
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