[ExI] > Taiwan is standing strong

Wed Mar 18 16:31:57 UTC 2020

From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of John Clark via extropy-chat

>…but some Communist leaders were competent, Trump is not, but if Trump is given a free hand I have little doubt he'd be as tyrannical as the worst of them…

That comment makes me ever more thankful of the US constitution.  Not only does POTUS not have a free hand, POTUS cannot legally be given a free hand.  To give POTUS a free hand would violate the COTUS, which is what gives POTUS any hand at all.

>… a few days ago the Republican Governor of Ohio decided to delay yesterday's election. The Governor's decision was challenged in the courts. The Governor lost in the courts. The election was delayed anyway. The Govenor says the new election date will "possibly" be on June 2. And by then the epidemic will likely be worse than it is now…

States run primaries.  Either party could have opted to ignore the governor’s order and held their primaries anyway.  The party has the legal authority to ignore its own voters and assign their delegates to whomever they wish.  The primaries are just a kind of formalized poll to advise the party bosses.  This is true in every political party.

POTUS does not have any authority on the date of the November election.  This was by design, which is why an election has never been delayed by the Fed: they would if they could.  The authors of the COTUS foresaw that and set the Supreme Court in charge of who they swear in come January 20, 2021.

>…In 1864 some people urged the President to delay the November election…

No doubt he would have done that had he the power.

>…because half the nation wanted to kill the other half but he refused…

He didn’t refuse.  He didn’t have the authority, even in time of civil war, to delay that election.  

>…however back then the President was Abraham Lincoln, now it's Donald Trump… John K Clark

Neither have any authority over federal elections.  This is a feature, not a bug.  If our legal system can legally be abused in any way, it will be.  So, the framers made sure that power was not within legal grasp of that office, along with the power to hold the office by any means after the next guy is sworn in by the Supreme Court.

John do let me assure you, we have had power-grabbers in the office of POTUS before.  Andrew Jackson for instance, Franklin Roosevelt for instance.  All the modern ones.

spike

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