WI: Ultra Presidents

[The Abyss]

What if Presidents could write and pass bills, declare war, and name government officials with congress approval?

 

[HueyLong]

The first question is when. I would go for a Civil War POD, myself.

 

[David S Poepoe]

What if Presidents could write and pass bills, declare war, and name government officials with congress approval?

Aren't these called Dictators or President-for-Life?

However, by the phrasing of your sentence nothing is changed since you still stipulate that 'write and pass bills,' has to be done 'with congress approval'.

 

[The Abyss]

@Huey: yeah. probobly about that time or revolutionary war
@David S Poepoe: still a 2 term limit. 4 years per term. just more power. the way i'm saying it basicly eliminates congress from the government.

 

[David S Poepoe]

@David S Poepoe: still a 2 term limit. 4 years per term. just more power. the way i'm saying it basicly eliminates congress from the government.

Awfully strange since in your WI its the President that writes and passes bills why would there be any term limits.

 

[The Abyss]

Awfully strange since in your WI its the President that writes and passes bills why would there be any term limits.

still a democracy. not a monarchy, dictatorship, and/or totalitarium government.

 

[Electric Monk]

So basically a President with the powers of a Prime Minister but without sitting in Parliament (Congress)?

still a democracy. not a monarchy, dictatorship, and/or totalitarium government.

You don't need term limits to be a democracy.

 

[The Abyss]

So basically a President with the powers of a Prime Minister but without sitting in Parliament (Congress)?

basicly

You don't need term limits to be a democracy.

Like the US today i mean.

 

[NapoleonXIV]

Basically he's an elected Emperor.

Very quickly one or the other will pass a law to eliminate the elected part. Then he's just Emperor until he dies. Since his most likely successor will be whoever kills him you have the Roman solution, an institutionalised and constant civil war.

It's a workable, if cumbersome and dangerous, system. You can pretty much forget about individual rights though. You have, basically, whatever rights you can seize, up to and including the 'First Man" position itself, but don't expect any help from the government in keeping them

 

[The Abyss]

good points, true, but the people wouldn't elect a president who they knew would do that. but again you have a point.

 

[HueyLong]

We've elected people like Richard Nixon and GWB, so I wouldn't put it past people.

 

[The Abyss]

We've elected people like Richard Nixon and GWB, so I wouldn't put it past people.

good points there. maybe knowing about the supreme power that they would be getting they'd think again. but then again they wouldn't have known...

 

[David S Poepoe]

We've elected people like Richard Nixon and GWB, so I wouldn't put it past people.

Considering the other candidates we made off pretty good.

 

[Wendell]

We've elected people like Richard Nixon and GWB, so I wouldn't put it past people.

You mean people like Richard Nixon who carried 49 states, and George W. Bush who won more popular votes than any U.S. President ever, both on their second terms?

 

[HueyLong]

Both of who have abused their powers.

 

[Wendell]

Both of who have abused their powers.

Lyndon Johnson beats them both, hands down.

 

[HueyLong]

Not in making a good example........ In any case, this is OT and may violate the BOP. I apologize.

 

[rewster]

It's workable without becoming a dictatorship. What's needed is for something else to gain more power in order to balance the more powerful president. Perhaps the judicial branch somehow gains power, or the states, or even the people. Say the people can hold a referendum at any time and oust the president or veto his laws. This could work in the Information Age, anyway. Or maybe the states can block a declaration of war with a majority vote against. How about the the President can't ammend the constitution (a power that congress has that the president did not inherit when this weird power shift happened), but that power is given to the Supreme Court? It would be a somewhat less stable system of checks and balances, but still a system, and not just a dictatorship.

 

[Archangel Michael]

You mean people like Richard Nixon who carried 49 states, and George W. Bush who won more popular votes than any U.S. President ever, both on their second terms?

And more people voted against Bush than any other president, so it's a two-way street.

This could easily descend into a dictatorship. The President passes a bill making him President for Life.

 

[Wendell]

And more people voted against Bush than any other president, so it's a two-way street.

This could easily descend into a dictatorship. The President passes a bill making him President for Life.

True on both counts.