How far can we get from a Constitutional Presidency and survive as a democracy?

Question

John Dean (granted, not a great role model but a bright guy) ,"Watergate is nothing compared to this administration", when speaking about the unprecedented executive privileges that G.W. Bush has ceased for himself, ignoring virtually the entire Constitution as intended by the framers. He never had a right to start a war based upon lies that he spread throughout Congress with the attitude of anything less than approval would be considered treasonous when he already intended to invade Iraq prior to formulating the lies. Bush is an Anti Federalist and a fool with the powers of a king. This is why we have a Constitution and not a monarchy.

Answer 1

8 years so far and it ain't over!

Answer 2

I totally agree with what you said here, but the truth of it is that we will remain a democracy since bush was elected, and at the end of his term he will step down and power will be passed to the next ELECTED president.  The only way we would change that is if one president refused to give up his powers after the end of his term.  Also the reason smaller parties have never grown in the united states, as they have in other countries is because of the winner take all system in the us. In other countries people vote for parties and not people, and if one party gets 17% of the vote then they make up 17% of the Parliament.  In the end i must say u got bush's horrible presidency right, in my opinion the worst president in history.  

Answer 3

This isn't a soap box.. whats the question?

Answer 4

You need to learn the form of government the US has.With respect,your very question mixes up mutually exclusive concepts and mixes apples with oranges.

First and most important,the US is not theoretically a democracy at all but rather what is called a Republic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republicani...

While in many respects the US is  democracy ,it has principles that are profoundly un-democratic.

For example originally the most powerful part of Congress ,the Senate,was NOT an elected body at all but appointed.Next the Senate is NOT a representable body in that unlike the House,their is no proportional representation.(remember the American Revolution was fought on the concept of "no taxation without proportional representation" but the Founding Fathers then created a Constitution in which in many key areas there is both NO representation and NO proportional representation at all.

Next , Americans cannot directly even elect their own leader (President) but this is done by an originally APPOINTED body called the Electoral College .We of course witnessed this truly obscene situation in 2000.In any democracy,if a person who got the simple 51 % majority/plurality did not become the leader the

,there would be riots in the streets BUT NOT IN THE US .

Next,in virtually every democracy on earth ,a simply majority (51%) is sufficient to enact laws but in the US with the so un-democratic veto power of the President ,61 % is often necessary to enact legislation.

Next,there is simply no effective mechanism to oust a "bad" President.There is the Impeachment process but that is first and foremost a POLITICAL process,NOT a LEGAL process.

We have seen just how ludicrous this process is when Clinton was impeached for his High Crime and Misdemeanor about lying about s*x but Pelosi refused to impeach Bush who decided on his own to wage an illegal war of choice all based upon a pack of lies that has resulted in the slaughter of over 600,000 innocent Iraqi civilians and over 4,000 US soldiers.Many reputable jurists both in the US and around the world aver that Bush is guilty of crimes against humanity.  

In any democracy,there are a number of ways to oust an un-popular leader as we saw in Great Britain

All of this to say that the US Constitution is in fact NOT at it's heart a document giving power to WE THE PEOPLE but a document that originally and even today with the amendments ,gives the REAL POWER to WE THE ELITES .

Anyone familiar with the Federal Papers and the views expressed therein knows that the Founding Fathers had nothing but contempt for WE THE PEOPLE ( OFTEN REFERRING TO we the people as "mob rule" and created a Constitution that drastically limited the power of WE THE PEOPLE and gave that power to either powerful appointed bodies like the Senate and the Electoral College  or gave almost KINGLY powers to the President including the horribly un-democratic veto power and NO effective LEGAL or other process to oust a bad President like Bush.

You wrote ," This is why we have a Constitution and not a monarchy". This is an illogical construct in that you have mixed oranges with apples.

There are in fact many Constitutional Monarchies and the US Constitution is the very document that gives the power to the President ,in this case  Bush, to get away with literally murder .

The only way you can stop the Bushes from doing the great harm they do is to amend the Constitution and limit the current awesome power of the President.

For example,the Constitution actually states that it is only the US Congress that can declare and wage war but in the past 60  years starting with the Korean "war" ,all such "wars" were and are not called wars but like in the case of the Korean "war" was called a Police Action thereby allowing the President to do what the h**l he wanted to.

Congress can immediately pass legislation that will amend the US Constitution to ensure for any foreign conflicts must be approved by Congress but of course in the US two party system,neither party wants to limit the awesome power of the President for each party has it's term in the Oval Office.

Answer 5

It wont go far but luckily more and more people notice the change every year. the problem now is that the people running for office and believe in these things never get enough votes so people don't vote for them. the thing people need to know is that if a small party starts getting a lot of votes the bigger party's take its ideas to keep the votes. democrats and republicans have almost completely changed what they stand for in since the beginning.    

Answer 6

A pure democracy would fall flat on its bum.  People would be far too stupid to hold it up without compromises.

Answer 7

The US is Not a democracy nor is it a Constitutional Presidency.  The USA is a republic.