President Biden: The NEW one and only politics thread

Changing inauguration day changes little. Our form of government depends on one side agreeing they lost a free and fair election and peacefully transitioning to the next guy. If that's out the window, our problems run much deeper than "when is inauguration day."

 

Whatever "percentage of the vote" Larry Elder got is meaningless. Most people I know just filled in the NO box on Question 1 of the ballot and didn't vote for any of the candidates on Question 2. I haven't seen the numbers, don't care. EXCEPT that my state wasted a few hundred million dollars on Larry Fucking Elder. Clearly shows the continued erosion of Trumpism.

 

Of course it does. But that did not apply in 2020. So moving the inauguration day is one small step toward a solution. Two weeks give much less time for mayhem than the 10 weeks available now.

 

The Republicans should get the bill. Indeed, any party that brings a recall election and loses should foot the cost.

 

Yeah but the transition of power throughout the executive branch takes time. I'm not talking about the White House. I'm talking about all the other political appointees and patronage jobs which must be filled to keep the government rolling forward.

Could you imagine your boss being fired today, and then expecting to have a new boss identified, hired, and up to speed in two weeks?

 

Again, all the parliamentary model governments do it routinely.

 

How does England do it? How do other republics/democracies dissolve a government, form one immediately, and keep going?

And maybe some of those patronage jobs should be filled by competent, non-political civil service employees instead of unqualified political hacks so guys like DeJoy can't get within 100 miles of the USPS.

It's just a suggestion. Clearly the 10-week transfer of power window gives way to much leeway to the exiting president if he and his lackeys (like the GSA lady who would not release transition funding) decide to ignore the unwritten rules.

 

Great Britain and most other parliamentary-based democracies have a permanent civil service which fills all those subcabinet and assistant secretary type positions which are political appointees here in the States. Only Cabinet officers themselves are members of Parliament. In addition, the out party has what's called a shadow cabinet, composed of members of their party who will take over those positions should they win the next election. So to an extent impossible here, they are able to hit the ground running or at least walking.

 

What we really need is aggressive prosecution and imprisonment of those who attempted to derail the peaceful transition process. Right up to the top.
Because otherwise they'll try it again.

 

I hear you, but don't you think Biden had most of his cabinet picks pretty much picked out before the election? And Great Britain's permanent civil service model seems much better than ours and would make for a much-more competent government.

Either way, it's pretty obvious that what happened in the 10 weeks between the 2020 election and Jan. 20, 2021, can never happen again. No lame-duck president or administration should have that power.

 

The vice president, who can be presumed to be a political instrument of the incumbent president, should be removed from any and all roles in certifying the new president.

 

Fair

Psaki rejects GOP calls for Gen. Mark Milley's dismissal, saying 'many of them were silent' as Trump 'fomented an insurrection'