The king not being above the law is the founding principle of the United States. There was a whole revolution about it.
And so you see children, that was why we prosecuted Bush for War Cri-- oh wait nevermind.
Not it wasn’t???
The trial and execution of King Charles I was 100 years before the revolution.
https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript
You should think about reading the Declaration of Independence sometime:
The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
Yeah it’s like most users here never actually got taught history at school.
Very powerful presidential immunity is quite possibly the dumbest thing I’ve heard.
Yes, let’s give the most powerful person on the planet complete immunity for whatever tickles their fancy.
Wanna wipe out a small nation because you don’t like someone who is from there? Sure. Consequences? What consequences?
Let’s strip all voting rights from anyone who isn’t someone who supports me.
Let’s bomb LA, for fun and profit.
Stupid.
Wanna wipe out a small nation because you don’t like someone who is from there? Sure. Consequences? What consequences?
I mean, while a nation wasn’t wiped out, a whole war was started against Iraq over false pretenses, and no consequences were ever seen.
We also spent 20 years in Afghanistan blowing shit up as a result of some Saudis hijacking planes, then just left all the terps and their families to be killed by the Taliban.
The argument about invading Afghanistan was that the Taliban was in cahoots with Al Qaeda and were harbouring Osama bin Laden.
At least they justified it. I mean, the justification was bullshit; but the justifications existed and, at least at the time, the majority of the public believed it.
If we give blanket immunity to the president, then, IDK, goodbye Madagascar, for no logical reason.
At least right now they have to try to justify taking some kind of action against someone or something. They can’t just do whatever.
Executive action, president can serve as long as they want. Executive action, the president is now the God-King dictator of the USA. States are dissolved, and everyone is under the rulership of his supreme Highness.
To be fair, there is one other but he was pardoned
“When the president does it, that means it’s not illegal.” Richard Nixon, 1977, David Frost interview.
Idk, kinda seems like this is just what would’ve happened if Nixon had Fox News batting for him.
Not quite. He was told that there were enough votes against him (including from his own party) that he’d lose impeachment proceedings, and that was the impetus for his resignation.
Dictators love reasons to institute emergency powers. Oldest strategy in the playbook.
Lincoln arguably needed it, and got it, as a requirement to win the Civil War. He suspended habeus corpus, arrested Confederate sympathizers on the spot, sized property from union and southern folks for basically any reason…
But won the war and freed the slaves; he broke the rules but was proven right.
I’m aware of the habeus corpus suspension - which I would argue was a bit of an extraordinary case as it was drawn into play initially because of the civil war, the capital was difficult to reinforce because of a rail obstruction and Congress could not safely be called into session. Even then, to my knowledge the act only applied to a small area from DC to like Pennsylvania or something. The act was rendered inoperable at the official end of the war and even before that I think all political prisoners taken during that time were released and even offered amnesty so long as they didn’t aid the confederacy, which, again given the extraordinary circumstances is a little more understandable (albeit admittedly still very contentious) than the current situation we have now.
What I’m not aware of is Lincoln’s criminal/civil immunity outside of this. Do you have any other information on this? It sounds interesting and something I have never heard of. I’d like to learn about it!
