For some reason, I took about an hour and a half out my life last night to watch the first Presidential debate. CNN was billing it as the one-on-one finale to an 18-month-long Hunger Game, but it didn’t live up to the hype. Nothing happened that I wasn’t expecting, and neither candidate dropped a bomb that razed the other. In other words, nothing monumental happened.
The same thing is going to happen after the election, no matter who wins.
In the interest of fairness, I am a straight, white, Christian, upper-middle class male and thus am fully entrenched in privilege. I cannot begin to understand the threats faced by minority groups of every characteristic and do not presume to speak to the value they place on this election. I only seek to give voice to the possible effects of a Clinton or Trump presidency on the basic structure of American government and society.
The American system is built on a transcendent document that, for the most part, has stayed the same for nearly 230 years. It has grown with society, and has guided America through some horrific administrations. John Adams made it legal to arrest his political opponents for criticizing him; Andrew Jackson committed atrocities against America’s indigenous people including the Trail of Tears; Andrew Johnson continually fought against policies that would give blacks and former slaves equal rights, including the 14th amendment.
Some people on the left believe a Trump presidency would do irreparable damage to American institutions and values like a free and independent press, the separation of powers, and a desire for international peace and stability.
Their counterparts on the right believe a Clinton administration would leave America in a disastrous position. They say we would be at the mercy of terrorists groups like ISIS, and evil nations like Iran and North Korea, who would have surely obtained nuclear weapons by the time she left office.
These people forget, however, that the president needs Congressional approval to do anything that has enough to teeth to permanently damage our system of government.
But what if the next president goes around Congress?
Even though the president can write executive orders which carry the force of law, and have been labeled by Republicans as Obama’s “time to ignore Congress” trick, an executive order’s basis must be found in the Constitution, AND the Supreme Court has the power to rule an executive order unconstitutional.
Even if he or she wants to, the next president will have a difficult time restructuring the basis of American government.
The Framers were intellectual superheroes that built a system stable enough to protect against the wiles and whims of unworthy officials and madmen. The checks and balances inherent to our three-branch system make it so that the acts of one branch, even the executive headed by an increasingly powerful presidency, cannot raze the country.
Listening to President Obama talk about mass shootings and seeing the futility in his eyes at not being able to pass the gun control measures he believes in is bittersweet; bitter because I believe in what he wants to pass, but sweet because it is a sign that the authors of the constitution got it right. The president cannot do whatever he or she wants.
Hopefully, no matter who wins, America will get a president of sober mind that works for the good of the people. If the worst comes to pass however, and I am proved to be full of misplaced optimism and naiveté, presidents have been impeached or forced to resign for much less than the right and left expect of Clinton and Trump respectively.