• bitjunkie@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    The fact that we just left it up to them to recuse themselves is a major unchecked flaw.

    • Asafum@feddit.nl
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      2 months ago

      Our founding morons were the most naive idiots in existence… Sure they lived in a different time, but how could you possibly look back at any time in history and say “it’s ok only moral people get positions of power so we’ll play by the honor system.”

      • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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        2 months ago

        US citizens give way WAY too much credit to their founders. Calling them “founding fathers” almost sounds like it’s a religion. I’m sure they were smart guys in their time, but they too were flawed and made a shit tonne of mistakes, like everybody else. Just fix those mistakes already.

        • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
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          2 months ago

          They were fans of Montesquieu, but they also thought the VP should be the runner up in the election and that self interest would prevent one group from attaining too much power

          In this case for example: the judge would want to avoid being labeled as partial because he would ruin his family name and lose his profession

            • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
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              2 months ago

              Duelling wouldn’t apply to this case

              For obvious reasons a judge wouldn’t duel parties in a civil (or criminal) case but also the judge would be ruining his own honour

        • chaogomu@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Most of them were barely old enough to be fathers. Sure you had a few old guys, but most of the idea men were in their 20s or early 30s.

      • olympicyes@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        The Founding Fathers could not have anticipated that honor and shame would be totally foreign concepts to a sitting president and congress. In the 1790s for example, pistol duels were the leading cause of death for US navy midshipmen.

      • Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        2 months ago

        This is curiously noteworthy in The Federalist Papers. Hamilton puts a lot of faith in the human conscience all the while pointing out that if men were angels we would need no government noting that we do need checks and balances.

        The Electoral College is a dead giveaway that they didn’t trust the public to self-govern, and hence there needed to be back doors where gentlemen (men of means) could override the system should someone like Jimmy Carter get elected.

      • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 months ago

        The founding slavers were literally slavers. Their goal was simply to maintain their violent control. It’s worked great for 200+ years.

      • Kalysta@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        Because they were the progressive ideologues of their day.

        And were also often stymied from giving the constitution real teeth by the big slave holding states as well, don’t forget. The right wing was doing shenanigans at the very founding of the country.

        • Asafum@feddit.nl
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          2 months ago

          The right wing was doing shenanigans at the very founding of the country.

          It’s almost like we’re literally never going to not be dealing with their bullshit…

      • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        They had faith that people who got to power would use it in good faith (and get there in good faith) while or after having fought a war with a power that they believed wasn’t being used in good faith.

        I just wonder how much longer this system can hold up for. It’s got different parts that conflict with itself but different people value different parts of it to the point that getting rid of any of it is going to be, ah, a bit rough.