If the president cant do anything about it like squggly says then I guess were screwed and law enforcement is running our country so were basically a police state.Im not gonna argue the point but if the president is powerless as stated who the fuck is the wizard behind the curtain pulling the levers?I think squiggly is an obama supporter and probably voted for him too he defends him so rigorously,im not drinking the kool-aid and im not supporting any candidate that does not support me no matter the party.
Ding ding ding ding.
Pretty much correct on all counts there. Yes I voted for Obama, yes I support him--but that doesn't change the process of how our government is run. Steps 1, 2, and 3 are steps 1, 2, and 3 regardless of who you or I vote for. That is what this argument is about.
I'm not trying to convince anyone that Obama is a great leader, or that all of his policies are the best for America. Do I believe that? Yes--but I don't think it should preclude any of us from talking about something which is removed from that several times. In fact something that worked the way it does now about a year before Barack was even alive.
The president isn't powerless--but the powers which have been ascribed to him in some of these arguments just are simply not powers he has. Even more than that, they are powers which he TRIED to exercise despite knowing that he didn't have them, on the off chance that it might work (it didn't work, obviously).
The president tells the military what to do and where (leaving the specifics to generals, of course). When we're talking the most powerful military in the world--I'd say that makes him pretty far from powerless. The president also holds the power to veto laws, and any law that we have in this country which wasn't in the original constitution has gone through a president--and his veto power--to become a law.
Again, having the final say on which laws work and which don't is a very powerful position.
Therein lies the real problem with the past 4 years, though. In order for the president to do much of anything that doesn't concern war--he needs congress to work together and send him bills. Signing bills, and fostering bipartisanship is the main duty of the president.
Both of those functions have been absolutely unavailable to Obama since before he was even sworn in, and to this day.
The REAL power of this country is and always has been the congress. This was the intention of the founding fathers and it is carried on today (although in somewhat perverted fashion from their original plan). The idea behind that is that, through elections every two years, the American people can have a pull on what laws are going into place.
Laws are the way of our land--the ultimate power in America is a law. In that way, we
are a police state--but I don't think that necessarily means we should all get ready for curfew. Thinking that's on it's way would represent a severe disconnect from reality to my mind.
I'll say again that my argument isn't that Obama is the best thing to happen to MJ since skunk--but rather that he's a much better alternative to anything else out there. To go a step further it's worth mentioning that his beliefs are in line with yours--even if his ability to unilaterally make all of the bullshit go away for you is essentially nil.
If congress doesn't do something about this
nobody can. That's the skinny of it. No two-ways, so to speak.
If you start talking about only supporting congressmen and senators who support you--you'll be absolutely on the right track. However, I'd hate to see a pro MMJ or de facto legalization bill make its way through congress with a republican president at the helm. It would be an almost guaranteed veto. That's only my opinion, but it's hard to forget which type of ideology it was that got us into this mess in the first place. It was the family-values are more important than your civil liberties type--that ideology is alive and well in the republican party, and you'd ignore that only to the likely detriment of progress on this issue.
