- Pushing the Red Buttton :: A President and a Wagon -

Day 481, 23:51 • Published in USA USA • by Justinious McWalburgson III

Hello everyone,

I just thought I’d write another article touching on a few of my personal feelings about our country, a little more about our congress, and about how that relates to the presidency and then back in a circle. Most of what i’m gonna say here will be familiar if you are highly active on our country forums. That is because I am taking things I have said recently and just re-worded them so they fit nicely into this article. I feel if nothing else this article could open a few ideas to a different perspective. This article could be considered part 3 in my ode to congress series. I will include links to part 1 and 2 on the bottom.

As you will undoubtedly soon notice, the majority of this article surrounds the recent impeachment attempt of Uncle Sam. I am not here to directly defend Uncle Sam for his actions (and inactions) nor am I here to question the validity of such a proposal, nor will I say the vote should have gone a certain way. I encourage all of you to look beyond the surface of things if you find yourself faced with only that as you read this article.

The President and the Wagon

When I was president and reached the end of my first term, I realized that I was doing what was right for our nation and I could run the next month perfectly. However, what I thought to be perfect was not what the congress wanted and not what the majority of our nation wanted by extension. Because of that I chose not to actively pursue a 2nd term in office. There is more than 1 correct way to run a country and which way you choose as leadership has to depend on all those below you. This brings us to the moral of our story. Instead of saving it for the end, I will present it to you at the beginning.

Being President is being a Slave to the system.
Imagine for a second being a horse (or a person if you dont like animal analogies) and you are quietly admiring this fancy wagon. Everyone who was going to ride in the wagon takes a vote one day and decides YOU are the one who will lead the wagon. You are of course very excited about being the one to lead everyone as you will be in front, and you are the one they had chosen. They give you food and drink and a nice shiny hat. Soon after they chain you to the wagon and say lets go.
You are the one running, but you soon realize its not your decision as to where you go. If you go in a direction that no one else wants to go in, then you are whipped, and if you dont listen, you are removed and a new horse(person) is brought in to pull the wagon. If you are lucky enough to make it to your first destination you will get a brief pat on the back and asked if you want to go again. You may have some convoluted sense that you really are the one taking everyone, but in the end, after its all over. You realize that it was never your trip, you were just the one pulling the wagon.

After talking to half a dozen presidents and being one myself I can safely say they all agree on the same point. That while being a president you feel and quite literally are more restricted in what you can do or say than any other position or time in erepublik. There may be times were, as president, these individuals still acted on their own accord, but that was usually met with a strong backlash.

I will let this truth stay with you as you see it fit. Of course President’s need to be above that of a normal citizen. They are representing an entire country and cannot rely only on themselves and their own opinions. While this is very true and I agree 100% that while President everything should be 2nd to your country and its well being, I still find that this truth is little known.

A Show of Force

Presidential Impeachment, the ultimate weapon of congress, used to strike fear into the hearts of Presidents across erep. Initially given to congress as a way for them to get rid of Presidents who had gained the position through political take overs, had quit, or had turned for the worst. It has now become the symbol of a failure while in office, but in the US it has also become a common occurrence. Why is it that every month since this feature has been enabled it has been used? Must be bad Presidents every month. Although according to a recent poll those presidents have the highest approval ratings since the start of Erep. Then what could be the reasoning?

Honestly, I think the reasoning is simple. People get pissed off, and I can totally understand that. You dont like whats going on, and if its in your power to stop it then you are going to do all you can. You disagree and you want to take action. That is all entirely understandable, but there is more to it then that in my opinion. We here in the US have our own unique problems. I have come up with another analogy for this one that should help put things in perspective.

A common topic in erepublik is that of conquest and war, but people always bring up the fact that noont likes to be conquered and some go so far as to ask people to imagine how horrible it would b to live in that country after being taken over. Well, If you are in a political party thats either the 4th largest or smaller then you know what its like. I am not saying the US is some oppressive regime with the larger 3 parties lording over the others, I seriously am not saying that. What I am saying is that the US is very diverse, and even more so than that we are very very large. Because of that we are very similar to a combined empire then a typical country, which causes plenty internal struggles.

I would never deny congress the right to impeach a president they dont see fit for duty, but I want to make sure know exactly what they are doing. When you propose an impeachment of a president you are saying they should have never been elected, you are stated you have no confidence in them as a leader of the country. As someone who once was a president and faced two separate impeachments in my term, I can tell you that it is the biggest slap to the face, and/or, stab in the back to any president, regardless on if it passes or not.

So I am basically pleading to congress to realize no president will ever be perfect, no president can or will do everything at once, even if there comes along one that keeps you as a congressional body happy, he is probably neglecting something else to do that, and no president will ever be 100% liked as our nation is to big and to diverse to do that.

So my basic guidelines for impeachment would have to be like this.
1) As hard as it is, never impeach while you are still upset. Wait until you are calmed down and rational before making a proposal

2) Never think impeachment is the way to get your candidate into office because he came in second or third. For the sake of common decency and the respect for the democratic process who voted the president into office this should be avoided.

3) Never reach for impeachment due to a simple mistake, a mitigating factor, or a technicality. Presidents are not perfect and if they slip up once dont reach for the red button.

4) Never decide to impeach due to the outcome of war. Losing a battle does not mean its time for a new leader.

Congress is generally big on the concept of the world view and I will concede that this is something we should always take into account and try to gauge from time to time. The US cannot be an island to and of itself and we should always be concerned as to how the rest of the world views us. When a country has a high rate of impeachments, even if they are just proposals. They send out the message that they are a mess. They dont trust their leaders, they are unorganized, they are too busy fighting each other to be focused, they are a laughing stock. Many messages are sent out and none of them are good. An impeachment is that final straw that is used to get the President out of office because of the harm he is doing.

I feel we are already on a bad path when it comes to presidents and impeachments here in the US. We have a long history of proposed impeachments already and they always center around war. Usually losing wars. If congress is going to impeach presidents because we fail to win a war then we have a long and tough road ahead of us. American is not a military power that can win wars by itself yet, and as such we simply wont be able to for a long time. It is my belief that we are at a time now in our country that a president will be impeached if he loses a war but hailed a hero if he wins it. This shouldn’t be how things operate.

Ode to Congress and the Presidency Part 1
Find Part to by following the link to my previous article.

This article is too long already and I apologize for it dragging on as so. I hope that you will all enjoy it and take something away from it. i will probably edit it again tomorrow incase I have any mistakes. You may also feel free to point them out.

Thank you again for reading.
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- Justinious -
Destroyer of Worlds
Downfall of Tyrants
Former Everything
Congressional Hobo