Constitutional amendments

[Jennifer]

The Trump administration's appalling behavior -- such as, the head of the GSA outright refusing for some reason to sign the papers that would give money to Biden and otherwise start what is supposed to be the bog-standard process of a new president-elect hiring staff and preparing to take the reins in January -- has shown one glaring flaw in the constitution (or Trump's constitution, heh heh heh): too many things are based on the idea that whoever is president is behaving with some bare minimum amount of good faith: like, when a president enters his lame-duck phase, of COURSE his administration will start working with the incoming guys so the transition goes smoothly. This is obviously necessary even when things are going generally well, and especially so during a freaking pandemic or any other national or world-level crisis.

So I am wondering what future laws or even outright constitutional amendments might come about as a direct result of the Trump administration -- replacing "assumption of good faith" with "presidents/politicos must do this OR ELSE."

I'm thinking a requirement to release tax returns and financial records might be one, and a requirement that outgoing presidents (or their administrations) work with the incoming ones, might be two, to start with.

ETA; typos

[thoreau]

I'm not opposed to making certain things more explicit, but any system can be gamed by the guy willing to make absurd arguments with a straight face and shameless enablers in key places. One thing that we have learned in the 21st century is that a president with no shame and a similarly shameless Senate majority leader can do what he wants.

For that matter, a president facing an opposition congress can do what he wants if someone is willing to write a memo saying that technically this isn't forbidden.

Go ahead and write new rules. John Yoo or his Blue equivalent will write memos and a critical mass in congress will decline to call BS.

[Aresen]

I've been watching the obstructionism around the transition for a few days now. The one thing that bothers me about the Biden side is that Biden is not technically the President-Elect until January 6th. De facto, he is, but not in law. It seems there is no way around Trump's behavior without a constitutional amendment abolishing the Electoral College. Good luck with that.

[Jadagul]

I've been watching the obstructionism around the transition for a few days now. The one thing that bothers me about the Biden side is that Biden is not technically the President-Elect until January 6th. De facto, he is, but not in law. It seems there is no way around Trump's behavior without a constitutional amendment abolishing the Electoral College. Good luck with that.

He's the president-elect when the GSA rules that he is.

[D.A. Ridgely]

Even if the Electoral College were eliminated, one lesson that has been thoroughly established by the Trump Administration is that there's little to nothing that can force the hand of a sitting president who is unafraid of Congress. Trump may not be able to wreak all the havoc he's trying to push through now, but there's nothing forcing him or probably any other subsequent president to lift a finger to facilitate the transfer of power before January 20th.

Honestly, though, I believe reports that Trump hasn't had a security briefing since early October, so what does Biden need to know to safeguard the nation between now and late January? Sure, our adversaries may take some advantage as they've almost certainly been doing throughout Trump's tenure, but not in a way that poses any sort of existential threat to the U.S. And it won't take Biden or, more importantly, his competent advisers long to get up to speed. Lots of fresh classified information is very transient. Where nuclear submarines will be next Thursday, that sort of thing. If Obama really did keep Biden in the loop (and his memory hasn't failed) and Biden is getting unofficial intelligence briefings, I don't see the big deal.

[Mo]

Instead they’ll do shit that damage out long term credibility like hand over Western Sahara to Morocco for a largely worthless treaty and taking Sudan off the sponsors of terror list for the same.