Article. II.
SECTION. 1
Clause 1
The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows:
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As someone who lives in a country with a Westminster Parliament, the idea of executive Power being vested in a single person is obviously foreign to me. I note that when Hamilton envisaged the idea of idea of executive Power being vested in a single person, it was not foreign to him, probably.
The idea of executive Power being vested in a single person, whom by the way isn't even directly answerable to the Congress who pass legislation, is monumentally stupid. In a representative parliamentary democracy, Ministers of State are directly answerable to the Parliament and must undergo direct questioning by that same Parliament.
As executive Power is vested in a single person, the United States technically doesn't have Ministers of State but Secretaries. This is a subtle legal distinction to make but a necessary one. The slight of hand here is that the shadow play is that they are only subordinates who wield no power at all (because executive Power shall be vested in a President) but we actually know that one person is physically unable to administer all the offices of executive government by themself, so the truth is being made an open mockery of.
Provided that we are prepared to accept the lie hidden in plain sight, we are fine but question it for even one second and the world get really weird really quickly. As they are only Secretaries, that means that there is no kind of scrutiny about the appointment of those Secretaries. That's okay, isn't it? It is perfectly acceptable that people who are only "Secretaries" who actually wield executive power, and who are appointed by means of personal patronage by the President, are never answerable to the Congress, isn't it? It's the separation of powers, with no check on that power whatsoever, and literally nothing on the other side of the balance. Yay, checks and balances. It's all perfectly fine if we are prepared to accept the lie hidden in plain sight, isn't it?
Clause 2
Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Prof- it under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.
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This clause tells you the calculation method by which the various states choose what is popularly known as the Electoral College, which is a term that of itself does not actually appear within this document.
I know what the framer were trying to get at and while it might have been a good method to achieve the ends of the late eighteenth century and remove democracy from the hands of the People, 236 years later it still is an excellent mechanism to achieve the ends of the late eighteenth century and remove democracy from the hands of the People. That's a bad thing.
The number of the of Senators and Representatives to which the State are entitled in the Congress, is 2 + the number of Representatives. Now while this looks like it might benefit the states with big populations, in practice what this has meant is that elections have swung on the vast middling grounds where people who live in West Banana, JF, and Armpit, XZ, have an outsized voice than those in the cities. Having already decided a stupid method for separating the executive and the parliament, this compounds the issue by egging the pudding in favour of places with lots of land.
The entire of Wyoming with less people than San Diego, gets three whole delegates to the Electoral College, where as San Diego County, gets what amounts to less than one. If you like the idea that rural people are better people, then this whole system is for you.
Clause 3
[The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two Persons, of whom one at least shall not be an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a List of all the Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each; which List they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted. The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President, if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately chuse by Ballot one of them for President; and if no Person have a Majority, then from the five highest on the List the said House shall in like Manner chuse the President.
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Ah paperwork.
The People in the states do not actually vote for the President but for the people, who then get to sit in the Electoral College. Even then, the Electoral College itself is just a concept and they send two people to Washington, with the tally of who those Electors voted for. Note that there's absolutely nothing which binds who those Electors vote for and what the people of the State voted for. It is not uncommon for there to be "faithless electors" in the Electoral College, who having seen the choices available, will then use their vote to say something else and while that's fun, it is undemocratically stupid.
So not only do we have an idiotic system which decides Electors but the process itself then idiotically never binds those Electors to the will of the people. I'm sorry but if you think that this is either "fair" or "democratic", then you're either gleefully ignorant, or a happy liar, or a nefarious liar.
Clause 4
But in chusing the President, the Votes shall be taken by States, the Representation from each State having one Vote; A quorum for this Purpose shall consist of a Member or Members from two thirds of the States, and a Majority of all the States shall be necessary to a Choice. In every Case, after the Choice of the President, the Person having the greatest Number of Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall chuse from them by Ballot the Vice President.]*
The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.
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Clause 3 says that if you don't have a majority, then the decision to decide the President falls to the House. Clause 4 says that if you still can't get a majority, then each state gets one vote and the decision is made by a super-weird secondary state college thing.
This is a band-aid solution to what is really a stage four cancer on democracy.
Clause 5
No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.
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The United States has taken the position that anyone born upon the soil of the United States, is a Citizen. This has led to a number of interesting quirks where various Presidents (the last one being Obama) was born in a place which was a territory but not a state. In 1789 upon the adoption of the Constitution, there were only 13 states and as the United States had not yet Manifest Destinied its way across the continent, people in land not yet conquered would not have been eligible to run the country they would be conquered by.
I think it took seven Presidents before there was the first one who was actually a "natural born Citizen" of the United States, owing to the fact that it would take quite a bit of time for there to even be a generation of people born as natural born Citizens to meet the clause.
Curiously the end clause that someone must have "been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States" does not specify when those fourteen years need to happen. Are they the last fourteen years? Can someone born in the United States and leave at the age of fifteen still be eligible? If so, by virtue of being born in New York City, does that mean that Boris Johnson could be theoretically President of the United States? Who knows? Nobody knows.
Clause 6
In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the Congress may by Law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation or Inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what Officer shall then act as President, and such Officer shall act accordingly, until the Disability be removed, or a President shall be elected.]*
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Most of this has been made redundant by the 25th Amendment which crystallises the process for what happens when the President dies, resigns, or goes ga-ga. I suspect that the kind of disability was envisaged by the framers which could be removed, was likely to be serious sickness and unknown fevers. Quite apart from the United States love of shooting Presidents, the White House which used drew its water supply from the swampy lands next to it, is probably responsible for the deaths of maybe four Presidents.
The 25th Amendment was written after Kennedy was shot and after Nixon resigned; which meant that the Congress did eventually "by Law provide" what would happen in such cases. This in itself is awful because it means that if someone wants to amend the Constitution, then the process is so deliberately bad, that their great-great-great grandchildren might not even benefit. I note that the Equal Rights Amendment still languishes, waiting to be added.
Clause 7
The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.
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If you sign up to be the President, you will get paid some sum (which might include the sum of zero) and the amount isn't going to change for four years.
This sounds like any other terms of employment clause where you have a contract worker signging up for a fixed sum beforehand but when you consider that the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Lord North, was paid on a year by year basis, perhaps the framers thought that this would add some kind of certainty to the role. People like John Adams thought that the job of President shouldn't even be compensated but that the prestige and honour of the job aught to be enough. I think that this is patently stupid as one can not eat prestige.
Clause 8
Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:- “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
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As the 45th President proved with his incitement to violence on January 6th 2021, the functional use of this clause is claptrap. The fact that there have been no criminal prosecutions brought against him for failing to preserve, protect or defend the Constitution of the United States, more or less demonstrates that oaths of office are merely pomp, circumstance, and a shadow play. Having said that, it could also be asserted that the best of his Ability, is actually pretty low.
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