The High Command?

[Carcano]

Four questions:

1. Do you think the president is the highest authority in the US government?

2. If not, is the president unaware of this higher authority?

3. If not, how many people hold this higher authority.

4. If not, is this higher authority part of an established goverment department, or some secret level of government unknown to congress/senate or the media?

 

[The Devil Inside]

Four questions:

1. Do you think the president is the highest authority in the US government?

2. If not, is the president unaware of this higher authority?

3. If not, how many people hold this higher authority.

4. If not, is this higher authority part of an established goverment department, or some secret level of government unknown to congress/senate or the media?

1. no. the constitution is.
2. apparently not..at least not the last few presidents.
3. it is a piece of paper holding the basis for american republic law.
4. seems like it sometimes, considering how easily it is used to justify things which seem self contradictory.

 

[Carcano]

1. no. the constitution is.

Ok, but this is about people, not text.

 

[The Devil Inside]

there is no higher authority in the united states government, than the constitution.

 

[Carcano]

Yes, but this about people of authority, not written laws.

How do we know there isn't a secret higher level of command than the presidency created precisely to override the constitution, when deemed necessary?

 

[The Devil Inside]

such an arrangement would not be in conformity to the constitution, and therefore illegal.

that means it holds no legal authority.

 

[Carcano]

Thats why secrecy would be necessary, because it would be illegal.

 

[Carcano]

So, with all the conspiracy theories flying around here, there isn't even one person who doesn't believe that the presidency is the last stop on the chain???

 

[spidergoat]

I believe we have three co-equal branches of government. The people are in the end the highest authority, as we can overthrow the government if it gets out of control.

Alternative answer:
$

 

[Mr. G]

So, with all the conspiracy theories flying around here, there isn't even one person who doesn't believe that the presidency is the last stop on the chain???

The most closely guarded secret in all of American government is the location of Cheney's Undisclosed Location: Area 51

 

[James R]

Do you think the president is the highest authority in the US government?

You're forgetting Congress and the Courts.

 

[Mr. G]

You're forgetting Congress and the Courts.

Constitutionally defined co-equals.

Carcano is speaking to bias.

 

[Fraggle Rocker]

Congress and the courts have conceded power to the president for political reasons, because to a large extent they agree with him, and because most of them don't really have any better ideas. But make no mistake, he rules at their whim. If they change their mind, he won't be able to order his own dog around.

Our clunky system of representative democracy really does work. It works very slowly, and that is one of the feaures of this country that we've become comfortable with. If something goes too far in one direction, eventually, after a decade or two, the citizens turn it around. Prohibition was the textbook example of that phenomenon. Eighteen years from being enacted in a frenzy of righteousness to being dragged down and stomped on, with Utah, the bloody Mormon state, casting the deciding vote.

So I suppose you could say that ultimately the voters are the highest authority. We have checks and balances on them, they have to want something really badly, consistently, for a long time, before they can finally get their way.