El Presidente Trump

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

It's ironic for you to make a statement repining a lack of knowledge of the governmental design of the USA vs Ireland and the EU, when you've just made that blunder.

The EU is confederation of independent states like Ireland.

The USA is not a confederation, it is a federation of non-independent states; just like the Russian Federation with its republics, krais and obalasts, where the President is elected by way of popular vote.

There is no legitimate, democratic reason why a federation should not elect a President by way of popular vote.

The states are already represented disproportionately to population in the US Senate. There is absolutely no legitimate reason why the President should be elected in such a non-democratic way in a federation where the people, and not the states, are sovereign.

There is one: He is the President of the United States, not the President of the Collective People Who Live in the United States. I did not say 'identical' to the EU, I said 'like', and those descriptions I gave are correct.

As near as I can tell, the only significant 'non-independence' is the prohibition on States for making their own foreign policy actions, which is irrelevant in the case of domestic affairs to begin with, and the fact that federal organizations have powers of arrest. I don't believe there's an EU police body yet.

I'll try to get across the 'concept' here, regardless of the technical term to be ascribed to it:

Both California and Ireland are independent from their colleagues. California is an body with a clearly defined border, limits to jurisdiction within that border, but total jurisdiction within it (exception Native American tribes which have a unique relationship with the US as a whole). Seems equivalent to Ireland, so far. That jurisdiction is subject to the rule of the higher federated power, and I seem to recall changing the Irish Constitution to make Irish law subject to EU law. California has its own independent, bi-cameral legislature. Police force. Military, Economic policy. Tax structure. Education standards. Constitution. Supreme Court. Holdings in courts in neighboring Nevada and Oregon have zero value in California, their lawyers are not authorized to practice in California. And so on. It has most of the characteristics of a country.

These are not like counties or provinces in Ireland or France. While accepting the technical difference between a federation and a confederation, the practical effect is that Sacramento has much more effect on what happens in California than Washington DC has, and Leinster House controls more of Irish life than Brussels. For the better common good, California has joined with the other States to make a union of states, hence the name of the country. It's not "United America", just like it's not "United Europe". Someone in Nevada is just as happy to be dictated to by California as an Irishman likes to be dictated to by Germany. Both accept the co-ordination provided by DC or Brussels, but both retain their own powers: It specifically says so in the Tenth Amendment. (The DC bit, not Brussels!).

After the Civil War, the wording of the US Army's oath of commissioning was changed to ensure that that particular body answered only to DC, because prior to that, the oath meant the individual States as a group. The nature of the US Federation, however, did not change. I may wear a US Army uniform, but as a Guardsman, my Commander in Chief is Governor Sandoval, not President Obama.I have an oath to the State of Nevada. I am subject to the Nevada Revised Statutes, not the federal Uniform Code of Military Justice. What's the EU/Irish equivalent? Militia of the People's Republic of Cork?

Even if the States are not quite as independent as EU, they can't send ambassadors or opt out of Schengen, for example, they are still fundamentally separate, proud entities of equal worth. We may have progressed further along the federation path, but we are not one state, and people need to stop considering it as such.