Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Now They’re Trotting Out Plans For a Coup D’Etat

We knew this would get dusted off eventually. Kathleen Parker at The Washington Post trotted out Section 4 of the 25th Amendment, which deals with presidential incapacity.
With luck, and Cabinet-level courage that is not much in evidence, there’s a chance we won’t have to wait two long years, during which, let’s face it, anything could happen. In anticipation of circumstances warranting a speedier presidential replacement, wiser minds added Section 4 to the 25th Amendment, which removes the president if a majority of the Cabinet and the vice president think it necessary, i.e., if the president is injured or falls too ill to serve. Or, by extension, by being so incompetent — or not-quite-right — that he or she poses a threat to the nation and must be removed immediately and replaced by the vice president.
So how does that really work? Nobody knows for sure, because it’s never really been done (not for more than a few hours–or days–at least). But in theory at least, our government has the ultimate kill-switch for a president off the rails.
The 25th Amendment deals with presidential succession. It’s a fairly new (as amendments go) addition to our Constitution, having been ratified in 1967, with Nevada being the 38th state. (Interestingly enough, Georgia, South Carolina and North Dakota have never ratified it.) Section 4 of the amendment allows the Vice President and a majority of the cabinet to, in writing, declare the president “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office,” making the Vice President the Acting President.
If it were really that easy to engineer an American coup d’etat, we’d have seen several since 1967.
Read the rest from Steve Berman HERE.

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