Silly Question on Quora: What happens if Trump loses in 2020, then on January 20, 2021, the President-elect and Vice-President-elect both refuse to take the oath of office, and everyone in the line of succession refuses to become the next President?

-
What happens if Trump loses in 2020, then on January 20, 2021, the President-elect and Vice-President-elect both refuse to take the oath of office, and everyone in the line of succession refuses to become the next President?
You’re joking, right?
First of all, this is one of the silliest “what if” scenarios about American politics, the Presidency, and how government works I’ve run across in my two years on Quora.
Why in the world would the President-elect and his Vice President decide at the last minute to chicken out at the very last minute at this late stage in the game?
Seriously, dude. Do you really believe that whoever ran against Trump in 2020 and defeated him after a bitter and hard-fought political campaign is going to all of a sudden stop the proceedings and say to Chief Justice John Roberts, “Er, excuse me, Your Honor, but my running mate and I have both changed our mind? We aren’t going to ‘solemnly affirm’ anything. Bye.”
Pish. Not. Gonna. Happen.
And, to make matters even worse, you posit that everyone else in the line of succession also refuses to take the hypothetically-abandoned reins of power.
Again. Read my lips. Never. Gonna. Happen.
Second, could you please stop using the acronym POTUS so much? You sound like you are trying to channel Tom Clancy, for Pete’s sake. “President” will do just fine.

Third, if you are trying to create a fantasy scenario in which Donald Trump stays on as President for another term by default, I’d say you need to take a couple of civics courses.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How many movies have been made based on Stephen King's 'It'?

-
Image
How many movies have been made based on Stephen King's It ? It  has been adapted twice for filmed audio-visual media. The first filmed version of  It was a TV limited series; the second was a duology of theatrically-released movies.  The first adaptation of Stephen King’s 1986 doorstop of a novel was a 1990 adaptation made as a two-part ABC miniseries for television. Among the cast members: Tim Reid, Harry Anderson, Annette O’Toole, John Ritter, and Richard Thomas. The miniseries also featured Tim Curry as the evil Pennywise the Clown. Adapted for television by director Tommy Lee Wallace and Lawrence D. Cohen (who also adapted King’s  Carrie  for director Brian De Palma in 1976),  It  was okay but a watered-down take on the scary novel about a group of friends who must face off against a monstrous entity known as “It” twice. Once as kids in 1960, then again as adults in 1990. (Like  11,22.63,  the TV version of It avoids the year 1958, which is where parts of  11/22/63 
Read more

Talking About Tom Clancy's 'Ryanverse': Was Jack Ryan a Republican or a Democrat?

-
Image
Harrison Ford starred in two Jack Ryan films. © 1992 Paramount Pictures On Quora, member Maya Lachman asks: Was Jack Ryan a Republican or a Democrat? My reply: If you’re talking about Tom Clancy’s iconic character John Patrick Ryan, Sr., he is depicted in the novels as being Republican, especially in most of the books that follow 1991’s  The Sum of All Fears. In the early Jack Ryan novels ( The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, The Cardinal of the Cardinal, Clear and Present Danger,  and  The Sum of All Fears ), Ryan works his way up the ranks in the Central Intelligence Agency, starting out as a recently-recruited analyst and rising all the way to Deputy Director (Intelligence), or DDI. During his time at CIA, Ryan doesn’t have much to say about politics (except in the context of U.S.-Soviet relations, in which case he is obviously a Cold War Republican), but his pre-CIA resume includes a stint as a Marine Corps lieutenant, a successful stockbroker who, despite
Read more

Movie Review: 'PT-109'

-
Image
In June of 1963, five months before the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Warner Bros. released director Leslie Martinson’s  PT-109 , an adaptation of Robert J. Donovan’s non-fiction book  PT-109: John F. Kennedy in World War II.   Starring Cliff Robertson ( Charly, Spider-Man ) as Navy Lieutenant (junior grade) John F. Kennedy and co-starring Ty Hardin, James Gregory, Robert Culp, Robert Blake, Norman Fell and even an uncredited George Takei (Hikaru Sulu of  Star Trek: The Original Series ), the film is a fairly accurate depiction of JFK’s naval service in the South Pacific as the commander of a motor torpedo boat given the Navy pennant number PT-109 (the PT standing for the Navy ship designator “Patrol Torpedo”).  Although Hollywood had made movies in which former Presidents (either living or dead) were depicted, producer Bryan Foy, under the direct guidance of Warner Bros.' head of production Jack Warner (who, in turn, was influenced by Joseph P. Kennedy, a f
Read more