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This way of thinking displays a baffling lack of imagination. Even the mere existence of the Justice Department constrains President behavior considerably compa
by mlthoughts2018 7y ago
This way of thinking displays a baffling lack of imagination. Even the mere existence of the Justice Department constrains President behavior considerably compared to having no such office.
It’s incredible to think that you’re taking the existence of bad behavior that happens despite these checks & balances as evidence that the checks & balances do nothing.
- GVIrish 7y agoYeah but the US government has checks and balances the average private company does not. The president has to get an attorney general confirmed, there are laws preventing him from using political considerations to affect civil service hiring, etc. In a private company, the CEO can simply fire anyone in HR who stands up to them, no questions asked. In toxic situations HR often actively covers for bad behavior because the perpetrator signs their pay checks. Not to say HR is useless and many times they can be an effective check on behavior. But as we've seen in some of these high profile cases of misconduct, HR has enabled abusers by taking their side against victims.
- dragonwriter 7y ago> Yeah but the US government has checks and balances the average private company does not. That's less true within the executive branch than between it and other branches; the main one relating to DoJ is the Senate confirmation process and the hope that the Senate won't confirm stooges of a corrupt President to leadership roles in the DoJ. That isn't particularly reliable, however, making DoJ not a consistently strong constraint.
- GVIrish 7y agoYep. Normally we'd like to think that the Senate confirmation process would stop outright unethical enablers of presidential misconduct from getting confirmed. But, here we are.