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The Paris and Iran agreements were not submitted to Congress for the good reason that they had insufficient support there. Agreement by only one branch of a div
by hirundo 7y ago
The Paris and Iran agreements were not submitted to Congress for the good reason that they had insufficient support there. Agreement by only one branch of a divided government was a pretty clear sign that the US was not a reliable counterparty to them. The agreements were honored by the entity that made them -- the Obama administration -- whose power had a clear expiration date. Given the political configuration, relying on more than that was unsupported. Although Trump was hard to predict, several of the other GOP candidates may well have done the same.
I would not expect a Biden or Warren administration to feel bound by a unilateral Trump agreement, and any counterparties aren't doing due diligence if they don't understand that.
- estomagordo 7y agoAre you suggesting untrustworthyness in foreign politics is something intrinsic to the American democracy? Other countries can be relied upon, in spite of them holding general elections.
- true_religion 7y agoI doubt that's what they were saying. It's simply that only 1/3rd of the government signed onto the treaty. That was public and well known. Any foreign power would realize they couldn't rely on continuity as their only supporters was a president who couldn't hold power for longer than 8 years. If Congress had signed in, it wouldn't matter who was President afterwards. Countries like the UK, don't have this issue since they are parliamentary governments so there's really only 1 branch of government with legislative and executive power integrated. Most countries in North and South America though are presidential democracies, so the US is in good company.