Hypothetical: You are the President and you don't want to leave.

Let me start by saying that I am fascinated by history and politics in both the US as well as Europe and Asia, though it's more of a hobby for me than an obsession. I have often thought about this scenario in which the sitting president decides that he is not going to give up his seat or the power it holds.

Realizing that with our system of checks and balances built into our government, the likelyhood of this happening is remote. However, I'm interested in changing the perspective of this scenario. Let's say that you are the president and you decide that you're going to not leave the office of the presidency. You have 1 year and three months to go before the next election and you're quite sure that you're not going to be re-elected. What would you do?

Would you do this militarily? Would you create some national disaster and institute martial law? Would you get the media on your side and try to convince a majority of Americans that this was the right thing to do? Or would you find some way to indefinitely postpone or outright cancel the next election?

reply to post by MensaDude


Usually a false flag attack weeks or months before elections is their best bet.....except the public are too smart to see past that now

reply to post by MensaDude


Barack is that you?

Sorry I meant Barry?

Im not giving you ideas!

reply to post by MensaDude


Hmmm False flag would be see thru. I would up my practices of attacking terrorist. After a few months I would be shot. Not killed, Recover swiftly and stand back up. I would give America a reason to fight. And show them that I am not scared. that I would fight back. Give them someone they can believe in. I would have payed for the asasination attempt of course.
If I was African American. I would do something similar but make it a race thing. Have some hillbilly try to kill me. I would def play the Race Card. Declare Martial Law. Slowly ween the White people out of office and incorporate More African Americans.
I would need the Military to stay in Power. Regardless Of which way I went about it. Without the power the Military would give me I wouldn't be able to stay in power..

Therian

problem reaction solution

a.k.a false flag operations

a.k.a

force them to re elect me with all the good i did after i made it all up


nobody will be the wiser

the conspiracy theorists will cry corruption but they always do and will be ignored

my approvel ratings will go back up and people will ask for me to stay


i win !

Well, this is under the assumption that the President has any say whatsoever and his actions and office are not ruled by lobbyists and corporate sponsors aka TPTB.

Assuming though that the TPTB would support you in somehow lengthening your stay in office, and assuming this is your first term, the easiest bet would be to use your shadier connections to rig election results.
With the electronic voting system it's much easier to tamper with the data than most people think.

Assuming though that you've already served the maximum terms, then you'd have to create a state of emergency and post-pone the elections. Wether it's false-flag or not is irrelevant, you'd need to get your spin-doctors to work overtime to persuade the public that this is for the best and only a "temporary" measure until peace and order are restored.... a-la Emperor Palpatine... (sorry couldn't resist).

reply to post by XXXN3O


Haha. but no. It would be funny if Barry did ask how he could do this in one of his town hall meetings.

I read this book called "The 48 Laws of Power" by Robert Greene. I couldn't understand why I would ever use any of the information in that book to my own benefit, since I'm neither power hungry or that aggressive. Then a mentor of mine said, "Don't read it like you're going to use the information, read it to understand people who seek power."

How about waiting till the elections and finding out who the imminent winner is, then getting some major reconstructive surgery like in the movie face/off and switching places with the new winner?

The black-->white thing might be tricky but I'm sure it can be done...LOL

He could declare the United States broke. No money for an election= KING for life.

Or a War. War's always work.

reply to post by Therian


Interesting. Noticed that Obama was just recently quoted as being worried about a 'lone wolf' terrorist on the anniversary of 911.

If the POTUS decided to do it militarily, how many troops in how many cities would be needed? Are there even enough troops IN the United States to make that happen?

If you are the POTUS. You already know going into office whether you've been sanctioned by your masters for one or two terms. There is no getting around it.

Plausible deinability along with something that would incapicitate the areas that would vote against me, say a modified virus to make people very sick during the time that the ballots were to be cast.

reply to post by MensaDude


yes American voting system is rigged. However when a new president is elected there are no personel the prior president could call upon to protect him from loosing his position. See unlike Lybia where a president stays in office until his health takes him out , he dies or the civilians riot them out. It just don't happen like that here. Take Obama, if he is not re-elected no matter what he thinks there is zero possibility of having one single American stand by him to keep him I'm his seat.

reply to post by MensaDude


Due to the complex nature of the Executive branch, there is no way a POTUS could try stay in office past his term without the support of the various departments, agencies, plus the Legislative and Judicial branches..

The bureaucrats in the Executive branch who stay while administrations leave, aka the guys who have been there 30 years, would raise all kinds of hell, especially at the Defense Department and the Justice Department.

Wars and disasters wouldn't change anything: We have had presidential elections in the middle of our civil war, the Great Depression and World War 2. Short of a global nuclear war, planetary assault by aliens, or some other extinction level event, there wouldn't be any real way to postpone the elections.

The most realistic manner a POTUS would stay in office past his term, would require an extremely popular superstar president at the end of his second term given an indefinite term and emergency powers by Congress in a time a of great crisis, with the Supreme Court declaring the legislation valid. Anything less would likely tear the country apart.

Originally posted by MikeboydUS
reply to post by MensaDude

 

Due to the complex nature of the Executive branch, there is no way a POTUS could try stay in office past his term without the support of the various departments, agencies, plus the Legislative and Judicial branches..

The United States is NOT a Democracy. It's a Republic.

If the Republic is insolvent and can't afford to gather the Electoral College to pick a President...current President stays in power until sufficient funds are in the Federal Government to get the Electoral College together.

His only route would be to have Congress take out the 2 term limit in the Constitution then he could run as often as he wants similar to FDR. A popular President with the support of both houses could do this quite easily I imagine.

reply to post by MensaDude


Obama should worry less about a "lone wolf" and alot more of a sabotage from the military dropping a bombshell about the Obama administration to the media right before the presidential elections.

You can be sure if Obama is re-elected, the Americans will be laughed at all over the world.

reply to post by Pervius


Did I say anything about democracy?

Where did you get the idea that the Electorate won't meet due to funding? In addition where did you even get that idea that POTUS would stay in power until the US is solvent? its not in the Constitution.