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Originally Posted by Ninja Dodo
erm... tell me. Just how would he get elected?
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Sure, nobody would vote for him now. But if we continue with our hypothetical situation it's not all that hard to see. Back in the 80s bin Laden was supposed to be one of the good guys helping us to fight the Soviets. Even during the 90s when he was actively attacking American targets a lot of Americans didn't know who he was. Bin Laden may be evil, but he knows how to play the political game. If he had had the opportunity and the will, I think he very well could have taken some sort of public office in America.
Of course, that is obviously an extreme example. But it makes my point. We've already seen that people can integrate themselves into a society and live there for years without being discovered. All it would really take is somebody with enough patience who knows how to work the American political system.
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Originally Posted by DomStLeger
My post was firmly tongue in cheek.
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Sorry. I've just heard that said so often in the past few days I kind of assumed you were being serious.
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Originally Posted by DomStLeger
Even if you do consider that to be remotely possible, consider this - there are already alot of american citizens who are entitled to stand for president yet are members of extreme organisations like the KKK. Expanding the entitlement to citizens not born in the US is not going to have much effect in that respect.
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Well, I never said it was perfect. In an ideal world we'd have ways of sorting out people like the KKK too. Frankly, I don't have a whole lot of faith left in the American electoral process at this point. But there's no reason to go looking for trouble. I'm sure there are plenty of non-Americans that would make a lot better presidents than some of the ones we've had. But my cynicism forces me to consider who else might try to use it. We've had enough presidents do damage to the country just because of incompetence. Can you imagine what might happen if somebody were actively trying to sabotage it? At least with an native American, it's not like he can go back home to China or Afghanistan when things start to go south here.
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Originally Posted by DomStLeger
I prefer our system, where a prime minister is only an MP who can be got rid of by the rest of parliament whenever they feel like it. Even better, an election can be called and conducted in 4 weeks. It may not be perfect, but at least the power is shared by 600+ people and not 1, and if those 600 people can't form a simple majority the other 60million people automatically have their say.
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Another thing I've noticed about the political process in the UK is that they actually seem to care about what they're talking about. When Parliament disagrees with Blair they really let him have it. It's not like the sheeple of America who just go along with everything because the president told them to.
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Originally Posted by Ninja Dodo
But the issue isn't whether immigrants should be allowed to be president. The issue is that there is actually a remote chance that the governator could become president. That is a very scary thought.
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It is scary. I've heard Arnold talk about politics. He should definitely stick to movies.
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