Quote:But Hamilton never could have dreamed the size of our Government now. He was even quoted once as saying: "A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing."
If only he could see our Country today...
Yea I can understand why at his time it made since to carry a national debt and to have a central bank but Jefferson warned it would become what it is. Also I'm a pretty big anti-federalist.
Quote:Yea I can understand why at his time it made since to carry a national debt and to have a central bank but Jefferson warned it would become what it is. Also I'm a pretty big anti-federalist.
"Anti-Federalist is just an objective term."- My US History teacher.
A lot of "Federalists" can't be considered big Government supports either. They're just historical terms used to describe people who were either for/against the signing of the Constitution over the Articles of Confederation. Unless of course, I'm wrong.
Quote:I asked my wife, because she knows more than I do -- she said that she believes that the armed services prohibits any active member from serving an elected office (or office required by political appointment by the President and approval by congress). They prohibit holding any office that may interfere with military duties.
This is pretty much correct.
According to the UCMJ a military member is not allowed to participate in any political activity while in uniform.
Quote:I googled the question, "can the president be active military" and what I found was that the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which all the military personnel must abide by, prohibits partisan political activity.
Here's some discussion on it:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/dis...104x738636
This one is even better:
http://usmilitary.about.com/cs/militaryl...tics_3.htm
Referencing the bold part above. It is prohibited as long as the service member is in uniform. The service member also can not use their official rank/title while participating in any partisan political activity, ie "CDR John Smith, USN". If "John Smith" wants to participate in a political activity, he is free to do so as long as he doesn't use his rank/title and he isn't in uniform or on duty serving in a military capacity.
Getting back to DF's question:
We don't have a monarchy in this country. Can nationally elected leaders in The Netherlands keep their military rank?
Quote:Getting back to DF's question:
We don't have a monarchy in this country. Can nationally elected leaders in The Netherlands keep their military rank?
I don't think so but I'm not sure. A bit of Googling did turn up a member of our equivalent House of Representatives who is still active military but technically she's not part of the government. The government consists of the king and the ministers. I have no idea if a member of the government other than the monarch can be active military though I would suspect that wouldn't be allowed either.
Quote:A hopefully simple question: Is the president allowed to be an active member of the armed forces?
I ask because in my country when our king was crowned he had to resign from all his military posts because the civilian government regulates the military and the king is head of the government. If he remained in the military that would mean the military would be effectively be regulated by the military and you can see why that's not a desirable situation.
I know the POTUS is the commander-in-chief but his power is also limited by design by having Congress hold quite a bit of control over the military. And it would seem to me that allowing the POTUS to be an active member of the military would create a similar undesirable situation as it would with our king.
A member on active duty may hold and exercise the functions of a civil office under paragraph 4.4. when assigned or detailed (while on active duty) to such office to perform such functions, provided the assignment or detail does not interfere with military duties. Being a president would do that.
Basically to sum up the question, No. The president would have to resign from the military (assuming he was an officer), in order to be President.
He is essentailly the highest rank in the military as commander-in-chief so his previous rank wouldnt suffice and would be in conflict with his new title. In the USA the president is the head of the executive branch and his primary duty is to rule over the military to protect its citizens (in my opinion). Our congress makes the laws, and our supreme court rules upon them. A republic goverment like rome but voted for by the people "Democratic" so Democratic Republic (at least its supposed to be that) just like rome ... its hard to keep congress as the main part of being in charge...