What stops a second-term president from doing whatever he wants?

Question

I've never been able to understand this part of the American political system. A president in his second term already knows he can't be re-elected, so what is his incentive to act according to the will of the electorate?

When I say 'whatever he wants' obviously I'm not talking about unconstitutional or illegal things, just things in terms of policy, etc.

Answer 1

The Constition, the Congress, and the Supreme Court.

Answer 2

We do not have a choice in our elections. Vote for whoever you want but when it comes down to it we will get Dem. or Rep. One or the other and I am SICK of it. Political parties nowadays are a JOKE and are taking advantage of the people who vote for them by not truly representing them. Oh yeah they can defend there platforms like crazy but I want some ACTION, not the bickering back and forth. A lot of issues are pissing the people of the U.S. and the world off right now and our politicians are doing NOTHING. They fire back and forth at each other about who's paryt is better and don't really solve any problems. Poltitcal parties also get in the way of a real person getting far up the ladder by controlling the media during the elections and telling lies about what they are going to do. They are causing a huge rift by letting these issues drag on and the entire world is mocking us and our leadership because they are doing nothing but argue with each other about things. Our politicans need a boot in the kiester to get things going and start making decisions. I don't care anymore what really happens with the issue I just want them to solve something for a change and not just argue about it. The longer issues go unresolved, the bigger the rift will get until we all reach our breaking points. I love my freedom to vote but we don't really have a choice because, until we really wan't a change, it will be a Democrat or Republican every time and we will not see any changes for the better.

Answer 3

Well, that's SUPPOSED to be the job of the legislative and the judical branches of government....keeping the executive in check. But, we're stuck with a "rubber-stamp" congress filled with spineless Democrats and "me too" Republicans, and now a conservatively "packed" court system.

So, at this moment, nothing but the people, advice from mad Tom, and their 2nd amendment rights.

Answer 4

Congress and Senate can kick him out .... though with bush, he has the senate under his wing, so they wouldn't do anything to him...sadly

--though much is a joke making us think we can make a difference... but that seems not to be the case as it once was... witch is also sad

Answer 5

He's kept in check by Congress and the Senate.

Answer 6

Who said Presidents always act in according to the will of the American people and electorate; that is kind of a misconception of the American political process isn't it? The open/illegal immigration debate in the US is an obvious case where the vast majority of Americans from both parties want more enforcement and/or stricter rules, etc. while politicians from both parties seem to be ignoring the electorate. Anyhow, the President and other elected officials, once elected, generally do things they "think" are in America's best interest often ignoring popular opinion (the situation in Iraq is another case where most Americans want "out" while the President is steadfast on his policy there). The President and other government officials run on general platforms and, once in office, don't really answer to the people on individual issues like they do in a parlimentary system; these officials stay in office (unless they do something horrifically illegal/unconstitutional and even that isn't always enough to be removed or impeached from office) until their term ends. Most officials are elected because the majority of voters at that time are more in favor of their general platform and not because they agree on every individual issue; even members of the same parties can vary on their stances of many individual issues/policies. Despite being the "most powerful person on the face of the world," the President has many things that restrict what they can do even in their last term in office; in fact many may say that once they have reached their last term as allowed by law, they actually exert little influence as members of the other party try to hold out until the next election. To begin with, the checks and balances set by our wise forefathers in regards to our Constitution still severely limits what even the President can do by Executive Order to achieve His political goals. The vast majority of American laws and policies are set by the US Congress- not by the President and Executive Branch of our government; the President may suggest policy but cannot get policy and laws created without development by, imput and debate from, and generally acceptance by Congress (and then approval by the courts). Generally, majority support of both "houses" of Congress are needed to get any bill created into law; and then our courts and judicial branch (where members often come from both parties, have become rigorously screened as to not be too extreme politically in either direction, and often answer to noone else once in office) then even has say over the legality and constitutionality of any law approved by Congress or Executive action of the President as another check/balance of power to both the President and Congress ( a recent example may be the ruling of the "illegality" of holding suspected terrorists at Guantanamo, Cuba indefinetely by the courts). Besides trying to explain the American policy-making process, it may do more to simply explain how American society and political realities have come to restrict the President and all other politicians/government officials. Even with all the checks of political power set in place by law, Americans have created further ways to limit political power of our officials through the party system and due to varying terms of office for each major Congressional and Executive positions; these terms generally overlap themselves every two years for the House of Representatives, 6 years for the Senate and 4 years for the President. Looking at this, say for arguement a popular President has been elected to a second term and then begins to do things for his party's "agenda" at the expense of the populace. First, it is unlikely a President could dictate policy because, at any one time both Houses are generally fairly split between both party's making it difficult for either to dominate policy; however, if for the sake of arguement the President is in term with a Congress where both Houses are also dominated by his party a couple more things that limit him is the fact that in 2 years the American people can simply change a good chunk of Congress if they think the nation is on "the wrong course" by supporting the other party and/or members of even the President's party will still often serve as a check on his proposed policies/authority either out of disagreement or because they know the American public wouldn't support these policies and they are trying to make sure they have enough political support for their next election. For better or worse, us Americans have just an incredible variety of ways of checking/balancing the amount of authority any person or branch of our governemnt can actually exert- either derived from the creation of our nation and government by our forefathers (who if you read American history really were acutely paranoid of giving too much power to anybody after breaking away from the British monarchy) or from the development of our two party system and basic middle of the road political tendings of the American people. Sometimes, in fact, Americans will argue not that any branch, official, etc. holds too much power, but, rather, our checks and balances sometimes prevents policies and laws from being enacted. One last example of our "checks" is now if a President disapproves of a law being passed by both houses of Congress, he can veto it and basically return it to both houses where then both houses (once again usually split fairly close along party lines) need to have 2/3's support to enact it. Hope this makes a bit of sense to you- I didn't even involve the checks and balances between individual state and further local governments and our federal governement because then you're REALLY going to go crazy with our political processes.

Answer 7

His Mommy and Daddy.

Answer 8

for the good of his party and all the other members

Answer 9

Nothing stops them, look now!