Politicians are praising or mocking a new proposal from Biden, per party instructions. He says he can do the job if he doesn’t need to work in the evening.
If we take the job description in the 1787 constitution, a president could work from home.
His actual duties are (1) approve or veto bills sent from Congress; (2) send appointments for top officials to Congress, so Congress can approve or veto them; (3) send an annual report to Congress.
That’s it. Before 1850 those tasks could have been done without leaving the White House, via special messenger. After 1850 the messenger would be replaced by a secure telegraph line from the White House to the Capitol, which would become a teletype line in 1930 and a web connection in 1980.
Presidents are “expected” to do a lot of other crap, solely for party campaign purposes. The other crap is not part of the assigned job description.
Simplify, simplify, simplify.
In the last few decades presidents have done very little of their assigned duties. Congress mooshes up all laws into one giant Blackmail Omnibus, designed to punish the president if he dares to veto it. The appointments are developed by staffers, requiring no work by the president. And the letter to Congress has been replaced by an absurd political event which does NOT fulfill the original purpose.
So in reality we don’t need a human in the office at all. The president could be replaced by a Gmail forwarding function. Automatically approve the annual Blackmail Omnibus as soon as it comes in, automatically pass along the appointments determined by the staff.
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Footnote: I guess ‘commanding the armed forces’ is another duty, but we know that presidents are nowhere near the command chain in the modern era. As it happens, Lincoln managed his mass genocide from the White House telegraph office, thus showing that my list of tech steps isn’t just alt-history.
Polistra's Mill 