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South Korean President Impeached

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Re: South Korean President Impeached

#71

Post by sandworm101 »

lifthrasiir wrote: post #55
nether wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My cousin is a historian of Korea, and well, Korean herself. She says this president is like Korea's GWB. Shamelessly very right wing, a lot of gaffes related to speech and behavior. There are going to be a lot of happy people tonight.

> She says this president is like Korea's GWB. If she were like GWB we wouldn't have gone this far. She is more like Nixon, but worse.

Nixon is "the worst" because he was the one forced from office. But he wasn't actually removed through legal process. They started the process, but he left on his own before it came to anything. Clinton was actually impeached, but did not leave. I dont think the US has ever removed a president legally. They have quit, which isn't the same thing. Korea is ahead in that regard. Im not sure how/if the american system might handle a legal forced removal.

In nixon's defense: read his wikipedia article. He wasnt a monster. Many good things came from his presidency.

Re: South Korean President Impeached

#72

Post by noobermin »

gingerbread-man wrote: post #2

Well done S.Korea. Any tips for US?

Reading the description of the political climate upthread, the majority in parliament in SK is opposition, split between two parties. Here, the R's have a majority in the House which impeaches, so our chances are unfortunately not that great.

Re: South Korean President Impeached

#73

Post by devonkim »

M_Grey wrote: post #30
treme wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1) Get a media figure* that commands the utmost respect of the population to report on corruption. 2) Get 2% of the population participating in a peaceful protest & demonstration to put pressure on congress. 3) ??? 4) profit!! * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sohn_Suk-hee

Media figure with utmost respect... in the US... scratches head We're hooped.

I think this may be why the US has a strange fascination with electing actors to high political offices - they may cross a lot more partisan lines than any other celebrities that are actually professional policy makers or journalists.

I also think the other cultural difference is that education and science is still highly respected as institutions while confidence in these institutions has been attacked and subsequently declined for decades. This makes a lot of national discourse for what should be otherwise simple discussions much, much harder. This, at the moment Obama's commentary as he exited office is about right - emotion has triumphed over reason and facts.

Re: South Korean President Impeached

#74

Post by kijin »

sideproject wrote: post #24

As a Korean, I feel bittersweet for my mother country. It's embarrassing that this is happening, yet I feel relieved now that people of Korea can move forward - here's hoping for electing a more qualified president next.

As a fellow Korean, please don't feel embarrassed.

Unnecessary embarrassment at the sight of anything that could possibly cast a negative light on our country is one of the major causes of the trouble that we've been in. It makes us prone to hide our problems and pretend that everything is all right. It makes us blind to the shortcomings of our preferred political leaders. It makes us resent the few brave journalists and activists who dare to bring these problems to light. All of this hampers progress.

The same misguided sense of pride and embarrassment is at the root of Japan's constant refusal to admit their war crimes. They feel embarrassed that they are grandchildren of war criminals. But if they keep thinking that way, they will never be free of embarrassment. The only way forward is to do admit that something bad happened and to take pride in your passion to fix it. I truly hope that all Asian cultures can learn this, including Koreans and Japanese.

Re: South Korean President Impeached

#75

Post by piotrkaminski »

dllthomas wrote: post #68
piotrkaminski wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> are we proposing education testing before casting a vote? I'm curious, have there been any known attempts to condition the right to vote on passing some kind of IQ, education, or rational thinking test? If so, how did they work out?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_test#Voting

Thanks, that's some useful history to know. Any data points from other countries?

Re: South Korean President Impeached

#77

Post by kijin »

noobermin wrote: post #72
gingerbread-man wrote: post #2

Well done S.Korea. Any tips for US?

Reading the description of the political climate upthread, the majority in parliament in SK is opposition, split between two parties. Here, the R's have a majority in the House which impeaches, so our chances are unfortunately not that great.

Even the two major opposition parties could not have pulled off a supermajority (67% required for the impeachment) on their own. It helped that the ruling party was split into two factions, one of which sided with the opposition at the last minute.

Now we have four major parties, one minor party, and a bunch of independents who all hate one another. It's going to be fun! At least I hope this will bring some much-needed diversity to Korean politics. Two parties are boring and too easily devolve into an ideological staredown.

Re: South Korean President Impeached

#79

Post by kijin »

h4nkoslo wrote: post #17

The South Korean presidential scandal is one of the odder bits of contemporary political history. Imagine an alternate-history US President Hillary Clinton being impeached over PizzaGate and it starts to get close. Besides the actual corruption mentioned in the article, there are credible reports swirling of a "8 Goddesses" cabal and various occult practices. http://askakorean.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-irrational-down…

Imagine that Americans elected Tom Cruise to the White House and it turns out that the Church of Scientology was pulling his strings. That would be an apt analogy.

Re: South Korean President Impeached

#80

Post by khuey »

jdoliner wrote: post #35
twblalock wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US Congress does not choose a new president if the current president is removed. The normal line of succession applies: Vice President, then Speaker of the House, then President Pro Tem of the Senate, etc. This was clarified in the 25th amendment. No US president has been convicted in an impeachment trial, but when Nixon resigned, the normal rules of succession applied. Congress did appoint Gerald Ford as VP befo…

I was basing my previous comment off of this (which might not be reliable): http://fsmsupremecourt.org/fsm/code/title02/T02_Ch01.htm But it includes the line: > If both the President and Vice President die, resign, or are impeached, the Speaker of the Congress shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the President as Acting President, and the Congress shall within thirty days of the last vacancy elect a Pres…

That site is for the Supreme Court of the Federated States of Micronesia.
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