# Prerequisites for the Presidency **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 9, 2018, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prerequisites-for-the-presidency/806197 "2018-01-09T02:52:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prerequisites-for-the-presidency/806197/21 "2018-01-09T14:16:17Z")
It does make you wonder, if we don’t like requirements to be president, why have the 35 year old rule? If we really think the primary process and the American people (may their wisdom live forever), are capable of deciding a good president? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prerequisites-for-the-presidency/806197/22 "2018-01-09T14:26:02Z")
As a data point, two of the candidates in the 2016 election would be qualified under the OP’s criteria and 48.54% of the voters saw fit to vote against them. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prerequisites-for-the-presidency/806197/23 "2018-01-09T14:30:26Z")
I never think it’s a good idea to amend the constitution because someone got elected that you don’t like. And it would’t bother me to shit-can the 35-year-old rule or the natural born citizen rule, either. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prerequisites-for-the-presidency/806197/24 "2018-01-09T14:44:22Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I disagree with the general principle. We shouldn’t need a law to stop us from electing an unqualified person to the Presidency; our intelligence should do that. > > Yes, the current occupant of the Oval Office demonstrates that American voters can fail in their role. But if we can’t be trusted to elect our own leaders then we might as well abandon the central principle of democracy rather than tinkering with the details. Yes. In some future election a businessman or celebrity might be our best choice. Trump doesn’t prove otherwise: does the existence of Ted Cruz prove that Senators should not be allowed to run? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prerequisites-for-the-presidency/806197/25 "2018-01-09T16:54:19Z")
> [@Mr\_Shine](#): > > Trump himself is a very bad president, but I see no reason why a successful business(wo)man should not be able to throw his/her hat in the ring, if that person is likely to take advice and listen in areas where their business experience doesn’t help. Why? Should our country be run like a business? _Can_ it successfully be run like a business? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prerequisites-for-the-presidency/806197/26 "2018-01-09T16:57:26Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > I never think it’s a good idea to amend the constitution because someone got elected that you don’t like. And it would’t bother me to shit-can the 35-year-old rule or the natural born citizen rule, either. I might go the other way, and require candidates to take a standard citizenship test that immigrants have to take. If you are currently an American citizen _and_ can pass the test, you can run. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prerequisites-for-the-presidency/806197/27 "2018-01-09T17:01:04Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > I might go the other way, and require candidates to take a standard citizenship test that immigrants have to take. If you are currently an American citizen _and_ can pass the test, you can run. We’ll never get to President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho if you insist on throwing obstacles like this in the way. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prerequisites-for-the-presidency/806197/28 "2018-01-09T17:27:00Z")
We’ve done worse. Like right now, for instance. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prerequisites-for-the-presidency/806197/29 "2018-01-09T17:33:50Z")
Does anyone think the current Prez could have passed a citizenship test? ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prerequisites-for-the-presidency/806197/30 "2018-01-09T18:09:33Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I disagree with the general principle. We shouldn’t need a law to stop us from electing an unqualified person to the Presidency; our intelligence should do that. > > Yes, the current occupant of the Oval Office demonstrates that American voters can fail in their role. But if we can’t be trusted to elect our own leaders then we might as well abandon the central principle of democracy rather than tinkering with the details. I agree with this. Ideas like this also suffer greatly from the broken window fallacy. It is _easy_ to see a bad candidate for President and think of a rule that would exclude that person. It is almost impossible to see all the people who would have been good candidates, if not for being excluded by the rules. When people point out that Lincoln, arguably the nation’s greatest President, would be excluded by these rules, the response should not be to tweak the rules so that he wouldn’t be excluded. That’s just overfitting to the data we have. You should instead reexamine the basic premise: that we can somehow come up with simple rules that will result in a good president. We cannot. That’s why we have elections. In fact, I think we should reexamine the _existing_ limitations for President. It’s not at all clear to me that a 34-year-old is less capable than an 80-year-old. Yet we prohibit the former from the Presidency. Similarly, the rule requiring a natural born citizen doesn’t seem to have served its purpose of preventing foreign influence in the executive branch. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prerequisites-for-the-presidency/806197/31 "2018-01-09T18:11:30Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Does anyone think the current Prez could have passed a citizenship test? No, but then, I’d be surprised if most native-born Americans could do so, either. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prerequisites-for-the-presidency/806197/32 "2018-01-09T18:12:03Z")
Isn’t the point of Trump that he isn’t a politician, that he isn’t _lobbied_, bribed and corrupt and beyond the reach of those s/he notionally represents. Americans can bear to think in these terms - and who can blame them - but the democracy is lost. It is a rich man’s oligarchy and the one remaining hope for many voters is a non-politician as head of state. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prerequisites-for-the-presidency/806197/33 "2018-01-09T18:16:02Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Little Nemo** : > > I think that’s too extreme. The President doesn’t need to be an expert in every subject; he isn’t supposed to run the entire administration by himself. The President would only need to be an expert in every subject if we shrank the executive branch and greatly reduced the number of people working for him. Which, oddly, is exactly what **ITR champion** goes on to recommend. As for businessmen running for President, too many of them not only think mistakenly that the government can be run like a business, but also don’t even know how to run a business. You offer any successful CEO the opportunity to borrow money at a less than 1% interest rate, and 100 times out of 100, they’ll accept, and then stop to figure out what they can use that money for. But those same people, when they’re running for office, will invariably rail against the government doing the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prerequisites-for-the-presidency/806197/34 "2018-01-09T18:33:44Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Does anyone think the current Prez could have passed a citizenship test? He doesn’t even know the national anthem. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prerequisites-for-the-presidency/806197/35 "2018-01-09T18:37:50Z")
The man looked directly at the eclipse. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prerequisites-for-the-presidency/806197/36 "2018-01-09T18:39:15Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The President would only need to be an expert in every subject if we shrank the executive branch and greatly reduced the number of people working for him. Which, oddly, is exactly what **ITR champion** goes on to recommend. > > As for businessmen running for President, too many of them not only think mistakenly that the government can be run like a business, but also don’t even know how to run a business. You offer any successful CEO the opportunity to borrow money at a less than 1% interest rate, and 100 times out of 100, they’ll accept, and then stop to figure out what they can use that money for. But those same people, when they’re running for office, will invariably rail against the government doing the same thing. I can just see the President selling off the assets and “retiring” with a $35 trillion parachute. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prerequisites-for-the-presidency/806197/37 "2018-01-09T18:52:39Z")
Rather than attempting a constitutional bar to electing inexperienced pop culture icons or business people, it’d be best to target the basics, and require critical thinking courses starting in grade and high school. That way, we might be able to minimize the “ooh, a celebrity!” factor. ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prerequisites-for-the-presidency/806197/38 "2018-01-09T19:04:02Z")
The problem isn’t the electorate, it’s the stupid political system. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prerequisites-for-the-presidency/806197/39 "2018-01-09T19:58:15Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Rather than attempting a constitutional bar to electing inexperienced pop culture icons or business people, it’d be best to target the basics, and require critical thinking courses starting in grade and high school. > > That way, we might be able to minimize the “ooh, a celebrity!” factor. You’re not serious, are you? ---
**Author:** ![HelenGawn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@HelenGawn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelenGawn)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2018, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prerequisites-for-the-presidency/806197/40 "2018-01-09T21:35:08Z")
As for flag officers, anyone remember Ross Perot’s running mate Admiral James “who-am-I-and-why-am-I-here?” Stockdale? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prerequisites-for-the-presidency/806197.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prerequisites-for-the-presidency/806197.md?page=3)