As far as politicians go, the Vice President is probably the most
useless person in America's political system today. So do we need that
position anymore?
What does the Vice President do?: Traditionally, the Vice President
was to preside over the Senate in the Congress. They would organize
discussion, votes and then finally in the event of a tie cast the deciding
vote. However, today the Vice President hardly ever embraces this part of
his/her position as President of the Senate as they are typically at the beck
and call of the president with respect to acting as a political tool for the
current administration. Also, members of the Senate typically fill the
position themselves when the Vice President is absent, while party leadership
prevents ties in the first place (if there is a tie, then I do not think it is
a bad thing as it promotes more discussion).
The other role of Vice President is to
take over the office of the President in the event the President is
incapacitated, leaves office, or dies. In this role the Vice President
has carried out their duties successfully on multiple occasions. However,
this can easily be done by other members in Congress, or even by the Presidents
Chief of staff. As such, the Vice President has become redundant.
What should they do?: We have options. For one, we
should have the Vice President perform their actual duties with respect to
presiding over the Senate. It allows for the Vice President to act as a liaison
between the Congress and the President so that there is a line of communication
at all times. This should also allow for the Vice President to relay
directly what parts of a bill a president will sign into law and what parts
they do not like. Potentially, the Vice President can also aid in writing
the bills that may become law.
Another option which may combine with the
first is eliminate running mates during elections. Instead have the
runner ups become the Vice President. The goal of this is so that a devil’s
advocate, if you will, will be in the white house so as to allay concerns about
laws, and act as a dissenter in front of the public if they feel the President
is going too far in their actions. Essentially another check on the
President's power from within. If combined with the first option, then
the laws being crafted will be more moderate and thus more acceptable to both
political parties. In short, it allows for greater compromise.
One other possibility short of eliminating
the post is to have the Vice President act as head of the diplomatic corps.
They will be in charge of early negotiations between countries with
respect to trade deals and treaties. So they can help build and maintain
relations with other countries. From there once an initial dialogue takes
place the President can then step in to finish up the deals to add legitimacy, and
then wait for the Senate to vote on it with the Vice President presenting it
before them. So here, the ambassadors, and diplomatic staff would all
answer to the Vice President.
Conclusion: All three options are good ideas
(because I thought of them). However, this would need a President who is
willing to place much more power into the hands of a Vice President let alone a
former rival. So many will just opt to probably constitutionally
eliminate the post over these changes which do not require constitutional acceptance.
Let us face it, such changes to make the Vice President more powerful and
thus detract from the President can be scary to those in power and even the
American people and thus needs to become acceptable to everyone before such an
idea was to ever be carried out.
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