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When the Constitution was ratified it could take a traveler in the neighborhood of 2½ weeks to get from the southernmost state capital (Augusta, GA) to the nation's capital in New York - and that was in good weather. To that end, the transition period between administrations was set at almost 16 weeks. This was "rectified" in 1933 with the ratification of the Twentieth Amendment that set the beginning of the new Congressional term at January 3rd and Inauguration Day for the president at January 20th.
Franklin Roosevelt was both the last president sworn in on March 4th and the first sworn in on January 20th. Flight has since eclipsed rail as the preferred method of travel. Is it time for another change?
In the UK, admittedly a tiny nation compared to the United States, the transition between governments is measured in hours. It is also helped by the parliamentary system where the opposition leader has a leg up on forming a cabinet. Still, as this transition from Biden to Trump is illustrating, eleven weeks may still be too long.
Trump fans may be champing at the bit, fearful that Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer have too much time to commit lame-duck shenanigans. On the other hand, if you have no trust in elections, you may not have trust in a quick transition, either. But as Thomas Sowell famously said, "There are no solutions, there are only tradeoffs."
So, what is a more proper timetable? (Or for that matter is the present one okay?) I would begin with the Congress changing within two weeks and setting the presidential inaugural within a week of the Electoral College vote. Regardless of who one voted for, we should be able to agree that it's time to get this show on the road.
Discussion (25)
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You may be right about a needed adjustment to the inaugural day for a newly elected POTUS. However, I never felt any need for an adjustment until the recent Biden and Obama terms. Usually, an outgoing administration has been polite enough to acknowledge the incoming President has just won the election and should be given courteous deference when it comes to highly politicized actions of the current and outgoing regime. However, politeness and courtesy are no longer part of political behavior.
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I agree that the length of time should be changed, but I'd prefer that the period be one month from the election date. Maybe the states will get off their rear ends and complete vote counting in a timely fashion.
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I think both of those dates are fair. Having the new Congress start two weeks after they are elected eliminates the crapfest that is lame duck.
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These days, unfortunately, we have to allow for almost inevitable election lawfare, which can sometimes take as much time to wind its way up through the court system as it took a traveler to get from Augusta to New York in bad weather back in the late 1700s.
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Intriguing idea. There really is a great case for repealing or modifying the 20th. So there's both a politics-neutral case (air travel vs. carriage) and a conservative reason for doing it. So far, outgoing conservative administrations have been notable in their care and assistance to the newbies. Outgoing leftist administrations invariably stink up the place as far as they can get away with.
But the intriguing part is that it would introduce the idea of constitutional change to redress a century and a quarter of leftist depredations. We could really do without the 16th and 17th, and repealing the 20th would move them squarely into the Overton window.
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