My late husband, who studied American history and its political structure, often said that the Presidency has much too much power. The Parliamentary system (as in the UK, Canada, Australia etc.) has a leader -- Prime Minister -- who is essentially the first among equals. He/she is elected leader of the Party by Party members and runs for election in a riding. If his/her Party wins the most seats, he/she becomes Prime Minister and answers to the House of Commons and the Senate. His Cabinet is made up of elected members. It works well.
OTOH, you have an elected President who is also Commander-in-Chief. You treat him like a king, and if he doesn't like what bills the House creates and the Senate passes, he has the power of veto. You have an electoral college which ignores a situation where Hillary gets more popular votes than Trump but declares Trump the President. You have very small states (population-wise) with the same number of senators that the very large states have. Your checks and balances fly out the window when state-gerrymandered districts elect a majority of Reps who are the same Party as your President and the majority of the Senate.
Yes, I know how this all came about -- politics is the art of compromise and the Founding Fathers made compromise after compromise. Founding a nation by means of revolution, rather than evolution makes for some unusual decisions that may seem eminently sensible and workable at the time. Aside from the Amendments to the Constitution, the President according to the Constitution is still essentially the King, and is treated like one (Ruffles and Flourishes, anyone?). The USA is often called a democracy, but it really isn't -- at least today it isn't.
And because it isn't, every American ally feels at risk. We don't sleep well at night, not knowing if we are, or are not, deemed a "security risk", with our exports tariffed to the max by your mad "King" and his idiot acolytes.
With apologies to anyone who feels insulted by this post.....
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