Season One Cliffhanger... who was right? Adama or Roslin?

[Dr_Baltar]

At the end of season one we had a civil war.

**********SPOILERS**************












Adama wanted to go and colonise Kobol and use the Cylon ship to help blow up the immediate danger of the Base ship.

Roslin - now a religious believer - wanted the Cylon raider to help capture the Arrow of Apollo and go to Kobol as a means of finding Earth.

Now if we were really there...

who would you have supported?

Adama made the right choice and he is possibly still right that Roslin is/was losing her marbles, brought on by the Chamalla (spelling?) extract hallucinations.

Who in their right mind would listen to prophecies and mythology and then commit the best material advantage (in the form of the Raider) to a wild goose chase when there is a Base Star right up your arse?

I think Adama was right to bang her up, he was relieving her of command. Yes it was a military coup, but so what? Didn't George Washington and friends lead a rebellion against the elected rulers of America (there were MPs you know as well as that stupid King!).

Roslin wasn't even elected. She was 43rd down the line, hardly an overwhelming mandate to be President of the 12 Colonies. Imagine if Ross Perot became US Prez cause of the Republicans and Democrats being blown up... people wouldn't stand for it.

Anyway...
over to you....

[Maj.Tahn]

Roslin became president of the 12 colonies because she was 43rd in the chain
of command or line of sucession from the president. The other 42 people ahead
of her were killed when the Cylons nuked the 12 colonies. President Roslin basically
is completing president Adar's elected term becasue he perished in the attack.
To continue as president, Roslin has to run for re-election. George Washington
- who later became the colonies first president - led the rebellion against HM
King George & England, not the elected officials, because of excessive taxation,
especially the "tea tax." The taxes were on tea which came from the East Indies,
NOT the colonies. The colonists dumped this imported tea into Boston Harbor as
an act of rebellion against "taxation without representation."

[donniepw]

I would have to side with Adama. What Roslyn did was underhanded and subversive. She did exactly what she was accused of and that was create what was basically a mutiny on board Galactica. Now of course she probably could have attempted to order Adama to send Starbuck back to Caprica but I'm pretty sure he would have told she was crazy and not followed the order. At this point of the Show Adama still had little respect for Roslyn which was kind of part of the problem. Not that Roslyn was actually making sane and reasonable choices topped with the fact she more or less got the position of the presidency on a technicality from Adama's P.O.V. In his mind she was still a school teacher playing the part of president.

Now she turned out be vindicated in the end when all her superstitions and religious beliefes played out to be true. But going into it if we were in Adama's place we would have all thought she was crazy. You wouldn't risk a rescue operation that you feel has a good probability of sucess to go on what most likely is a wild goose chase and could turn out to be tantamount to giving the enemy back a valued military asset.

[Dr_Baltar]

Roslin became president of the 12 colonies because she was 43rd in the chain
of command or line of sucession from the president. The other 42 people ahead
of her were killed when the Cylons nuked the 12 colonies. President Roslin basically
is completing president Adar's elected term becasue he perished in the attack.
To continue as president, Roslin has to run for re-election. George Washington
- who later became the colonies first president - led the rebellion against HM
King George & England, not the elected officials, because of excessive taxation,
especially the "tea tax." The taxes were on tea which came from the East Indies,
NOT the colonies. The colonists dumped this imported tea into Boston Harbor as
an act of rebellion against "taxation without representation."

Firstly how can a person who was 43rd (not second as in the case of a VP taking over from a dead Prez) possibly have a mandate?

In the UK when a Prime Minister resigns and one of the cabinet takes over he/she is under incredible pressure to call a General Election in order to gain the will of the people. The inflexible US system does not allow that, something I have never quite got my head around. It's not very democratic is it? So if you get a nutter for Prez you're stuck with him for 4 years? (Impeachement is unlikely to happen is it?)

Also at a time of war priorities change. Neville Chamberlain by all accounts was an excellent domestic Prime Minister, but he couldn't hack it when it came to WW2. Churchill was the best war leader of the 20th Century and yet he was not really able to distinguish himself as a peacetime premier. Horses for courses perhaps?

Basically what i am saying is the legitimacy of Roslin as President should have been challenged at the very start. It is ridiculous to imagine the 43rd person in line becoming top dog without an election.

Imagine if Bush and Cheney were killed tomorrow. The person who becomes President is the Speaker of the House. Do you think Americans would accept that state of affairs even with the next election scheduled for November 2007?

As for Washington... at the time it was the same thing. The King (rightly or wrongly) was the established ruler. He may not have been democratically elected but the point is the same (especially when considering many of the colonials were actually born in Britain!) that George Washington and his terrorist/freedom fighter pals (depending on your viewpoint) rose up and rebelled against the prevalent order of law.

Washington broke the law to win America her freedom.

Adama broke the law to imprison Roslin.

Indeed everyone always imagines military coups to be nasty things. It only is if the incoming government is worse than the predecessor. Saddam Hussein's toppling was a US-backed coup and who would argue everyday Iraqis have less freedom under the US-backed Iraqi government?

If ever there was such a crucial point in human history then norms go out of the window. Survival becomes the only priority and everything else is secondary.

History has proven this.

[ellymelly]

don't forget that at the beginning (in bsg) it was chaos. Roslin's Presidency was not challenged then because there was simply no-one esle to take over the position. Who were they going to replace her with? 50th in line? The choices at the time were pretty much Roslin - or doing away with the government altogether. In order to maintain order and re-estabilsh a recognisible circumstance in the Colony Adama encouraged Roslin's presidency. (Even though he may not have liked her or thought her capable.)

The holding of the election later on in the series demonstrated that the Colony was fianlly stable enough to give thought to something other than spur of the moment survival. Whether or not they made the right decision is yet to be seen however, it is still logical to believe that people who had just survived 'the end of the world' would be looking for any kind of leadership and, when found, accept it.

[Dr_Baltar]

But I feel you are missing the point.

In such a tragedy people would need leadership... and one that comes with some kind of security.

I reckon in real life Adama or whoever was in charge of the military would become the leader.

Even Cain has a laugh at Roslin by saying "The Education Secretary?"

It is a bit implausible since as I have said she had no mandate. The rules would simply be ripped up or put on hold while they sorted something out.

She should have been deposed sooner.