If it didn't take 2/3rds they could remove the president at any time. Even in parliamentary only the PM can call for new elections. If a simple majority could remove a president at any time our government would've been overthrown a long time ago. The founding fathers were quite brilliant and I'm not being sarcastic.

@barjoe in a parliamentary system, a Prime Minister guilty of criminal or unparliamentary actions would either be removed by his / her own party, or a vote of no confidence would be passed by the parliament. A corrupt PM might call elections, but then would face the voters, assuming his/ per party kept that person. Also, unlike your President, who is functionally above the law while in office -- an incomprehensible situation, given American boasting about breaking away from the old world and kings -- a PM is never above the law or immune until he/she leaves. I don't see much brilliance in what you have. Trump has shown that it has held together not by good law but observance of tradition, and is weak and brittle, and an autocratic President can do whatever they like. Yes, you managed to get rid of him, for now, by a comparatively small election win, and had the margins gone slightly the other way, you would now be the AS - the Autocracy of America, all checks and balances having been an illusion and failed. I am still far from convinced that this is not your destiny. Checks to stop autocrats have to be real, based on enforceable law, and punishable when transgressed.

@David1955 Tell me this. Why wasn't Governor-General John Kerr charged with insurrection in the dismissal of a duly elected PM Gough Whitlam? That was a crime. Quite like this one, except it was successful. Our "brilliant founding fathers" that you speak so lowly about had the foresight to fight to overthrow King George, successfully. No Governor General here! Some Aussies say the CIA had a hand in it, they blame America for everything but I doubt it. The Liberal party did it along with the royals. They overturned a legally elected prime minister. Sounds like an autocracy to me. I'll tell you this, I'll take Joe Biden over Scott Morrison any day. Biden won by more than 7 million votes. It wasn't that close. The Republican Party is lawless. When your country had their PM removed by coup Liberal Party was lawless too. President Richard Nixon was removed by the rule of law. It happened a year apart. I remember both.

@barjoe you are trying to equate things that are not equatable. The Whitlam dismissal and Kerr's terrible decision was much more complicated than that, wasn't an insurrection, is regarded by some as a kind of coup, was tied up with the issue of having the power of supply, the budget, and does relate to the residual powers of the GG. I agree with you that it was appalling, and why many of us reject the links to the British monarchy, but I don't see any similarity to a lawless leader who continues to behave lawlessly and neither his party nor the governing bodies can stop him. And yes, the CIA may have been involved here; a part of the US's appalling agencies and their inference both overt and covert in the domestic political affairs of other countries, hiding behind democracy but in fact furthering the interests of the US Military Industrial Corporate Security Agency complex. Finally, I would like Australia to be a Republic, but not in any way like the US.

@David1955 I know Australians hate America. I see it all over the web. You wouldn't be able to hack it over here anyway. They come over here and bitch about sales tax, about how Americans spend cash, say we are poor, don't like that we tip, cry that we have guns, tell us how much better it is over there. You talk about Military Industrial Complex and the CIA. The real threats to world peace are Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iran. China poses a bigger threat to Australia than the United States ever will. That is a fact.

@barjoe ok, you're gone personal. I won't buy into that. Australians are not universally anti American, though some might be. Anti Americanism is global, and it's not helpful. Personally I feel sorry that Americans are largely good people betrayed by a terrible class and power structure. Many Americans would agree with that too. They say so on this site, if you care to read them. What you should know is, if the world was ever besotted by American mythology, those days are long gone. I also agree with you about the threats to world. Problem is, US leadership role is erratic and unreliable and only driven by self-interest, like helping to bring down a centre-left government in Australia in the 70s. We are not your ally in the Asia Pacific, but your lacky, and many Australians, like me, dislike that intensely. That's not anti-Americanism; it's anti US class and power structure.

@David1955 You are obviously Anti-American. I'm sure there are Australians who are not. I haven't seen any on this site defend American interests once. That coup November 11, 1975, my 18th birthday, was the work of Malcolm Fraser, Governor General Kerr, Conservative MP Thatcher the SIA and ASI. President Ford and George Bush (CIA) had nothing to do with that. I agree with you about income inequality in the United States, that problem exists in your country as well. USA is an ally of Australia. Russia, Saudi, Iran, PDRK and China are enemies of Australia. I think that's a fact.