Designated Survivor questions (no spoilers after S:1 E:7)

So I started binging this a couple of nights ago and have really enjoyed it. The West Wing is my GOAT tv show, and I loved House of Cards when I binged it this summer. This show feels like a sort of combination of those 2.

I had a couple of questions about how those of you have seen it think some of it would play out IRL. And though we did wind up having a smooth transition of power last week IRL, I think most of us paying attention wondered if we weren’t about to find ourselves in some unprecedented waters. Anyway...

1) Virginia Madden is still sexy as hell. (My 1st memory of her in a movie is the under appreciated baseball movie “Long Gone” with what’s his name from the original CSI.)

2) But as the only member of Congress—well 1 of 2 after they found the other guy in the rubble—she would seem to have an incredibly dangerous amount of power. Can write bills, introduce them, and pass them into law with just her vote. It would seem there would be a very immediate need to fill the vacant 533 seats in the House and Senate, but what is the Constitutional mechanism for such an endeavor?

3) After the 11th person is the line of succession ascends to the Presidency, you’d think finding a VP would be extremely high on the list of tasks to get to. At first, I thought he was gonna appoint Virginia Madsen’s character as a sign of unity since they are in opposing parties. But then I thought, there’d be nobody left to run Congress, and as the de-facto Speaker, she’s also really the de-facto VP as the Speaker is 3rd in the line of succession, so making her official VP hurts the legislature and is practically a moot move anyway.

4) I know this is all far-fetched and there’s a ton of shite going on to deal with, but wouldn’t filling the jobs of VP and Congress be one of the very 1st things to do? Like, I’d think you’d want that done within 24 hours. And does the Constitution have mechanisms for this? shite, take all the leaders from the states’ legislature and promote them to the federal one temporarily.

5) Oh yeah, there’s no Supreme Court. How high on the list of priorities is that? But how could you confirm any appointments with no Congress?

None of these are meant as criticisms of the show, I just think it’s interesting to think of how all this would play out in the real world.