Mike:
In academe, the broader community has no say whatsoever in the process.
Who does? At most colleges and universities it works like this:
1.) Your department chair.
2.) Then a department committee.
3.) Then a division (sometimes called a "school" committee.)
4. Then your dean.
5. Then a college-wide committee.
6. Then a Provost.
7. Then the President.
8. Then the Board or a Board Committee.
By the time your application gets to the Board, which is the first time anyone from beyond academe gets a say, there is opinion after opinion supporting the document. If the application is not approved at one level, it does not go up to the next (at most schools.) With written tenure rules and procedures, it is to no one's advantage to do something really stupid and get sued.
If you take away tenure, ANY one in this change could fire you for any reason (you would have done away with rules and procedures) and simply hired a liberal in your place. The broader community would NEVER have a say in it--which is what I think your point was.
If I am misreading what you are saying, let me know and I will try to make what is an arcane process clearer.
McVey
The argument against every change by the defenders of the status quo, is that nothing changes -- or they just get worse.
Rather than that everything changes -- and so we don't have those problems in the first place.
A teacher who has something of value to transmit, can feel confident that he will find those who will value that information; and those who merely hold their positions out of habit, will have to find other things to do -- that people can value.