Tag: imperial presidency

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national politics & policies partisanship Popular

Between the Devil and the Deep State, See?

Donald Trump, Imperial Presidency, President, crown,

“If it turns out that impeachment has no sting, has no bite,” exasperated Princeton University professor Eddie Glaude, Jr., speculated on Meet the Press, “and we are in the aftermath, what it will mean is that there will be an unlimited, an imperial, executive branch that can do whatever it wants to do.”*

Per the “imperial presidency, actually, that ship sailed a while ago,” the American Enterprise Institute’s Danielle Pletka quickly responded. 

“I mean, it was a problem under George W. Bush. It was a growing problem under Obama. And it has come to its apotheosis under Donald Trump.”

There appears a left-​right consensus among TV chatterers that, a Constitution of enumerated federal powers notwithstanding, the president can “do whatever [he] wants to do.” 

But considering what we are learning about “the interagency” machinations to take down the current imperator, the imperial guard may be as big a problem. 

Last week, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz released his report on the FBI’s investigation of the Trump campaign, code-​named “Crossfire Hurricane.” Though the IG did not find conclusive evidence that political bias inspired the launch of the investigation, he did detail “many basic and fundamental errors” that “raised significant questions” … adding portentously, “we also did not receive satisfactory explanations for the errors or problems we identified.”

“[A]s as the probe went on,” reported The Washington Post, “FBI officials repeatedly decided to emphasize damaging information they heard about Trump associates, and play down exculpatory evidence they found.”

The evidence piles up: Washington is dangerously out of control, and our career-​politician Congress can only muster to provide a constitutional check on the flimsiest grounds and partisan manner.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

* Somehow Professor Glaude seems to have forgotten President Bill Clinton, who reached his highest ever public approval rating — 73 percent — in the aftermath of his 1998 impeachment by the then-​Republican-​controlled House. Been there, done that.

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Donald Trump, Imperial Presidency, President, crown,

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national politics & policies term limits

Mr. Majesty

Are American presidents becoming (or have they long since become) tantamount to elected kings?

Cato Institute scholar Gene Healy has penned volumes about the super-​sized presidency (The Cult of the Presidency and False Idol: Barack Obama and the Continuing Cult of the Presidency, for two). So he’s well-​qualified to assess conservative law professor F.H. Buckley’s Once and Future King: The Rise of Crown Government in America.

Buckley both credits our Constitution for protecting our liberty and indicts it for fostering the modern assaults on that liberty.

Our government has lapsed into an “elective monarchy,” which also afflicts parliamentary systems but to which presidential systems are especially susceptible. For “presidentialism fosters the rise of Crown government.” It “encourages messianism by making the head of government the head of state,” insulating him from legislative accountability and making it harder to remove him.

Though Healy finds the argument well-​defended in many respects, he isn’t entirely convinced. He’d like more evidence, for example, that parliamentary systems are as better equipped to reverse big and bad policies as they are at imposing them.

I’ll let these two argue the nuances regarding which form of out-​of-​control national government is most dangerously constituted. We can be grateful, at least, that our own elected king is curbed by term limits much less easily shucked than has proved the case in other presidentially governed countries.

Like these others, we may have an elected monarch. But, pre- and post-​FDR, he is not a monarch-​for-​life. Not yet.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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national politics & policies

Would-​Be Messiahs Need Not Apply

This is a tough season for me.

I’m not speaking of autumn. I like autumn. A gradual cooling is nice; the swirl of falling leaves, brightly colored, wondrous. It’s good to have a gentle transition to winter’s cold.

It’s the presidential electoral season that’s tough, both the before part and the after part.

As I have argued many times, the best hope for our republic lies in the action of local activists and leaders, not only demanding limited government but also showing how it’s done. If there’s no political market for freedom at the local level, it won’t flourish at the federal level, let me tell you.

And yet politicians and media emphasize the doings and sayings of folks at the top of the heap.

Worse yet, there seems a budding epidemic of president worship.

Oh, Obama is a smart guy, a good orator. He might end up being a great president. But he hasn’t even begun that job.

I’m just not very good at adoring politicians, of putting them on a pedestal, of pretending they’re superhuman. So, let’s cool it. Hero worship is more than nonsense, it’s idolatrous nonsense.

And yet too many politicians encourage the wrong kind of support. And receive it.

We need a version of hope that’s bigger than one man, a version that rests some responsibility on our actions as something other than voters and sycophants.

I am hoping this is possible. Say it with me: Yes, we can.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.