The Messianic Presidency
Gene Healy writes in the WashEx about the cult of the presidency:
As I explain in my new ebook, "False Idol," "No federal chief executive in recent memory has done as much as the 'Yes We Can' president to stir Americans' longing for presidential salvation; nor has any recent president done quite as much to enhance the presidency's dominance over American life."In an important new article for Newsweek, "President Obama's Executive Power Grab," Andrew Romano and Daniel Klaidman note that Obama has "expand[ed] his domestic authority in ways that his predecessor never did." Frustrated by congressional resistance to his agenda, he's pursued "government by waiver," reshaping welfare, education and immigration law via royal dispensations and decrees.
"Obama is drafting a playbook for future presidents to deploy in response: How to Get What You Want Even If Congress Won't Give It to You," Romano and Klaidman write. The result is an "extraconstitutional arms race of sorts: a new normal that habitually circumvents the legislative process envisioned by the Framers."
Alas, there's no presidential "man on horseback" ready to ride in and restore normalcy. Presidential messianism infects the Romney camp, as well. On the stump and in his campaign ads, Gov. Romney insists that this is "an election to save the soul of America." In a recent speech at the Virginia Military Institute, he made clear that his ambitions went well beyond preserving the Constitution and faithfully executing the laws: "It is the responsibility of our president to use America's great power to shape history," he told the cadets.
In Romney's answers to an executive-power questionnaire late last year, he suggested that the president has great power indeed: He could launch a war without Congress, order the assassination of American citizens via drone-strike and use the U.S. military to arrest American citizens on American soil.
This Boss is no different than the last Boss; and so on. Every administration uses the previous ceiling as their floor and moves on from there. To a large degree Cheney has been the driving force behind the expansion of Executive power since the Nixon administration. Spilling the bounds of Constitutional restraint is nothing new.
nuzltr2 at October 23, 2012 6:40 AM
I would be much more comfortable if the author of this article waited to see what Romney actually does before using his platitudes in speeches to "suggest" that he will be the same (or worse) than Obama.
Of course, if Romeny were a democrat, he would be the third appearance of Jesus Christ, Obama being the second of course, and like the former, quite a disappointment to the true believers in "pure" constitutional government.
If Romney uses executive orders to undo most of what Obama did with them for the last four years, it will be much better than waiting for the Senate (which hasn't passed a budget in three years) to get around to it.... Menawhile the democrats will be screeching like scalded cats that Romney is riding rough shod over the Consitution.
Isab at October 23, 2012 3:17 PM
Not that you were wondering, but ...
Pakistan would prefer a Romney presidency:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-20008687
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at October 23, 2012 7:07 PM
Isab, I agree if Romney wins he should be given a chance.
However, I see Republicans/conservatives making the same mistake as some (most?) Obama supporters made four years ago. They're making Mitt Romney into something he isn't.
I live in MA, and voted for Mitt when he served as governor. I think he's a good & decent man, but anyone expecting a Libertarian like fiscal conservative will be disappointed.
JFP at October 23, 2012 7:10 PM
JFP, most people don't understand either the constitution or the government structure well enough to know what a president can and can't do.
There is little that is new. Kennedy and LBJ went into Viet Nam calling it a police action, not a war, and yes, a president can do this, just as Obama initiated a bombing campaign in Libya without Congressional approval.
So if Romney took some executive power survey and answered correctly, that yes, a president can do this, he has a Messianic complex, and if he says, no, the president doesn't have this power, he would be rightly tagged as an idiot. It is a no win situation.
If most journalists were not "democratic operatives with bylines" as Glenn Reynolds says, I might be less skeptical.
Isab at October 23, 2012 8:01 PM
What someone needs to do is setup a website that mails thousands of letters to both or either the constituent's congressman whenever they propose legislation that is not in the United States Constitution
And a copy is sent to the President.
If someone is getting half a truckload of mail each time they do legislation that is not legal, it would drop off quickly.
Jim P. at October 23, 2012 8:48 PM
@ Jim P., that might certainly keep the post office afloat for a little longer but I doubt it would have the intended effect.
No one has ever raised a bigger stink over an issue than was raised over Obamacare. It wasn't thousands of letters, it was more like millions. Parts of it have been ruled constitutional and other parts have not yet been adjudicated.
Congressmen stopped showing up in public where their constituents could see them for fear of tar and feathers.
If an intensive letter writing campaign couldn't defeat that stinker of a bill, I don't think it would work for anything else.
Isab at October 23, 2012 9:51 PM
I agree that this is a trend that has been developing for a long time. I'm not sure what to pin it to -- maybe the development of television allowed people to feel "closer" to the President than before. Whatever the reason, the number of people I meet who regard the President of their choice as a personal savior is distressing.
Cousin Dave at October 24, 2012 12:14 PM
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