The Presidency
The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly as necessary to blame him wh en he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else.
- Theodore Roosevelt, 26th US President (1858-1919)
Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose -- and you allow him to make war at pleasure.--Abraham Lincoln
Over the last centuries Europeans nearly destroyed themselves in horrendous wars. But they appear to have learned that a head of state who, on his own whim, can make war, can disappear people, can torture, can ignore habeas corpus, or can otherwise act without regard for law is a clear and present danger. After nearly destroying themselves, they have now limited their royalty to mostly ceremonial functions, and their people are clearly the deciders. That's what democracy is about
Unfortunately in the US, many Republicans, have forgotten to beware concentration of power. We have an administration that believes it is above the law. It has effectively shredded the Constitution by imposing secrecy on its important policy decisions, so there is little public debate and Congress has been unable to do proper oversight in the absence of information. Those checks and balances no longer function. Unfortunately, our primary system performs poorly in selecting candidates.
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Bush, on his own, nullified long-standing treaties, overturned laws with signing statements, provoked wars in the Middle East, suppressed information from experts, thumbed his nose at international law, and caused ill-will in a large part of the world. His wars look like a power grab, resource robbery, imperialism, religious crusades, vengeful arrogance, or even war crimes and have no claim of legitimacy. Another discarded Constitutional assumption, the avoidance of entangling foreign activities, is discarded in an attempted resource grab, and a successful aggrandizement of Presidential power.
Still, Bush was not held to account. Although it is not discussed much, our civil liberties shrunk dramatically until it is not clear that we have due process of law any more. Since Bush packed the Courts, the system may no longer be self-correcting.
Charlie Savage, a Pulitzer Prize winner, documents much of this in his book :"Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency". He quotes Bruce Fein, a conservative lawyer who served as a deputy attorney general in the Reagan administration, who told Congress in February 2006, "The theory invoked by the president to justify eavesdropping by the NSA in contradiction to FISA would equally justify mail openings, burglaries, torture or internment camps, all in the name of gathering foreign intelligence. Unless rebuked it will lie around like a loaded weapon, ready to be used by any incumbent who claims an urgent need."
Partisans cannot be trusted with warrentless surveillance because it is a threat to the Constitution, nor can they be trusted with privatized vote counting.
Republicans have brought financial instability on us with their rush to deregulation. The dollar is in free-fall, and the US is in deep debt. Taxpayer money, without much fanfare (i.e. lap-dog media), is bailing out the speculators.
Bush's claim of a unitary Presidency is a violation of his oath of office, a direct slap at the Constitution, and should be cause for impeachment.
Republicans need to be reminded that the US was founded on principles that "We the People" are the deciders, not George the Imperial and that concentration of power is a dagger in the heart of democracy. That's why it is a mistake to vote for Republicans any time soon. We need reform.
To add to the problem, even though our media are now controlled by a small number of Corporations (i.e. privatized), the FCC, backed by Bush and over the objections of most of the public, decided to allow further concentration of ownership. In return, Corporate US media, who are war profiteers also, are willing propagandists and cheerleaders for war Anyone favoring peace is considered subversive. The military-industrial complex that Ike warned about...rules.
Like most of our regulatory agencies, the FCC is run for the benefit of their Corporate powerful, not for the people. A government controlled by Corporations is, by definition, Fascist. So our already poor media is likely to get worse. It is evident that US media keeps people distracted, exploited, subservient, misinformed, juvenile, and ignorant. Since people don't really have information to make an informed decision, there can be no democracy. Elections are untrustworthy, candidates are self selected, and the result has not been good. (i.e. Bush)
No US institutions, certainly not the two official parties, favor real democracy. So don't vote for Republicans.
Yale Law School Dean Koh's Commentary
Bibliography:
Takeover: the
Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy.
Charlie Savage (winner of the Pulitzer Prize)
At the end of this chilling volume Savage offers a concise and powerful
conclusion: "The expansive presidential powers claimed and
exercised by the Bush-Cheney White House are now an immutable part of American
history — not controversies but facts. The importance of such precedents is
difficult to overstate. As Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson once warned, any
new claim of executive power, once validated into precedent, 'lies about like a
loaded weapon ready for the hand of any authority that can bring forward a
plausible claim of an urgent need. Every repetition embeds that principle more
deeply in our law and thinking and expands it to new purposes.' "Sooner or
later, there will always be another urgent need."
Unchecked and Unbalanced: Frederick A.O. Schwarz, Jr. and Aziz Z. Huq
The Limits of Power: Andrew Bacevich
Presidential Power: unchecked and unbalanced: Mathew Crenson and Benjamin Ginsberg
The Cult of the Presidency: Gene Healy
When Presidents Lie: Eric Alterman
War and the American Presidency: Arthur M. Schlesinger. Jr.
United States v George W. Bush et al: Elizabeth de la Vega