King George, The Madness of

This article is entitled, "The rebirth of the Imperial Presidency or how to run an administration by employing the Hermann Goering approved tactics of lies, fear and intimidation".

The Republican party is supposed to be the inheritors of the legacy of the Anti-Federalists (I speak of the Anti-Federalism of Jefferson and not the various groups that opposed the Constitution on various grounds and came to be know collectively as anti-federalist). Meaning that they favor small government, states rights, low or no taxes and strict interpretation of the Constitution (Religion was not a part of the equation in those days as there are some who would argue that Jefferson himself was an atheist). Under the original purpose of what became the original opposition party (the Democratic-Republican party), was to oppose the over broad (in their minds) policies of Alexander Hamilton who was the first Treasury Secretary under George Washington. However when Jefferson became President he took full advantage of his "executive" powers when he negotiated and completed the Louisiana Purchase. There is nothing in the Constitution which grants the President the power to take such an action, but despite being a strict constructionist, he felt that it was in the best interest of the country to proceed with the purchase none the less. This is a very simplified version of the events that took place and the positions that were taken, but I think it actually serves as the first example of a the Imperial Presidency in action (Imperial Presidency meaning extending the powers of the office beyond those that are defined in the Constitution).

I won't bore you with all the examples during history but a couple of highlights include Lincoln suspending Habeus Corpus during the Civil War (which he had the right to do under the Constitution, but was supposed to wait for approval from the Congress before taking the action) and FDR threatening to pack the Supreme Court in order to get his New Deal legislation approved. All of these actions from the Louisiana Purchase through FDR are looked upon favorably by history because they all proved to be beneficial to the country. However, the extraordinary use of Presidential power can also lead to extraordinary abuses as well. In theory, the Congress of the United States has oversight of the Executive branch. The President is immune from lawsuits and prosecution while in office, but he is not immune to review and removal by the Congress. The President can be impeached for treason or high crimes or misdemeanors as defined by the Congress at the time to the incident.

There have only been two impeachment trials in the history of the United States (Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton) and neither ended in the President being removed from office. In fact the most famous Impeachment actually never took place. Richard Nixon resigned under the threat of impeachment. The House Judiciary Committee had approved the articles of Impeachment, but those articles were never voted on by the House of Representatives. Nixon, who was pardoned by his replacement, engaged in any number of illegal acts while in the White House. These acts are minor compared to the previous invocation of the Imperial Presidency. Wiretapping, burglary, illegal campaign contributions, bribery and obstruction of justice seem fairly minor when compared to the acquisition of fully 1/3 of the land mass of the entire country. However, Nixon felt that as the President, he was above the Law. And while not as lofty a use of the Imperial Presidency, assuming that the laws of the country do not apply to you, certainly counts as trying to use the office in that manner.

The current administration has seen a return to the glory days of the Imperial Presidency (along with a healthy dose of the Nixon brand paranoia thrown in for good measure). The basic tenants of the Republican party's Anti-Federalist roots are now just given lip service (although the low taxes are still a major talking point). Smaller government (what a joke), states rights (yeah right), strict interpretation of the Constitution (as long as that interpretation means that affirmative action and abortion are limited or eliminated), are no longer goals of the administration. This administration has engaged in a systematic process of propaganda in order to further their agenda that would have made Goebbels blush. In an excellent article by my co-contributor on this blog, he recounts a conversation by Göring (the head of Hitler's Luftwaffe) in which he laid out the process by which any nation (including a supposedly Democratic one) can be led to war:

Göring:

"Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."

This administration realized that easiest way to bring about an Imperial Presidency was to find or create a common enemy, rally the public to action through lies, eliminate dissension through intimidation and then maintain public support through fear. And amazingly it has worked. The President has practically limitless power and the people have (willingly, I might add) handed over all their rights that are guaranteed by the Constitution.

This administration has authorized the use of torture (the President has even had his legal staff write papers that rationalize the use of the torture against American citizens), engaged in massive campaign of propaganda in support of an unwarranted military action, hired and fired people based not on merit but on party allegiance, funneled untold billions of taxpayers money to their friends and allowed thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals to die BECAUSE THEY COULD. It only took about 230 years, but the United States has managed to put King George back in power. If Jefferson were around today he would be aghast at what is being done in the name of his party. Lincoln suspended Habeus Corpus in order to save the Union, George Bush did it in order to save his ass. Lincoln, Jefferson and FDR are probably spinning in their graves (Nixon too, probably because he wishes that he would have thought of it himself) over the current state of the Bill of Rights brought about by this administration. They simply would not believe that the precedents that they set would lead to the current state of affairs.

Yesterday, King George showed that he does have some heart however. He is after all a "compassionate conservative". When asked about why he doesn't play golf anymore, he said that it just didn't seem like the right thing to do. He didn't want the mothers and relatives of dead soldiers to see him playing golf. Wow, That is quite a gesture from a monarch (of course he is too incompetent to rule alone so while he is the figurehead, we are clearly under the rule of an Oligarchy). American citizens lose their fathers, mothers, sons, daughters and friends and the President, who would be King, gives up his golf game. That sounds like a fair trade to NO ONE. But then monarchs don't have to justify themselves to their subjects, do they. He might as well have said, let them eat cake.