{"id":1451,"date":"2019-01-06T08:49:12","date_gmt":"2019-01-06T13:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=1451"},"modified":"2019-01-06T08:49:17","modified_gmt":"2019-01-06T13:49:17","slug":"an-imperial-presidency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2019\/01\/06\/an-imperial-presidency\/","title":{"rendered":"An Imperial Presidency"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

An Imperial Presidency<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My freshman year of college at Denison University in 1974, I had the opportunity to immerse myself in politics. I took courses like \u201cAdvanced Legislative Process\u201d and \u201cForeign Policy in the Twentieth Century.\u201d I got to delve into government, structure, and history; all combined to explain where we are and where we came from. That might sound like a sentence to the depths of Hell to some, but for me it was a dream-come-true.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was the year that Nixon resigned, after two full years of Watergate hearings and crisis. During that fall, I read a book by Arthur Schlesinger, an historian and advisor to President Kennedy.  It wasn\u2019t part of any course, just another swim in the political pond.  It was called \u201cThe Imperial Presidency.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schlesinger described the growth of the Executive Branch and the office of the Presidency, particularly the growth since Roosevelt\u2019s New Deal era.  For example, during the Civil War, Lincoln\u2019s \u201cWhite House Staff\u201d consisted of two secretaries and five other assorted personnel.  Today that number is three hundred and seventy-seven, backed up by four thousand employees in the Executive Office. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I marveled that Schlesinger foresaw the overreach of the last year of Nixon\u2019s tenure.  And I also recognized the inherent contradictions that liberals like me were faced with:  while the executive branch gaining increased power helped in areas like improving civil rights and reducing poverty, it also brought us the excesses of the Vietnam War and Watergate.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neither Korean nor Vietnam were ever \u201cdeclared\u201d wars by Congress.\u00a0\u00a0Vietnam was managed by Presidents as an \u201cexecutive action\u201d; they were given war-making authority by Congress through the Gulf of Tonkin resolution.\u00a0\u00a0Congress gave up its ability to control the war and gave the Presidency a blank check.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In some ways, that made sense in the nuclear age.\u00a0\u00a0Beginning with Russia\u2019s detonation of an atomic bomb in 1949, war was no longer a \u201csix week to mobilize\u201d process.\u00a0\u00a0The joke:\u00a0\u201c\u2026Moscow in flames, bombs on the way, film at eleven,\u201d was more than dark comedy, it was a real possibility.\u00a0With the advent of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles, the launch-to-strike time came down to thirty minutes.\u00a0\u00a0Presidents had to act, they couldn\u2019t wait for a session of Congress to debate a war resolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet, that became a long term Presidential power.  The Gulf of Tonkin resolution turned into the War Powers Act; it allowed the invasion of Granada, the Balkans, and Iraq.  That was succeeded by the War on Terrorism authorization after 9-11, justifying the invasions of Afghanistan, Iraq again, and ultimately Syria. Though Congress debated and discussed from time to time, the President waged war literally on his own authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congress has transmitted its authority to the President in other areas as well.\u00a0\u00a0Setting tariffs, dealing with natural disasters; in fact Congress created a law in 1974 called the \u201cNational Emergencies Act\u201d giving the President extra-ordinary power simply by his declaring an \u201cemergency.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Once declared, a \u201cnational emergency\u201d and the authority that comes with it doesn\u2019t go away.\u00a0There are currently TWENTY EIGHT declared emergencies\u00a0\u00a0ranging from Iran, Narcotics Trafficking, the Balkans, Terrorism, to Venezuela\u00a0\u00a0(CNN<\/a>).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democracy is messy and time consuming.\u00a0\u00a0Presidents and the Congress have wanted to streamline more than just military actions: but to get that speed, Congress has ceded much of its authority to the executive. They wanted, to use the slogan of Musollini, \u201c\u2026the trains to run on time.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0More recently, the partisan deadlock in the Congress has encouraged Presidents to find \u201cexecutive\u201d means of furthering their agendas.\u00a0\u00a0A recent example was President Obama\u2019s DACA orders given children of illegal immigrants legal status.\u00a0\u00a0He couldn’t get Congress to act, so he did it himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So here we are, with a Congress that has tied itself in knots, and a President anxious to further his agenda, or as Trump would say, keep his campaign promises.  Congress has essentially given him the authority to legislate through \u201cemergency\u201d declaration and executive orders.  If you liked what President Obama did with DACA, it will be hard to argue against a President Trump \u201cemergency.\u201d  The \u201ccheck and balance\u201d for both has been given away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t expect the Courts to be the ultimate protector of Congressional authority either.\u00a0\u00a0It would be hard to blame even the Federalist Society majority on the Supreme Court, if they said \u201c\u2026Congress gave him the power, Congress is the only one that can take it back.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0If this is an inter-branch fight, why should the Supreme Court intervene when one side has already conceded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s an Imperial Presidency, and we\u2019ve let it happen.  When Donald Trump declares an \u201cemergency\u201d at the Southern border, and proceeds to build \u201cWALL,\u201d he may well get his way and a victory in the current shutdown crisis. The House of Representatives can scream, but the McConnell led Senate will likely be silenced, giving away even more authority.  It takes both House and Senate to defend the power of the Congress, and the 116th<\/sup>isn\u2019t likely to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the years after Watergate, Congress legislated against the excesses Nixonian extremes in campaigning and executive influence.  Whatever comes of our current crisis with President Trump; when it\u2019s all over, Congress should look at the larger issue of Presidential authority, and take back the power they have so easily given away.  We need our President to be less Imperial, and more bound by law.  It may prove to be cumbersome and inconvenient, but it will safeguard real democracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Imperial Presidency My freshman year of college at Denison University in 1974, I had the opportunity to immerse myself in politics. I took courses like \u201cAdvanced Legislative Process\u201d and \u201cForeign Policy in the Twentieth Century.\u201d I got to delve into government, structure, and history; all combined to explain where we are and where we … Continue reading “An Imperial Presidency”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nAn Imperial Presidency : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2019\/01\/06\/an-imperial-presidency\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"An Imperial Presidency : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An Imperial Presidency My freshman year of college at Denison University in 1974, I had the opportunity to immerse myself in politics. 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