History’s
largest republic is the only one based on separation of powers. How did
the United States concentrate so much power in one man--the
president--in a betrayal of our founding principles? How did two
political parties create the current constitutional crisis where the
occupant of the White House routinely flouts the Constitution as a scrap
of
paper?
Historian
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. originally coined the term “imperial
presidency” to describe the growing subordination of the legislative and
judicial branches. In his new book War and the Rogue Presidency: Restoring the Republic after Congressional Failure,
Independent Institute scholar and Committee Board member Ivan Eland
traces how Teddy Roosevelt
materially expanded the power of the executive, Woodrow Wilson pioneered
presidential wars and FDR and Harry Truman created the imperial
presidency.
Ivan
details how each administration ratchets presidential power to a new
level and leaves citizens with fewer rights. George W. Bush and Dick
Cheney employed “unitary executive theory” after 9/11 to usurp American
civil liberties on an unprecedented scale. Ivan argues that the imperial
presidency went rogue starting with Bush and continuing with Barack
Obama and
Donald Trump. It mattered little that the president was a constitutional
lawyer or a constitutionally-illiterate businessman.
Congressional
abdication and executive usurpation go hand in hand in presidential
wars and foreign policy. That is, such unconstitutional ballooning of
presidential power is contingent only on Congress's acquiescence. Most
important, Ivan examines how Congress might make itself great again,
rejuvenate its vast constitutional power, and terminate endless
wars.
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