The Cult of the Presidency: America's Dangerous Devotion to Executive PowerCato Institute, 2008 - 367 pages The Bush years have justifiably given rise to fears of a new Imperial Presidency. Yet despite the controversy surrounding the administration's expansive claims of executive power, both Left and Right agree on the boundless nature of presidential responsibility. The Imperial Presidency is the price we seem to be willingly and dangerously agreeable to pay the office the focus of our national hopes and dreams. Interweaving historical scholarship, legal analysis, and cultural commentary, The Cult of the Presidency argues that the Presidency needs to be reined in, its powers checked and supervised, and its wartime authority put back under the oversight of the Congress and the courts. Only then will we begin to return the Presidency to its proper constitutionally limited role. |
From inside the book
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Page 5
... Court for claiming that his powers as commander in chief allowed him to seize American companies . After running for reelection as a peace candidate , Wilson took the country into the pointless carnage of World War I and carried out ...
... Court for claiming that his powers as commander in chief allowed him to seize American companies . After running for reelection as a peace candidate , Wilson took the country into the pointless carnage of World War I and carried out ...
Page 16
... court party " were no doubt glad to see him go . Maclay rarely missed a chance to needle his ideological opponents , whom he saw as beggars after “ the loaves and fishes of govern- ment ” —men who favored the " translation of the diadem ...
... court party " were no doubt glad to see him go . Maclay rarely missed a chance to needle his ideological opponents , whom he saw as beggars after “ the loaves and fishes of govern- ment ” —men who favored the " translation of the diadem ...
Page 34
... court to the people , commencing demagogues and ending tyrants . ” The last essay raises the specter of disunion and civil war , ending with the " military despotism of a victorious demagogue . ” 81 For the Framers , the ability to ...
... court to the people , commencing demagogues and ending tyrants . ” The last essay raises the specter of disunion and civil war , ending with the " military despotism of a victorious demagogue . ” 81 For the Framers , the ability to ...
Page 42
... Court limited its ruling to the unusual circumstances of secession ; the president , Justice Robert Grier wrote , “ has no power to initiate or declare a war ” against a foreign nation.113 True enough , as the 19th century progressed ...
... Court limited its ruling to the unusual circumstances of secession ; the president , Justice Robert Grier wrote , “ has no power to initiate or declare a war ” against a foreign nation.113 True enough , as the 19th century progressed ...
Page 60
... Court ( a wish fulfilled in 1921 when President Harding named him chief justice ) . For the most part , Taft governed as a Progressive : he greatly accelerated trustbusting and lent his support to the 16th and 17th Amendments to the ...
... Court ( a wish fulfilled in 1921 when President Harding named him chief justice ) . For the most part , Taft governed as a Progressive : he greatly accelerated trustbusting and lent his support to the 16th and 17th Amendments to the ...
Contents
15 | |
49 | |
79 | |
105 | |
Superman Returns | 137 |
War President | 165 |
Omnipotence and Impotence | 197 |
Why the Worst Get on Top and Get Worse | 233 |
Toward Normalcy | 267 |
Other editions - View all
The Cult of the Presidency: America's Dangerous Devotion to Executive Power Gene Healy Limited preview - 2009 |
The Cult of the Presidency: America's Dangerous Devotion to Executive Power Gene Healy Limited preview - 2009 |
Common terms and phrases
20th century administration's Al Qaeda American Presidency army Arthur Schlesinger Jr attack authority Bill Bush's campaign Cato Institute citizens Clinton commander in chief Congress congressional conservative constitutional Coolidge Court crisis debate declared Defense delegates Democratic dent disaster domestic election enemy enemy combatant executive branch executive power federal Federalist fight force foreign Framers George George H. W. Bush George W Heroic Presidency Ibid Imperial Presidency Intelligence Iraq James John Yoo Journal Katrina leaders legislative liberties Michael military modern president national security Nixon October Padilla peace Posse Comitatus Act President Bush presidential power Presidential Studies Quarterly Quoted Republican responsibility Review rhetoric role Roosevelt Rossiter Schlesinger Secret Service Senate September 11 speech surveillance Taft Terror terrorist threat tion troops Truman trust United University Press Vietnam vote War on Terror War Powers Resolution Washington Post Watergate White House William Wilson wiretapping York
Popular passages
Page 85 - Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
Page 71 - I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis — broad executive power to wage a war against the emergency as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.
Page 91 - Congress approves and supports the determination of the President, as Commander In Chief, to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression.
Page 41 - 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 purpose, and you allow him to make war at pleasure.
Page 43 - Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies ; from these proceed debts and taxes ; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.
Page 304 - Security against foreign danger is one of the primitive objects of civil society. It is an avowed and essential object of the American Union. The powers requisite for attaining it must be effectually confided to the federal councils.
Page 44 - That said Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, unmindful of the high duties of his office and the dignity and proprieties thereof...
Page 49 - ... as a trained and loyal army willing to sacrifice for the good of a common discipline, because without such discipline no progress is made, no leadership becomes effective.
Page 159 - Those who are to conduct a war cannot in the nature of things, be proper or safe judges, whether a war ought to be commenced, continued or concluded. They are barred from the latter functions by a great principle in free government, analogous to that which separates the sword from the purse, or the power of executing from the power of enacting laws.