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 20
... secretly raise money for the Contras , despite a statute that clearly prohibited such activity.25 Though unitarians emphasize their doctrine's Hamiltonian pedi- gree , it really emerged as a coherent body of thought during the Reagan ...
... secretly raise money for the Contras , despite a statute that clearly prohibited such activity.25 Though unitarians emphasize their doctrine's Hamiltonian pedi- gree , it really emerged as a coherent body of thought during the Reagan ...
Page 24
... secret desires of Alexander Hamilton or any other Framer . On the last day of the convention , Hamilton conceded that " no man's ideas were more remote from the plan than his were known to be . " 40 Still , the Constitution was an ...
... secret desires of Alexander Hamilton or any other Framer . On the last day of the convention , Hamilton conceded that " no man's ideas were more remote from the plan than his were known to be . " 40 Still , the Constitution was an ...
Page 94
... secret report to President Eisenhower in 1954 , If the United States is to survive , long - standing American concepts of " fair play ” must be reconsidered . We must develop effective espionage and counterespionage services and must ...
... secret report to President Eisenhower in 1954 , If the United States is to survive , long - standing American concepts of " fair play ” must be reconsidered . We must develop effective espionage and counterespionage services and must ...
Page 97
... secret , but even in the open , presidents pressed extraordinary theories of executive power and were checked only intermittently and imperfectly by Congress and the Court . In fact , more than once Congress forced on a 97 The Age of ...
... secret , but even in the open , presidents pressed extraordinary theories of executive power and were checked only intermittently and imperfectly by Congress and the Court . In fact , more than once Congress forced on a 97 The Age of ...
Page 103
... secret files kept by J. Edgar Hoover . Silberman discovered a scandalmonger's treasure trove of " nasty bits of information on various political fig- ures — some still active . " According to Silberman , " Lyndon Johnson was the most ...
... secret files kept by J. Edgar Hoover . Silberman discovered a scandalmonger's treasure trove of " nasty bits of information on various political fig- ures — some still active . " According to Silberman , " Lyndon Johnson was the most ...
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
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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.