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 viii
... limited role in our lives , and that only grudg- ingly . There's no other institution in Washington where I'd feel quite so at home , and no other think tank that would have given me the time and the space to pursue this project . Thus ...
... limited role in our lives , and that only grudg- ingly . There's no other institution in Washington where I'd feel quite so at home , and no other think tank that would have given me the time and the space to pursue this project . Thus ...
Page 2
... a constitutionally constrained chief executive with an important , but limited job : to defend the country when attacked , check Congress when it violates the Constitution , enforce the law — 2 THE CULT OF THE PRESIDENCY.
... a constitutionally constrained chief executive with an important , but limited job : to defend the country when attacked , check Congress when it violates the Constitution , enforce the law — 2 THE CULT OF THE PRESIDENCY.
Page 3
... limited , constitutional government ? The book you're holding argues that it is not . Americans ' unconfined conception of presidential responsibility is the source of much of our political woe and some of the gravest threats to our ...
... limited , constitutional government ? The book you're holding argues that it is not . Americans ' unconfined conception of presidential responsibility is the source of much of our political woe and some of the gravest threats to our ...
Page 11
... limited executive power , especially the power to take the country into war . And despite the best efforts of several aggrandizing chief executives , at the end of the 19th century , the presidency still greatly resembled the office the ...
... limited executive power , especially the power to take the country into war . And despite the best efforts of several aggrandizing chief executives , at the end of the 19th century , the presidency still greatly resembled the office the ...
Page 13
... limited powers and modest goals was what the Framers gave us in 1787. It was the presidency we enjoyed for most of the first century under the Constitution . And it is worth fighting to restore . 1. Our Chief Magistrate and His Powers ...
... limited powers and modest goals was what the Framers gave us in 1787. It was the presidency we enjoyed for most of the first century under the Constitution . And it is worth fighting to restore . 1. Our Chief Magistrate and His Powers ...
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.