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Of Kings, Presidents, and the Abdication of Congressional Power
I’ve been a member of Ricochet for several years but never had sufficient reason to believe my political opinions were worth sharing here. Alas, I’m still not convinced of the value of my own views, but I am sure that my teenaged son has thought out many of his own quite well. Here’s an essay he wrote a few months ago (when he was still 16) that he has authorized me to share with you all. Enjoy!
C.S. Lewis once wrote, “Where men are forbidden to honour a king they honour millionaires, athletes, or film-stars instead.” This was originally meant as a British criticism of American society, but the modern political climate has proven him wrong: we have given ourselves a king to honor, namely in the form of whoever holds the office of President of the United States.
While the President clearly does not hold the same power as a king, he is honored as such by both the public and members of the government – and, it seems, Congress in particular. They largely do not seem to realize this, but it is obvious that he is held, in the eyes of the public, to the same position. Should he state his intentions through a speech or a tweet, people assume it as a threat, and an executive order is treated as if it had the authority of a royal decree.
This has had numerous detrimental effects not only on the country at large, but on the federal government itself. The Republican Party has an unfortunate tendency to view the President as a means to an end; convince the President, you can do whatever you want. The Democratic Party has an equally unfortunate tendency to view him as an implacable monarch, whose declarations and commands can only be defeated through public outrage and media flag-waving.
As a result, should the President unofficially declare something, the Republican congressmen simply assume that because the President said so, it will work itself out, and the Democratic congressmen appear on Sunday morning talk shows and take to social media to complain, rather than taking effective, logical steps to use the power available to them. The tragic result is a sort of political trench warfare, with both sides of the conflict dug into defensive positions and neither gaining any significant ground.
It is often assumed that the three branches of the American government are meant to be equal, with none having more power than the other two. This is simply untrue: in the minds of the Founding Fathers, the legislative branch was to stand ascendant over both the executive and judicial. Almost every decision made by the President can be rescinded by Congress, and any executive order, in particular, can be undone in short order.
However, the system only has as much power as it is given, and with members of Congress on both sides of the increasingly wide political divide focusing on social media and smear campaigns, they are simply not giving enough power to the system to prevent the President from doing whatever he wishes. And so it ends with the Supreme Court as some sort of synod, with Congress fighting over the ears of the justices. Hence the partisan mudslinging over Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination: the Republicans want as many of their people to have the President’s ear as possible, and the Democrats want the opposite. Both are willing to do anything to get what they want, and neither realizes that the power they believe the President wields was actually in their hands all along.
Published in Politics
It’s a little more complicated than that, but it’s very cool that someone so young reads C.S. Lewis and is trying to understand the political arena and overall effects of such. Good job crawdad’s son!
Well written!
Well stated. I blame constituent services for much of this state of affairs, which, btw, has a deleterious effect on the legislative power in countries like the UK, too.
Your son’s essay is well written. I hope that he will keep writing. The first thing that comes to my mind is that he’s taking an interest in what he sees and hears in this world and putting his thoughts together by putting them on paper so to speak in this electronic world. This will also help him in being receptive to different ideas, and to challenge ideas. Critical thinking skills will prepare him for a world that prefers the repeating of memorized platitudes.
they know, they don’t want it. WOuld make their lives difficulty
Since apples don’t fall far from the tree, I have sufficient reason to believe your political opinions are worth sharing here!
And big “ups” for raising a thinker!
That’s an intelligent and articulate kid. Good job.
How many kings were despised by half the population? A few, to be sure, but I doubt it was the normal state of affairs.
Your 16 year old son is quite impressive. Not only is his thinking mature beyond his age, but his writing is cogent and succinct. Please thank him for sharing his thoughts with us. I do have a question. Does your son give any consideration to the fact that the POTUS is the only member of the Federal government that is elected by the entire nation? To my mind that is a reason why his power is greater than the other two branches. He is the singular head of one of the equal branches, whereas the other two branches are composed of many who must come together to yield a single voice.
Very well written and thought out. I remember the beginnings of royalty in this country, the Kennedy administration and the invitation of such notables as Pablo Casals to entertain a presidential dinner. At least there was some dignity that occasion, unlike those of the Obama administration. However, Nixon wanting to dress the staff in uniforms that looked like a third world presidency took it all a step further. But these things were secondary to the willingness of the congress to accede power to the executive by creating bureacracies under the executive branch to manage environmental, educational, and other codes. In doing this they absolved themselves of the constitutional responsibilities of their branches. The jealous controls that were visualized by Madison that would keep the executive from ever becoming a monarchy are rapidly becominga thing of the past. The congress creates and passes very few laws. Today it is omnibus acts which put the power into the hands bureaucrats to interpret and enact while the president parades around like a peacock and eventually retires a milliionaire. It doesn’t look much like John Adams going home in a carriage or Harry Truman driving back home to Hannibal in his Chrysler with probably less money than he had when he came to Washington, and no pension to speak of.
If only that were true. They know darn well about legislative power, but they don’t want it. They can get elected on complaints and promises while shuffling all responsibility to the other branches and the gargantuan bureaucracy that actually makes most of our laws.
When Congress does act, it is not by direct representation of voters but rather by representation of the representatives in closed door meetings of a select few. McConnell, Pelosi, and company decide for all what is on the table. The rest just vote and trade for committee chairs.
It may not be Richard Epstein or Jonah Goldberg, but I wish CNN hired people with half the insight.
Kudos for the maturity of thinking your son has displayed. I presume he absorbed much from you, @crawdad, and I suspect that you hold plenty of opinions well worth sharing as well.
The President of the United States is both head of the government and head of state.
A King these days is head of state. The Prime Minister is head of the government.
That is why the President is so powerful. It’s built in.
The legislative branch may have been over generous to the executive, but they didn’t forget to give themselves a little something too – they grant themselves perks all the time as every session of Congress is American Christmas.
It’s not simple, but it seems to me the kid is right (16!! Really??!).