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As the nation prepares for its Fourth of July celebration, the question arises of where the Trump presidency fits in the mosaic of American leadership. David M. Kennedy, a Stanford University historian and Pulitzer Prize winner, discusses the current state of the Republic and whether Donald Trump is the second coming of Andrew Jackson, as Trump would have us believe, or similar to a more recent Oval Office occupant.
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Maybe the reason that Congress can’t do anything about healthcare or infrastructure is because the Constitution does not delegate those powers to it. Duh!
It is interesting that the call for more executive power from certain quarters has been silenced once a president has come into power that is unfavorable by those who claimed to declared a need for it. Did they somehow miss the point of democracy and checks and balances…that the Framers were protecting groups from the impositions of other sectors of the population. It seems to be a remarkable testimony of their own desire for power and lack of regard for democracy or the rights of those that don’t happen to agree with them. Become China for a day so that the will of half the population can be imposed on the other half without representation. The Framers designed the Constitution to slow down those in power from imposing massive change too quickily because they recognized that humanity has a problem with seeing only from one’s own lens. Clearly this is an issue for those discussed on this podcast.
They did not miss the point of democracy and checks and balances – they don’t like the system of checks and balances. They do not think that people are capable of self-government, and the people need the benighted “correct” rulers to tell the people what is best for them.
The Progressives that Mr. Kennedy lauds have a problem with the whole “all men are created equal” thing. They do state that there should be a ruling class or aristocracy (though they don’t use those terms) to tell everyone else what to do. For some reason, they always assume they will be part of the ruling class, or at least that the ruling class will rule they way the people advocating Progressive policies want. It never seems to occur to the Progressives that a ruling class might arise that has different views or priorities.