“In giving great power to
Presidents, Americans had declared their faith in the winnowing process of
politics… <assuming it> would eliminate aspirants to the Presidency who rejected
the written constraints of the Constitution and the unwritten restraints of the
republican ethos.” ~ Arthur Schlesinger 1973 Imperial Presidency
“I could stand in the
middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters.”
Donald Trump, January 2016, Iowa rally
Schlesinger’s Imperial Presidency
A controversial
presidency is not new to American Politics. In the presidential election of
1860, Abraham Lincoln was purported to be not on ballots in some of the south; Southern
states refusal to give up their right to own slaves. 156 years and other such controversial
administrations later, America again experiences a highly charged political
environment. This essay will discuss the if President Trump is exceeding “checks-and-balances
of the other branches of government in a way that constitutes an "imperial
presidency”. “
This is not the first
presidency that scholars have considered have broached the grey line of
becoming an imperial presidency. Our textbook proffers that every presidency
since 1963, with the “relentless pursuit of war” by the Johnson and Nixon
administrations, has become more of an imperial presidency.
Historian Arthur M.
Schlesinger, Jr., in 1973 wrote The Imperial Presidency based on fears
that the presidency had become uncontrollable, surpassing constitutional
limits. Schlesinger is succinct in his query: “What if men not open and modest,
even at the start, but from the start ambitious of power and contemptuous of
law reached the place once occupied by Washington and Lincoln?”
Paul Joose, of the
University of Hong Kong, purports that the so-called “Trump Phenomenon” leads
an enlightening premise aiming to connect “how charisma destabilizes
traditional and/or rational-legal social orders.” Joose uses empirical data of
the “Trump Phenomenon” to describe the current POTUS and the achieved
popularity is irrationally based on obvious misinformation/misleading.
44th & 45th
Barack Obama, 44th
POTUS, had a background rich in political servitude and community organization.
Obama lectured on constitutional law at University of Chicago Law School for 12
years. Compare
that with businessman Trump, with no prior government experience. The reality
TV star and real estate developer was elected 45th president. Trump’s
background is rich in bankruptcies, and civil action lawsuits.
The preceding comparison
is important to answer the original question posed: Will the current
administration make some major history, forever marking this era, for good or
ill gains? Will history add to our great accomplishments such as passing the 13th
amendment to end slavery (1865), opening the panama canal(1904-1915), dropping
the bomb(1945), going to the moon (1969), be out of control and exceed constitutional
limits(2016-).
Today’s scholars believe
that has already happened. Jay Cost, author of The Price of Greatness: Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and the
Creation of the American Oligarchy says “I contend that Donald Trump
represents the apotheosis of the imperial presidency, whereby a single person
has come to exercise almost total spiritual, moral, and psychological control
over civil society.”
Exposing violations of liberty
The “Whistleblower
Protection Act” according to the CRS Report for Congress, protects
"any disclosure" that a employee believes signals "any violation
of any law, rule, or regulation," or "gross mismanagement, a gross
waste of funds, and abuse of authority, or a substantial and specific danger to
public health or safety."
Edward Snowden’s
exposure of government documents which revealed that the National Security
Agency (NSA) was wiretapping millions of United States Citizens. Wiretapping
without awareness and consent is illegal without a warrant. That millions of
innocent Americans were/are being spied on is illegal; a violation of civil
liberty.
Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo openly advocated the death penalty for Edward Snowden in an interview
with Pete Kasperowicz. That Trump’s cabinet member would wish to kill a man who
exposed illegal actions under a legal treaty for the specific action of
reporting gross government mismanagement, is an example of exceeding the checks
and balances of government.
Compare this
with Obama, under whose term this occurred. Even
at his dislike for the situation, President Obama
told the Huffington Post he "welcomed this debate" and thought it was
"healthy for our democracy."
Conclusion
During his first year as
president the “Washington Post tallied over 2,000 false or misleading claims –
an average of six a day.” According to our textbook. That the current POTUS has
falsely mislead the American people with alacrity and swiftness is a warning. Merriam-Webster
tells us that falsely and misled are synonyms for untruthful, inaccurate, deceived
and with deep chagrin it should be noted is also a synonym for: suckered.
Would a president with
both background and foreground rife with questionable ethics, corruption and overt
lies use to any advantage his abilities to attain personal gain? Be unaccountable
and out of control? It certainly seems to many, he already has.
Bibliography
Cost, Jay. Donald Trump and The Imperial
Presidency. 18 Dec 2018. 30 Jan 2020.
<https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/12/donald-trump-modern-imperial-presidency/
>.
German, Michael. ACLU. 2 Aug
2013. 30 Jan 2020. <https://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security/secrecy/edward-snowden-whistleblower>.
Johnson, Luke. Obama Defends NSA
Programs, Says Congress Knew About Surveillance. 7 Jun 2013. 30 Jan 2020.
<https://www.huffpost.com/entry/obama-nsa_n_3403389>.
Joosse, Paul. "Countering
Trump: Toward a Theory of CharismaticCounter-Roles." Social Forces
97.2 (2018): 921-944. Document. 30 Jan 2020.
<http://web.a.ebscohost.com.mendocino.idm.oclc.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?>.
Kasperowicz, Pete. Lawmaker:
'Traitor' Snowden deserves death penalty. 11 Feb 2016. 30 Jan 2020.
<https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/lawmaker-traitor-snowden-deserves-death-penalty>.
Mirriam-Webster. Thesaurus.
n.d. 30 Jan 2020. <https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/false and
/misled>.
Patterson, Thomas. We The People.
13th . New York: McGraw, 2019. page 361 & 394. 24 Jan 2020.
Schlesinger, Arthur M. Jr. The
Imperial Presidency. Houghton Mifflin, 1973.
Whitaker, Paige L.
"Whistleblower Protection Act, an Overview." 2007. PDF. 30 Jan
2020. <https://fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL33918.pdf>.
(requirement: 600-800 words, not including bibliography ; finished essay 732 words not including opening quotes or biblio. Original essay submitted Jan.
30, 2020, Mendocino College, Prof Liljeblad)
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