PRESIDENT’S DAY (formerly Washington’s
Birthday), February 19, 2018.
Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of
Peace, Justice, and Ecology
Otus the Head
Cat gets it.
“The uphill struggle for precision and
accuracy is made all the more Sisyphean by equally ignorant (or simply
apathetic) presidents including the current Sciolist in Chief.” Equally?
Public “pandemic ignorance,” explains Otus. Washington’s birthday Feb. 22 was celebrated
as a holiday until President Trump by executive order changed the name to
Presidents’ Day. From the looks of the
advertisements in the newspaper the last few days, businesses are
delighted. Not just one, but all our
presidents are commodified in yet another profit opportunity. Otus observes the “vast indolent segments of
American society, manipulated by the advertising industry” with sciolism their crowning
achievement.
Otus’s amusing perceptions sometimes lead
to sobering realities. The growing
power of the presidency particularly over foreign affairs and the simultaneous
weakening of Congress and the principle of separation of powers are worrying
other observers of US history. Another
shop ‘til you drop Presidents’ Day (forget George Washington) is pleasant for
carpet, clothes, and casket companies.
But when we come to our senses, what should we think about the power—or
rather the abuse of power—by our presidents?
Long
History of President Up, Congress Down Accelerated by Wars and Security
Obsession
Wars are the oxygen of executive
power. We must go back in time to the
Spanish American War, to WWI, particularly to WWII, and the Korean and Vietnam
Wars to comprehend the enormous expansion of presidential power, especially in
foreign affairs up to today. For
example, Nixon, without informing let alone obtaining the consent of Congress
or the American people, dropped 2 million tons of bombs on Laos, as much as was
dropped on all of Europe and the Pacific in WWII. For another: The
Supreme Court upheld in United
States v. Reynolds (1953) a new precedent, allowing the executive
branch to assert an all-encompassing “state secret privilege” as a basis for withholding information
from public scrutiny.
In Daybreak (2009), Parts I and II, David Swanson explains how the
Executive Branch expanded its power, and how the Legislature, which has great Constitutional
power, allowed the imperial presidency to happen.
Nuclear
Weapons
In Bomb Power (2010), Garry Wills draws a direct line from the Manhattan Project to the usurpations of George W. Bush and reveals how the atomic bomb transformed our nation down to its deepest constitutional roots by dramatically increasing the power of the modern presidency and redefining the government as a national security state.
World
Dominance and Permanent War
Andrew Bacevich,. Washington
Rules. 2010. Regardless of the president or party,
the basic edifice of the U.S. National Security State (NSS) has remained
unchanged since the end of WWII and the start of the Cold War: 1) a worldwide
military presence; 2) armed forces not for defense but for dominance; and 3)
intervention in other nations from influencing elections to military invasion
(over 40 since1945). From Harry Truman to Barack Obama, these
3 principles have remained sacrosanct.
The result has been perpetual war and insolvency.
These principles and their wars
provide the bedrock for the authoritarian president.
Government
of Security and Fear: the US National Security State
Glenn
Greenwald’s No Place to Hide (2014), on
Snowden, is replete with examples of excessive presidential power fueled by official
fear-mongering and public fear: “the post-9-11 veneration of security above all
else has created a climate particularly conducive to abuses of power” (p. 2).
Bush
II
The end of the US democracy caused by the “fascist shift”? Naomi
Wolf, “Fascist
America, in 10 Easy Steps”:
From Hitler to Pinochet and beyond, history shows there are certain steps
that any would-be dictator must take to destroy constitutional freedoms. George
Bush and his administration seem to be taking them all.
Obama
Gardner’s
Killing Machine narrates the drawdown in Iraq, the counterinsurgency warfare in
Afghanistan, the rise of the use of drones, and targeted assassinations from
al-Awlaki to Bin Laden. What has come
into view, is the new face of American presidential power: high-tech,
secretive, global, and lethal. Obama has
simply built on the expanding power base of presidential power that reaches
back across decades and through multiple administrations.
Trump
Google Search 2-19-18. Assessment of President Trump’s first year is
still fragmented. I found articles on
Trump’s use of executive orders, of Trump testing the limits of his powers, an
article of several paradoxes, his power over Congress, over the public, and
much more, a flood of publications.
NEED
TO RESTORE THE SEPARATION AND BALANCE OF POWERS
An impassioned opponent of the
growing power of the presidency over foreign affairs, the weakening of
Congress, and in general the undermining of the principle of separation of
powers, is former Senator J. William Fulbright from Arkansas. For example, from his The Crippled Giant (1972).
“Far from having been rendered obsolete by the realities of the nuclear
age, the checks and balances of our Constitution have become more essential
than ever. Nuclear weapons, ballistic
missiles, and a vast arsenal of lesser weapons have vested in the single person
of the president of the United States something approaching absolute power over
the lives of millions of people all over the world” (215). –Dick
Otus might
observe: Only a sciolist population further deluded by commercialism would
celebrate our Presidents as a whole without distinguishing the better from the
worse.
References
Otus. “’Presidents’ Day’ Is an Annual Exercise in
Futility.” NADG (Feb. 17, 2018).
US Nuclear Weapons, We Have the Big
Button So Do As You’re Told
Garry
Wills. Bomb Power: The Modern Presidency and
the National Security State. 2010.
Louis Fisher. In the Name of National Security: Unchecked Presidential
Power and the “Reynolds” Case. 2006.
Louis Fisher. In the Name of National Security: Unchecked Presidential
Power and the “Reynolds” Case. 2006.
World Dominance and Permanent War
Andrew Bacevich,. Washington
Rules: America’s Path to Permanent
War.
Metropolitan, 2010.
Metropolitan, 2010.
9\11: Authorization for the Use of
Military Force, Signing Statements,
Preemptive Attack, Unlimited Enemies, Unlimited Surveillance
Preemptive Attack, Unlimited Enemies, Unlimited Surveillance
David
Swanson. Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial
Presidency and Forming a
More Perfect Union. Chapter 1. Presidential Power Grab. Chap. 2.
Congressional Collapse. 2009.
More Perfect Union. Chapter 1. Presidential Power Grab. Chap. 2.
Congressional Collapse. 2009.
Glenn Greenwald.
No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden,
the NSA, and the U.S.
Surveillance State. 2014.
Surveillance State. 2014.
Bush II
Naomi Wolf, The
“Fascist Shift”
Obama
Lloyd C. Gardner. Killing Machine: The American Presidency in
the Age of Drone Warfare. 2013.
Trump
I could not find a book on the subject.
Here are bits and pieces of the puzzle.
--D
https://www.washingtonpost.com/.../trump...powers.../54a48dd4-b06f-11e7-9e58-e6288...
Oct 14, 2017 -
foreignpolicy.com/.../the-disturbing-paradox-of-presidential-power-trump-constitutio...
https://www.cnn.com/2017/07/21/politics/trump-no-limits-president/index.html
Separation of Powers
J. William Fulbright, The Crippled Giant (1972).
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