Arthur Schlesinger coined in his book The Imperial Presidency a term that has been used ever since to describe the rising power of the executive branch in American politics, specifically that of the President over all other positions. Schlesinger wrote, “This process of appropriation [of powers reserved by the Constitution and by long historical practice to Congress, to the President] took place in both foreign and domestic affairs….the circumstances of an increasingly perilous world as well as of an increasingly interdependent economy and society seemed to compel a larger concentration of authority.” It is important to add that Schlesinger saw shift to be just as much the fault of Congressional abdication as Presidential usurpation.
This process began as early as F.D.R. and his taking more power with domestic affairs and most key is the power seized, correctly and wielded thusly so, by John F. Kennedy during the Cuban Missile crisis. “For the missile crisis was unique in the postwar years in that it really combined all those pressure of threat, secrecy and time that the foreign policy establishment had claims as characteristic of decisions in the nuclear age.”
This excellent use of Presidential power, and bypassing legislative consultation in order to deal with a real threat unfortunately gave later President's the right to do the same with matter that should have been looked at more closely by Congress. The Presidency started to gobble up power that didn't belong to it, using the Cuban Missile Crisis as its seal of approval.
The Imperial Presidency reached its height with Richard Nixon, who so blatantly tried to assume more and more Presidential power, and his feeling of entitlement is essentially what led to the Watergate Scandal.
The question then remains however, how is our current President influencing the view of the Imperial Presidency? Is he wielding the power that has been acquired by the Office he currently holds only to contain and address real threats to the American public? Or is he taking them to far? It is my opinion that this President has done nothing but move this country in the wrong direction, taking the baby steps required to establish a totalitarian state.
As was noted in Schlesinger's article, this is as much about Congressional abdication as Presidential usurpation. The prime example of this in our current President's terms of office is the passing and renewal of the USA Patriot Act.
The Patriot Act was passed a month after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Contained within this Act are many provisions that grant the President and the executive branch the right to infringe upon our civil liberties. Not the least among which are the rights to pull phone records, to know what we are buying, to know what we are selling, to be searched but never even told why or even told at all, and to hold “terrorist suspects” and ignoring their rights to due process. This was all done to “protect” us, from another terrorist attack, but many, myself included, contend that we are taking away freedoms in the name of protecting freedom.
Bush on foreign policy has done nothing but to alienate our enemies so that any hopes of negotiation seem more and more unlikely, by calling them “evil,” and has shunned international approval, by entering into the Iraq War without the approval of the United Nations. He has assumed for himself, the right to fight anyone and everyone in the name of defeating terrorism, and Congress has played second fiddle to all of his wishes.
President Bush made this comment after renewing the Patriot Act about the congressional Oversight Committee, a group designed to watch his every move, he said that he, "did not feel obliged to obey requirements that he inform Congress about how the FBI was using the act's expanded police powers."
Around September 11, 2001 President Bush signed an executive order, a declaration issued by the president or by a governor that has the force of law, that the NSA may tap American's phone lines if they happened to be communicating with someone in another country, without a warrant. The opportunity for abuse is unquestionable, and I personally don't trust my government with the task of keeping its curiosity in check.
In the end, I don't feel any safer about the world I live in after President Bush. He has seized more power for the executive branch and the Presidency in the past 6 years than all the other President's did over years of stockpiling little doctrines and ideas. He seems to think that the Government has the right to invade the lives of American's in the name of protection, and that whoever we disagree with in the world, we shall always disagree with and it is right to merely call them “evil,” and attack them at will. How Bush has gotten away with not being called a dictator or at least someone laying the groundwork for a dictatorship is beyond me. This country was founded on the will of the people, not the misguided interpretations of law by one man.
