JONATHAN CHAIT AUGUST 22, 2011
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Gene Healy has written about what he calls "The Cult of the Presidency," and I've written about his concept as well. It is a pervasive mentality that views the president as a kind of national father, responsible for everything that goes well or ill. The fallacies of the mentality are that it fails, first, to distinguish problems that are amenable to political solution from those that are not, and second, that it fails to recognize even within the political realm that the presidency is but one co-equal branch of government.
If you looking for an anthropologically perfect sample of the cult of the presidency, check out the feature of the Sunday New York Times, entitled "If I Were President." The feature asks a series of leading lights to outline their vision for the country. But the entire concept makes no distinction between the notion of "if I were president" and "if I were king." If you were the president, of course, you would need a course of action that could be accomplished either through an executive order or that could be passed through both the House and Senate. The proposals generally make no allowance whatsoever for Congress:
I would invest in an infrastructure for civic renewal — not just roads and bridges, but schools, transit, playgrounds, parks, community centers, health clinics, libraries and national service. This would put people to work. And it would draw us out of our skyboxes and into the common spaces of democratic citizenship. ...
I’d grant the very rich the boon of helping them help others, as a form of gratitude for their good fortune. I’d also connect every creative writing program with a hospital, a school, a library, a prison, a neighborhood center ...
I would focus entirely on achieving what I think most Americans want: a stable and productive economy; an environmentally viable planet; a humane, efficient government capable of educating its young and protecting its vulnerable members. Americans are less selfish than some of our politicians believe (projection may be a factor here!) and will respond with reason and resilience to passionate clarity. ...
I would invest half of our defense budget in children, young people and in energy conservation.
I would expand the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps and grow both for the next 10 years. A benefit would be two years of free college for two years of service. I’d ask corporations to fund two years of college or a trade school for young women and men from homes stricken with poverty.
I would fund energy-saving improvements — insulation of houses, solar panels and replacement of inefficient furnaces for households making less than $30,000 a year and develop a sliding scale for those earning more than $30,000 a year. I would help small businesses retrofit their buildings.
I would require members of Congress to participate in a weeklong workshop on dialogue, negotiation and compromise before the next session. All sessions would begin with 10 minutes of silence.
Note that the last item I quoted not only imagines that the president can bypass Congress, as most of the others do, but also that she could require Congress to attend dialogue workshops.
I'm sure the editors who created the feature and the contributors to it are aware of the separation of powers -- they simply do not assimilate it int their conception of the presidency. Nor do any of them express even a tacit desire to alter our structure of government to replace it with parliamentary government, in which the majority party automatically assumes the capacity to impose its governing program. (I would favor that.) They instead seem to long for a monarch, and the longing is just as strong on the left as the right.
11 comments
Well, there's quite a difference between longing for a monarch and longing to be said monarch. I also suspect it's hard for the mind not to want to treat the question as run-up to "If I ruled the world" rather than its real "If I had to deal with congress" as the first one is a lot more fun to contemplate. Easier to write about as well. Which is not to say the "cult" of (gross over-estimation of the powers entailed in) the Presidency doesn't exist. Still, this might just be an example - examples - of people not really listening and then just spouting out their hobbyhorses and desires. A not uncommon phenomena in humanity.
- mtinora@me.com
August 22, 2011 at 10:41am
You mean President Bachmann won't be able to use her throne to mandate sub-$2/gallon gasoline on January 20th, 2013? Oh darn.
- Konstantin
August 22, 2011 at 10:56am
"...parliamentary government, in which the majority party automatically assumes the capacity to impose its governing program. (I would favor that.)" In fact, our form of government supersedes Republican intransigence, voter fickleness and almost every other factor in putting us in the position we're in. Cf. http://www.connecting-the-dots.net/wordpress/
- LBarbash
August 22, 2011 at 11:25am
It's so touching, so "You can't hug children with nuclear arms" . If I were president: I would make free pizza and ice cream an inalienable right. I would ban the use of "Chrismas" and "Merry Christmas". Chrismas would be Happy Holiday #1. New Years would be Happy Holiday Super Plus Good. I would devote half the defense budget to replace my inefficient furnace I would have the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps landscape my yard and dig a well. This would put people to work I would connect every prison with a rich person
- dubyadoubte
August 22, 2011 at 11:31am
We had an imperial president the last time and I didn't lke it at all.
- Nusholtz
August 22, 2011 at 12:00pm
Not really Nush, I don't recall seeing: "I would drown a major American city" on Dubya's to do list.
- dubyadoubte
August 22, 2011 at 12:18pm
I was so put off by the concept of the feature that I refused to read it. Public policy by wish list. What this does is reinforce the mistaken belief that actual economists don't know how to fix the economy. What's the next feature. Wish list to cure cancer.
- rayward
August 22, 2011 at 12:21pm
I'm not sure that a wish list is such a bad idea. It helps set goals, encourages imagination and visualization. And - can actual economists fix the economy? I think maybe not. They can understand and write about the economy but to present an analogy, ecologists can't actually create or probably, even successfully manage environments/biospheres let alone prevent storms, earthquakes, volcanos and especially, people.
- Sophia
August 22, 2011 at 1:22pm
Rayward, that really just requires a dedicated resource stream for funding research, and time. But that would be too much like government intrusion, I suspect. And certainly not something worth running a deficit budget to sustain.
- GSpinks
August 22, 2011 at 4:25pm
I can think of at least two realistic ways Obama might have done far more good: 1) At the beginning of his term when he had far more political capital, he could have gone all out, with all of his political capital and power in the Democratic Party laid on the line, to end the filibuster, which only takes 50 Democratic Senators. This might have allowed a public option in the health care bill, much sooner implementation of the health care bill to decimate Republican disinformation, and more. It might have allowed twice the fiscal stimulus – and pro-stimulus appointments on the Fed – meaning a far better economy, which would feed on itself to do even more good, a far stronger finance bill,... 2) Even without ending the filibuster, he could have used recess appointments to put far more pro-stimulus people on the Federal Reserve Board. He could have had a majority vote on the Board and the Board decides on the Fed Bank Presidents re-appointments every two years. They could have forced far bigger monetary stimulus and a far better economy today.
- RHSerlin
August 22, 2011 at 8:00pm
I assume that Caesar only became a dictator under perpetual emergency because he was tired of watching his legislation get filibustered in the Roman Senate.
- chaitless
August 23, 2011 at 1:28am