Imperial presidency Essay

In the age of the imperial government, it is easy to lose spot of the fact that, in the totality of the Statesn memorial, a scantilyly oral sex administrator has been the exception earlier than the rule. Indeed, until the mid-twentieth century, the approximately authorful person in peace cadence American governments was the Speaker of the Ho riding habit of Representatives rather than the president. Prior to universe struggle II, presidential male monarch was ascendant provided during fightf atomic number 18 term. It is no mistake that the three men norm bothy cited as our greatest presidents also guide the dry land through its three closely all-important(prenominal) wars.The type of George Washington as president is inseparable from his eccentric in the American Revolution. Abraham Lincoln is remembered for his role in preserving the Union through the Civil War former(a) aspects of his presidency atomic number 18 largely ignored. Although Franklin Roosevelt a ccumulated large personal force play during the 1930s, he will be remembered for guiding the united States through piece War II in the 1940s. George W. Bush often refers to himself as the air force officer in Chief rather than alone the professorship or the Chief decision maker.This reflects president Bushs acknowledgement of the fact that Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces is the most operose and unchecked power that a president is allow under the constitution. Any student of history is sensible that a president is far more powerful when he is comprehend to be not just a read/write head executive but a commanding officer in chief. In other words, for a president to be historically powerful, there essential be a war on. The watershed meaning for the imperial American presidency was the aftermath of World War II.After every anterior American war, the nation had demobilized, the president had assumed his traditional, more particular(a) portfolio, and the Congress had reestablished its position as the pivotal offshoot of the federal government. After World War II, however, and curiously after the come forthbreak of the Korean War in 1950, there was no demobilization. Instead, the executive branch of the federal government underwent an overhaul and reorganization that irreversibly changed the record of the presidency and of the join States itself.President Truman would mold a policy that was without precedent in American history this policy would call for large standing armies in peacetime, a radically strengthened and centralized executive, and a willingness to project American force around the world, at times without direct congressional approval. The underlying system of logic to this revolution in American government was the claim to contain the expansionist designs of the Soviet Union. In 1947, the study credentials Act created the CIA, the Department of Defense, and the internal Security Council.This creation of a spy agency, a imperishable standing army, and a radically strengthened executive changed forever the nature of American government. After the National Security Act of 1947, a permanent war footing, or at least a war psychology, settled over Washington, D. C. Although the United States was technically at peace more often than not for the rest period of the century, the presidents identity as air force officer in chief maintained a gloom that simply would have been impossible in front periods.One mitigating factor in this shift was the logistic realities of modern warfare, embodied most purely and frightfully by nuclear weapons. The incomparable damage that very much(prenominal) weapons could exact, and the relative speed with which they could be delivered, precluded consultations between the President and the Congress under m either feasible scenarios. This needs strengthened the latitude and increased the responsibility of the chief executive, who could become the commander in chief, responsible for the somatogenetic survival of the United States, at any granted moment.The psychological shift was just as important as the revolution in weaponry. For the first time the United States, or at least its leadership, perceived itself to be under siege even in the absence of a hot war. The appraisal of a spheric and aggressive Soviet menace led to a willingness in American leaders to counsel local and isolated conflicts as part of a broader communist conspiracy that must be contained by a massive American phalanx machine. tender-hearted nature being what it is, the unprecedented size and power of the Pentagon made it far easier for American presidents to order the use of force, which in turn consolidated their power as active commanders in chief. From 1947 through 1991, the United States fought two major wars in Korea and Vietnam, but the overarching dusty War solidified the idea that the presidents primary and permanent role was to serve as commander in chief. Th is notion would have know no place in America prior to World War II.The nation was founded on a well-reasoned fear of centralized executives and the nation had spent most of its early history avoiding such land mines. During the shabby War, it embraced this pitfall as an unfortunate necessity, if not a virtue. At the end of the Cold War, there was talk of a peace dividend which would allow for radically reduced defence reaction spending and, by implication, a more restrain presidency. The Gulf War of 1991 arrived just in time to forestall any radical lurch in that direction.During the Clinton administration, the presidency remained powerful, and the United States carried out several military operations from Haiti to Kosovo. The strength of the presidency was alone overstated by the fact that the United States was now the only global superpower. The 9/11 attacks, of course, put America on an indefinite war footing homogeneous to the Cold War. George W. Bush declared with what looked to some as great excitement that he was a war president.Since the United States has been at war in Afghanistan and Iraq for six years, Bushs personal power has been established by stressing his identity as commander in chief, identifying the defense of the United States as his most important task. Another issue that has risen out of Bushs embrace of the imperial presidency is how such power is exercised domestically as opposed to internationally. President Bush and his attorneys have argued that the United States is tough in a war in which all of the Earth, including the United States, is the battlefield.This means, according to their arguments, that the presidents power as commander in chief applies just as much in the United States as anywhere else. This dubious and dangerous idea has led to unwarranted surveillance of American citizens in the United States, indefinite detention without charge or legal representation for anyone identified by the commander in chief as an confrontation belligerent, and the use of enhanced interrogation on detainees, which any honest person would call torture.These draconian measures are best embodied in the Military guidance Act of 2006, which effectively suspends Habeas Corpus and all concomitant legal rights to any individual declared an enemy on the sole authority of the commander in chief. The domestic and international conditions which prevailed when the founding fathers wrote the constitution are obviously no longer valid. It is a will to the genius of these men that the American system has lasted as long as it has.While certain changes are necessary and inevitable over the decades and the centuries, I am personally very uncomfortable with the level of power that is concentrated in the modern presidency, especially as manifested by the Bush administration. The current administration is the embodiment of the danger inherent in so much power being vested in a iodin person. After World War II, new global reali ties called for a more robust presidency, but the relaxation that was struck with varying degrees of success throughout the Cold War is absent from the current situation.The Military counsel Act of 2006 allows the President to kidnap an American citizen, tally him in prison without charging him with a crime, letting him gull a lawyer or a judge, or telling his family where he is, torture him, and never inflammation him. This is not hyperbole it is now allowable under American law. Most people with respect for gentle dignity and for the American constitution can tally that this is not the America we want to live in. A democracy cannot wage war. When you go to war, you pass a law giving extraordinary powers to the President.The people of the domain assume when the emergency is over, the rights and powers that were temporarily delegated to the Chief Executive will be returned to the states, counties and to the people. General Walter Bedell Smith (Weiner 189). work Cited Lowi, Theodore J. , Benjamin Ginsberg, and Kenneth A. Shepsle. American Government Power and Purpose. W. W. Norton, 2005. Shafritz, Jay M. and downwind S. Weinberg. Classics in American Government. Wadsworth Publishing, 2005. Weiner, Tim. Legacy of Ashes The History of the CIA. Doubleday, 2007.