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George Bush, the War Power and the Imperial Presidency
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culpable for the rise of presidential dominance: "The executive branch has been able to seize power so brazenly only because the Congress has lacked the courage and foresight to maintain its constitutional position."
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Conclusion
Senator Ervin’s lament, uttered in the hectic, final months of the Nixon Presidency has,
alas, a ring of regrettable truth to it. The American Presidency has never been more powerful and there is no sign of a horizon. It is unlikely that the imperial presidency is going to lose its grasp on foreign affairs and warmaking. Certainly, one cannot reasonably expect President Bush to surrender the powers which he has aggrandized and usurped, anymore than one could have expected such behavior from any one his predecessors. Is it likely that members of Congress will recall the constitutional purposes vested in the institution and reassert its grand powers and perform its duties and responsibilities? What would be their motivation? A Congress that has slumbered for the better part of the half-past century is unlikely to awaken on its own accord. What of the people, for whom the Republic was established? In Federalist No. 51, Madison wrote that the maintenance of the republic will depend on an active citizenry, one alive to usurpations and transgressions of power. Does the citizenry understand that the presidency represents a permanent threat to the Republic Has the public unconsciously or, more alarming, consciously accepted the imperial presidency? Prospects for recovering a constitutional balance seem beyond the means of amendments or structural changes. The fault is not to be found in the constitutional blueprint... The dwindling vitality of the republic, rather, is at least in some measure to be charged against an inert citizenry, unmindful of the virtues of constitutionalism and seemingly impervious to the dangers of an imperial presidency. Perhaps the first remedial step is to be found in the education of the citizenry, an effort that would promote understanding of the constitutional dimensions of the American presidency. That is a modest step, but at least it represents a starting point.
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Quoted in Louis Fisher, Congressional Abdication on War and Spending (2000), p. 119.
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culpable for the rise of presidential dominance: "The executive branch has been able to seize
power so brazenly only because the Congress has lacked the courage and foresight to maintain
its constitutional position."
76
Conclusion
Senator Ervin’s lament, uttered in the hectic, final months of the Nixon Presidency has,
alas, a ring of regrettable truth to it. The American Presidency has never been more powerful
and there is no sign of a horizon. It is unlikely that the imperial presidency is going to lose its
grasp on foreign affairs and warmaking. Certainly, one cannot reasonably expect President Bush
to surrender the powers which he has aggrandized and usurped, anymore than one could have
expected such behavior from any one his predecessors. Is it likely that members of Congress will
recall the constitutional purposes vested in the institution and reassert its grand powers and
perform its duties and responsibilities? What would be their motivation? A Congress that has
slumbered for the better part of the half-past century is unlikely to awaken on its own accord.
What of the people, for whom the Republic was established? In Federalist No. 51, Madison
wrote that the maintenance of the republic will depend on an active citizenry, one alive to
usurpations and transgressions of power. Does the citizenry understand that the presidency
represents a permanent threat to the Republic Has the public unconsciously or, more alarming,
consciously accepted the imperial presidency? Prospects for recovering a constitutional balance
seem beyond the means of amendments or structural changes. The fault is not to be found in the
constitutional blueprint... The dwindling vitality of the republic, rather, is at least in some
measure to be charged against an inert citizenry, unmindful of the virtues of constitutionalism
and seemingly impervious to the dangers of an imperial presidency. Perhaps the first remedial
step is to be found in the education of the citizenry, an effort that would promote
understanding of the constitutional dimensions of the American presidency. That is a modest
step, but at least it represents a starting point.
76
Quoted in Louis Fisher, Congressional Abdication on War and Spending (2000), p. 119.
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