The Glorious Delegitimizing of the American Presidency
On April 27, Peter Weber published an opinion piece in The Week arguing that the institution of the American Presidency is being delegitimized, and that this is a dangerous direction. Let us explore a case to the contrary; that this is happening, and far from being dangerous, this is actually a welcome and even glorious development.
Weber begins by noting that nastiness in American politics is nothing new, and was in many cases worse in the past. He then points to the effort to disqualify Obama, from the birther movement to the unusually strong opposition of congressional Republicans to his presidency. According to him, congressional Republicans treat Obama as though he is not truly the President. But while it is fair to note that Obama won election and re-election without the questionability of his predecessor in the 2000 election, one should also point out that congressional Republicans not only won many of theirs, but grew their ranks as a reaction to Obama’s presidency. While the birther claims against Obama’s birth certificate do not withstand scrutiny, questioning the veracity of a government official’s claims is not an unreasonable activity.
He notes that gridlock is stifling the basic functioning of government, such as the refusal to hold a hearing on Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland, but this has not been only a Republican game. When Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) was still the Majority Leader, the constitutional requirement of an annual federal budget went unfulfilled for six years and was only done once he lost his status to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY). Overall, the gridlock in government reflects polarization of the populace to some extent, as this is a democratic system to some extent. And is this really worse than a government which is able to make sweeping changes?
Weber laments that efforts to delegitimize this year’s candidates in the eyes of voters are already underway. While there have been attacks on Bernie Sanders for his age and status as an independent rather than a Democrat, and attacks on Ted Cruz (who has since suspended his campaign) for being born in Canada, most such efforts have been made against Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Trump is denounced as a bigot, buffoon, bully, and quasi-fascist, while Clinton is denounced for foreign policy blunders and her role in the scandals of her husband’s presidency. The rise of the alt-right, the general ignorance of the public, and the overuse of the word ‘fascist’ make the charge less stinging than it would have been in the past, and it is unclear how much voters will care about the scandals of a presidency which took place two decades ago, but polls do show the front-runners of both major parties as having historically high negatives.
He points to the (entirely justifiable) contentions by Sanders and Trump that the primary processes are illegitimate and rigged to support the establishment and give them the presidential nominee of their choosing, then complains that all of the above spells out “a worrisome trend for the country.” What follows is an altogether too common acceptance of representative democracy as a form of government. Just because a multitude of people vote for a particular person to violently dominate society does not mean that said person should be allowed to do so, especially considering that more eligible voters stay home than vote for any particular candidate. “Our system of representative democracy,” like every other, has resulted in what Frederic Bastiat called legal plunder, in which the state causes the very problems that it is supposedly instituted to prevent, such as murder, robbery, extortion, kidnapping, and other violent crimes against persons and property. In other words, the very nature of the Presidency is to commit “high crimes and misdemeanors” under color of law and evade punishment for doing so.
So, let us not agree that whoever gets at least 270 electoral votes (if anyone does so), if a proper end to the state does not occur before January 2017, should have the same rights and responsibilities as the 44 presidents who came before (not that they did; the power of the Presidency has steadily grown over time). The office of the Presidency of the United States is a violent criminal institution. Its occupant has ultimate authority over the enforcers of the most powerful and dangerous regime in human history. The delegitimization of this office is not something to be condemned; it is something to be glorified.
<<Libertarianism and Reaction: Pieces of a Whole++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++On Libertarianism and Punishment>>