Another example of how NYT political commentators totally fail to understand or address the real potential consequences of the Trump presidency. Trump has no concern at all for the general welfare of the United States and its citizens, he has no concern for the welfare of people outside the United States like the Taiwanese who depend on United States' support for their continued freedom, he has no concern at all that Vladimir Putin has invaded and occupied about one-third of Ukraine.
I believe Trump is planning an "election stunt" war against Iran to allow him to run for re-election as a "war president". Apart from his personal enrichment, the only thing Trump cares about now is re-election, because he can't cope with the idea of being a big loser. He will do absolutely anything to get a second term and he knows that a sitting president has never lost an election during wartime. He is going to get a lot of Americans killed in a cynical exploitation of "patriotism".
Now think about what else might happen while the world deals with Trump's chaotic war mongering. Hands up those people who think Xi intends to allow Taiwan to remain free for his whole time as the leader of China. It is a certainty that Xi will move to control Taiwan as early as he believes he can. What better opportunity can he reasonably expect than when a weak, venal moron like Trump has plunged the world into chaos?
Trump isn't the only egomaniac determined to make history. Xi and Putin also have big plans.
7
The Shutdown will not end until deep-pock GOP donors like "Koch Inc." say so.
Trump's voter base has no real power; they do not have lobbyists to put pressure on their bought-and-paid-for Congressional Representatives. Red States hate the Federal government (States Rights & low taxes), so pressure from Governors won't happen either: They're all Trump's useful idiots- expendable.
The GOP is leaderless:
Perhaps the only useful thing to come from this will be - the real lesson of buying the shiny object and realizing it was nothing but fools gold:
Who you vote for MATTERS.
19
He was supposed to become Presidential once Elected! That hasn't happened! He was going to reveal his taxes??He said Mexico would pay for the Wall....they haven't! He said he was Proud to shut down the Gov't....he now says he didn't want this fight ! What he's really saying is....I didn't want expect a fight...I thought everyone would give in quickly and I'd get what I want ! Who in America chose to vote for this man!! If you couldn't see that supporting him would be a disaster...well....let's not go there...but please...rethink your support ...PLEASE !! Mr. Mueller...as we say in the Construction Field....Take Your Time....and Do It Right....we're counting on you sir !! Let's Unite Our States !! Let's get back to work !! We have a lot of pieces to pick up!The poor White House is going to need a good cleaning...from top to bottom soon !! We'll have to open the windows and...let some fresh air in ! Gov't Workers...you have my and many Americans deepest sympathies...hope you get back to work ASAP !!
23
Trump will cut every corner he is allowed to cut. Is that clear? Democrats, do not bend to this narcissistic con man. Mr. Mueller, it is showtime. Americans, help get this traitorous fool out of the Oval Office. The crisis is not in the southern border. The crisis is the enemy within. Trump soils the office of the presidency every single day. Are you willing to succumb at the altar of this corrupt man and his family of grifters?
31
In our system of checks and balances, do we have a way short of Impeachment to remove a delusional person from being in the White House?
Merriam Webster Dictionary describes
delusion
de·lu·sion | \di-ˈlü-zhən, dē-\
Definition of delusion
1a : something that is falsely or delusively believed or propagated
b psychology : a persistent false psychotic belief regarding the self or persons or objects outside the self that is maintained despite indisputable evidence to the contrary
also : the abnormal state marked by such beliefs
Now if DT is being delusional he is no longer fit to be President
US Congress must do what ever is necessary to defend our country from all enemies both domestic and foreign.
8
"Have We Had Enough of the Imperial Presidency Yet?"
Oh yeah, you betcha!
10
Imperial presidency??!!
Ha. It is a would-be dictator presidency. A totally corrupt dictator who cares not a speck about allies, and who admires dictators of the world.
13
Trump is so frightened to lose his base of poorly educated and poorly informed white people that he will stubbornly stick to anything he believes they support. No matter how foolish. Hence The Wall.
24
The public and media also contribute mightily to the notion of an imperial presidency by making it seem as if the president is the very embodiment of government, the ONE person who must opine on everything, from politics to sports, whom we must follow as to what they think, eat, wear (especially their spouse), and even feel. Let a natural disaster befall some region and there’s an immediate cry of “where is the president” as if he is to come and dry tears and comfort souls. It’s appalling and would make the Founders spin in their graves.
Presidents may be fine men or not, but they’re an elected official who work for US not the other way around. They aren’t a monarch to be bowed and scraped before. Look even at the current Democrats, called publicly in meetings “Chuck and Nancy” like they’re subordinates while they deferentially respond with “Mr. President” in a tone that sounds like Sire!
64
Aside from Trump, the single greatest evil-doer at this time is Mitch McConnell. The man has overstepped what is fair and appropriate beginning with denying a vote on Obama's SC nominee. He could care less what Trump does or doesn't do as long as he remains in power and as long as he keeps the Koch Brothers, who fund deconstruction of all our Democratic norms, happy.
Trump is simply spoiled and stupid. He says whatever he wants, makes things up as he goes and as long as he gets away with it, in fact as long as FOX makes him look good, he will continue to have temper tantrums regardless of who is hurt.
Currently in Australia, one of the first comments we heard here was "Don't you all know that Trump has made America a laughing stock around the world?" Well, yes, we do, and we are so sorry, but until 2020 what can be done but resist and protest.
Nancy Pelosi is a strong person but she has little creativity, she really doesn't know how to make use of the media, especially social media (Trump's home), and she is reluctant to go after the GOP because she, and others, are A F R A I D of the "base". You can never lead from fear. You must lead from vision and strength. As long as you are worried about "what might happen" you are not leading at all.
If and when the Dems get some fire in their bellies for true reform (with or without swear words) then maybe people will wake up. Until then, voters are more or less at the mercy of Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity. Pathetic.
18
Hey, any Trumpsters out there who are unpaid federal workers? How's it workin' for ya?
12
Personally knowing Trump I predicted his impeachment by Halloween Seventeen. (It rhymes). I figured he would be found out by his followers in about three months and then a three month impeachment process and bang he would be out. Now I read another great article from excellent journalists and they write that everything will be settled in the 2020 election. That is assuming that Trump will be around to run for re-election. I suggest a policy change at NYT: "If Trump is available to run in 2020" should be a part of every article written about how Americans can make a change at the 2020 ballot box. I guess I'm writing this because I don't think I can take Trump for another two years and the thought that he could somehow win in 2020 leads me to spit up in my mouth. Yuk and excuse me, please.
14
Are you advocating removing the president?
Have the guts to say it out loud if you do.
6
"That is the choice voters will have in 2020." What about NOW?
The danger of this "imperial presidency" is present, right now!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
I fear that the impact of Trump on the nation and the world may be destruction, now. What about the economy and what about the influence of Trump on other nations, around the world, today?
Why do we have to be so timid about impeachment, now?
Clinton was impeached for much less. Why wait until 2020?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty". (Att. Jefferson, etc.)
7
The question isn't whether "we" have had enough of the most unfit, mentally deranged man to ever occupy the Oval Office. Any sane person didn't vote for him. And any sane person realized after his inauguration speech that this presidency would go off the rails.
But after two years of hand-wringing we are still targeting the wrong people. Trump is where he is not because of the Republican Senate. He is untouchable because of his rabid, racist base. His support hasn't dropped in what have been the two worst years of any American presidency this nation has ever seen. No member of Congress dare cross him, for fear of losing his rabid voters.
So the question is not whether we have had enough of this "imperial presidency". The question is whether the rest of us have had enough of his bigoted, willfully ignorant voters. Because they are the ones driving this train -- not Trump.
Trump voters made a pact with the Devil, and so far, the Devil has kept his end of the bargain. Trump voters wanted only one thing from him -- to be a "president" who tells them that as whites, they're superior to the rest of us, and only their rights matter. And as long as he continues to feed the beast, he will remain in power.
The only unknown is how much more destruction to our nation the rest of us can take, before we rise up and take back our country. Because at some point, we will do this. Trump voters need to understand this: our patience is wearing very thin.
12
Uncle Chuckie & Auntie Nan already voted to spend tens of billions of dollars for a false ''secure border.'' Now they see a man dependent on no one else and fear that they can't control him.
His wall money amounts to less than half of one percent of the total budget. The Dems have NO excuse except their personal hatred for voting no.
3
Sensationalistic journalism. Name one thing that Trump has done that exceeds his power to do so.
2
Mr. Krase and Mr. Zelizer miss the point completely.
Even a feeble, incompetent fraud can achieve some things if he has a party of collaborators in charge of the government like the Vichy GOP.
The reason they have not accomplished MORE is because the Reality Show Con Artist is a protest President and the Vichy GOP are a protest party.
He has no interest in the responsibility or accountability of running a government and they have no other ideas besides cutting taxes for the wealthy and cutting "entitlement" programs like WIC, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid or everyone else.
The Grifter in Chief is has no ideas other than enrichment for himself and the Vichy GOP are out of ideas. What a pair we've given power to in this country.
9
As much as I abhor President Trump, I do not believe the answer is to limit the powers of the presidency. Cunning presidents will always find a way around the law no matter what the law is. I still believe in the presidency despite Trump's moronic use and abuse of his power. Maybe it's time for the people and the press to put a check on him by ignoring him.
3
What would it take to get a psychiatrist to put a 4-day inpatient hold on him?
8
I hate him, everything he stands for and (nearly) everything he's done since being elected, but, short of declaring a state of emergency (which is so ridiculous in this instance I think he'd be ignored), he's doing what the chief executive is supposed to do — use his veto and whatever other constitutional prerogatives in his power to run the country from the White House. I just hope we, the people, learned our lesson by 2020!!!
Yes, the emperor has no clothes but it is all in the eye of the beholder and, as we are seeing, the right of centre media seem to be madly weaving a plethora of golden robes from magical invisible thread to remake this “imperial” conman into the image of a messiah as evidenced by his enduring adoring base of 40% some of whom think he was sent by God.
4
"Even a feeble president can impose his will on the nation if he lacks any sense of restraint...". Unfortunately, this one lacks any sense, period.
6
Ahhh.... and what to do with the American Empire and the 168 countries where America now base troops?
America is living in so much denial it doesn’t know which way is up...
1
Trump and the Congress should read the Dr Suess book THE ZAX and find a compromise!
All I want to know is why the American people are putting up with an insane bully in the White House. Isn't this a democracy where you can correct mistakes?
3
Ah, the Imperial Presidency of Richard Nixon! Those were the good old days, eh? Yet this time around, that description is far too kind.
The Trump administration deserves its very own moniker: The Corrupt (Kakistocratic) Presidency!
3
So ironic that the Tea Party is supporting an imperial presidency. Powdered wigs all around.
5
We Democrats can take this more, but we need to make sure the Republicans are so tired of him--as he destroys their party, not his--he'll just go back to being a Democrat, etc.--that they get on bended knees (they are used to that with Trump) to beg us to help them get rid of him, but even then we should say no--he was voted in, let him be voted out--and I then he won't be pardoned--straight to jail.
3
Will no one rid us of this turbulent child?
3
Trump's use of emergency powers in this instance will just be a dry run ( as was the sending of troops to the border ) for Trump to declare a state of emergency when he is removed from office, either by rule of law or election defeat. He will not relinquish power peacefully. So many Americans loath this man, but still underestimate his depravity, perhaps due to an inability to conceive immorality on this level.; Trump is evil to the core. The sooner Americans wake up to this the better.
85
this is a wake up call re: imperial presidential power...the authors are absolutely right on, Congress needs to exercise its authority and curtail the attempt by the president to overstep his role. And by the way, are there any thoughts out there about where the $5.6 Billion will go if it gets approved? Aside from the political promise he made (about the wall) Trump seems awfully invested in getting that $, makes me wonder which of his business associates is lined up to get it, and how much he expects to put into his pocket. Is that too cynical? Meanwhile, is he getting paid during the shutdown?
7
So, let's hope the small t doesn't stay president, despite no longer being in power. Impossible, you say? Look at the last two years, and please tell me how "impossible" this is.
1
Ah so. "The imperial presidency." I lived through those Watergate years, so I remember the phrase being bruited about.
Didn't some kind of musical come out about that time--"1600 Pennsylvania Avenue" or something? About the presidency "and how it was taken away from us." Right. I believe it flopped. And now--
--some British history. Sorry. Can't resist.
But, with the accession of King George III, the Tories found themselves in clover. The Whigs (after half a century) were OUT. And the King had his own party in Parliament--"the King's friends" they were called.
What this? Royal power INCREASING? How wrong! How tyrannical!
Or maybe not.
Which would you prefer? A single King, wielding royal power--for the benefit of EVERYONE?
Or an oligarchy of noblemen and rich families wielding power for THEMSELVES?
"I fly from venal power to the Throne," wrote poet Oliver Goldsmith. He spoke for many.
And I think, too, of that string of Republican presidents in the 1800's. Grant--Hayes--Garfield--Arthur--Harrison--McKinley. Putty in the hands of the rich. Who got richer. And richer. And. . . . .
Then we got Teddy Roosevelt. Very much a "can do" president. Who was decidedly NOT--
--"putty in the hands of the rich."
Mr. Donald J. Trump--an imperial president? Maybe.
But his fellow Republicans in Congress--
--are poodles and lapdogs--
--when they should be WATCHDOGS.
And so it goes. Lord knows how it'll end--
--if it ever does.
3
What we are experiencing is the trifecta of democratic dysfunction. First, the definition of "Democracy " is under question as as the constituency is transitioning from a founding white Western European ethnocentric base to a more global mixed conglomerate. Second, the US Congress has been delinquent in its responsiblity to represent the public who voted them into office, and instead, have taken the graft from special interests via K Street. And third, we have a tyrant as President who is only interested in his consolidation of power. All of which, are stressing a system without exercising the available checks and balances the founding fathers of the Constitution new would useful in a hijacked system. It's time to wake up folks and clean up this mess. Use your right to vote!
5
I can’t imagine any power more “Imperial” than the power of process-free execution via drone claimed and used by Trump’s predecessor Obama, against foreigners and US citizens alike. And like Bush before him, he took this country into military conflict without even congressional approval (Libya and Syria) and approved secret domestic surveillance on every citizen, whether suspected of a crime or not. All presidents since Carter have been tyrants, and Trump is by no means the worst.
1
Trump is and always has been a lying, cheating, and thieving person and he was taught to be that way by his father and his mentor Roy Cohn. Anyone who even listened to him through one interview understood that about him. The Republican Party has found that he gives them exactly what they want in the way of policies, appointments, and in signing legislation that even conservative Presidents in the past were wary of doing. They will back him up without uttering a word even if they hate how he is conducting himself because their base constituents are mesmerized by the man. Trump represents a huge proportion of our citizens who simply have no more trust in the rest of their fellow citizens and want an autocrat to control the government against the will of those other citizens. Our republic is pretty close to collapsing and becoming just one more oligarchy where personal power and influence determine how much government and the courts will respect anyone's rights.
6
When will the Republicans in Congress and the Senate stop being afraid of confronting Trump? They are letting him throw tantrums and create havoc.
5
Nancy Pelosi is correct, we have a petulant president. The frightening thing is all of this is that this man will not bend an inch if he feels it makes him look weak. In other words, compromise, even if it is for the good of the country, is not in his vocabulary.
5
The Wall for many of us has become a four letter word. I am sick of hearing it and want real government not this manipulative autocratic President who is so narrow minded he can negotiate to help our country for the good of all.
2
These guys are smart but I think they miss the point. Even a feeble president can impose his will if his party controls the senate and feel that they are required to support him no matter what.
3
Had enough?
Yes, long since past that point.
5
You seem to suggest that the will of the electorate is the ultimate check, but it isn't. If it were, Hillary Clinton would be president. The obsolete Electoral College over-ruled the will of the electorate. Furthermore, with all the abuses of this administration, it is only occasionally observed that the single greatest obstacle to a check on his power is the obstinate, arrogant, unaccountable, imperious, callous and immoral senator from Kentucky, who as majority leader, stymies every effort to reign in Tяцmp. Mitch McConnell, as much as Donald Tяцmp, is the greatest threat to our democracy. Which Russian oligarch is it that controls him?
9
So, we had Obama who couldn't or wouldn't spend one poll point to pressure Congress and used undemocratic executive orders that have now been erased, and Trump is the weak president? No signature legislation? Then what is all the complaining about the tax cuts about?
Oh, yes. I, for one, have had more than enough of this president. He is ineffective. His ego stands in the way of any productive discourse with Democrats or any Republicans who may have reached the limits of their patience this week.
Where are the men and women with backbones, hearts, and brains? MIA, so far.
3
"For all his flaws, Mr. Nixon was unwilling to tear down the government to save himself."
Trump will do anything to save himself - as this unnecessary and counterproductive shutdown demonstrates in spades. We could build a border wall tomorrow, and it would have a marginal effect on the 'security' of the 330 million citizens of the United States. However, the shutdown already has put lives at risk - a terrorist seeing the chaos at our airports as a result of defunding the TSA is no doubt licking his chops right now. Our courts, the SEC, the IRS, the Forest Service, the FDA -- all are hobbled while Trump flails like a truculent four year old with serious behavioral problems.
He could care less.
Therein lies the rub. Trump is weak. He is frustrated by his own inability to understand and use the mechanisms of the federal government to achieve his goals. As a result, he flails wildly, acting on impulse - and impelled by his delusional confidence that he possesses a 'stable genius' and 'gut instinct' that confers knowledge and skill surpassing the generals, diplomats, economists, scientists and others who have devoted a lifetime of work to developing genuine knowledge and skill. People who, unlike Trump, have devoted their lives to public service, not self-promotion and profit at any cost.
Nixon, for all his faults, had the decency to bow out when the walls closed in. Trump will do no such thing. Like a lunatic hostage-taker, he will act savagely if he does not get his way.
3
I long for the day when this sorry excuse for a human being is no longer President and we can all go back to not giving a flying flock what he does. Unfortunately as President he can inflict harm and damage upon the people and institutions of our nation so we can’t ignore him the way parents might ignore a temper tantrum from a toddler in the terrible twos. However, even though you can’t ignore him, you can’t give in. The child learns completely the wrong lesson....
6
Donald Trump will most likely be impeached by the House. It is not yet clear that he will be convicted by a 2/3 vote in the Senate.
Trump's best strategy might be to alter the reasons for impeachment. The Mueller investigation looks at possible collusion with the Russians in providing Julian Assange with emails that showed that Clinton had been inconsistent in campaign statements.
There is also the hush money paid to stormy Daniels.
Finally, there is the possibility of obstruction of justice, due to Trump's firing too many officials of the FBI and Justice Departments.
There may not be sufficient evidence for the first charge. The second is a sexual affair like that of Bill Clinton that did not result in Clinton's removal. Let's hope that Mueller has sufficient evidence for the third charge, which might be sufficient reason for impeachment.
But if Trump has a long government shutdown, followed by funding the Wall with emergency powers, the impeachment will take a more political flavor.
Trump is correct that many Americans are concerned that illegal immigration is not sustainable in the long run. That it has already driven down living standards for many of the poor.
Trump may be right that liberals have been not completely honest about this issue. Moreover, they have characterized those who disagree with Democrats as racist.
So Democrats have created a situation in which it might happen that even if impeached Trump might win in 2020.
The times are interesting.
The imperial presidency, as currently constituted, is a deeply obsolete institution. Trump is not a bug, he's a feature. The unrestricted power of the office and the spotlight on its occupant ensures that psychopaths will continue to seek it, and occasionally be elected. The US does not need an elected king, especially a mad one. An important first step in cleaning up this mess is that Congress must ensure that the rule of law applies the president. Of course a sitting president should be indictable if he or she commits a felony.
1
Are you willing to admit that Pelosi hasn't even brought a bill to a vote yet? This is an imperil power play ... by Pelosi.
Yes, Mrs. Pelosi who has been rewarded richly by the bankers.
1
At times like this, with a demented, unstable and malignant narcicist in the Oval Office, plus a complicit GOP Senate intent on protecting him at all cost at the expense of our democracy and citizens paychecks, I long for the European style Parliamentary Decmocracies. Under that system Trump would have already been booted out with a motion of censure and a "no confidence" vote" Sadly, this is becoming a democracy only in name-- why haven't the workers taken hostage by that mad man and his complicit GOP , gone to the street and peacefully demanded an end to this gov't shut down? Why haven't citizens in solidarity with them, done the same? Where are the leaders of the opposition as well as union leaders? What are they (we) waiting for?
2
I wonder. Could this be a test-case of We The People and our resolve to depose a tyrant?
Are we being "played" in this gesture?
Could be the bottom is about to fall out of the pail?
We will lose the contents.
Where demagoguery is an afront, baiting fascist elements bent on white power and imposing nationalistic ideals into illegal action and that is moved from a position of great power, a complex society cannot function until balance is achieved.
A tipping point has been reached; no turning back now.
We can expect nothing less than the unexpected unless we turn to our better angels and our higher powers to lift us out of here.
God Save the Planet.
Socrates is right: the problem is the GOP, not the presidency.
Their party is what needs overhauling.
The general election was badly run, in the extreme.
Trump made a mockery of the debates (all of which, most observers contended, he lost), his rallies were tissues of lies; but it was nothing compared to the cowardice the GOP displayed during the primaries- the very same cowardice they are displaying now.
Democrats supported Clinton during the impeachment, but not in the lockstep the GOP are in now.
Nothing but self-preservation is stopping them from doing their constitutional duty.
Self.
Preservation.
2
Trump had a Republican majority in the House Seanate for two years. Why didn’t he do a shut down then?
He’s holding some government employees as hostages to fund The Maginot Line 2.0 and the Republican robots are lined up behind him.
Remember this next time you go to the polls.
3
So what I am hearing is that Democrats resort to executive power when the GOP refuses to govern responsibly and the GOP resorts to executive power abuses for personal gain and to entrench their power. OK I get it.
2
Trump’s persona is like a sports team that simply doesn’t play by the rules of the sport, so much so that even if he’s trailing he’ll say his rules favor the fewer points - “I WIN”!!! Trump is the personification of a psychiatrist field day.
1
Agreed, pretty much.
But while it’s important that Congress reassert itself vis a vis the President, it’s at least as important that the Democratic members of the U.S. house take control of the party and let us know by word and deed (including legislation sent to the senate) what the Ds stand for.
To be sure, elected officials must interact with pressure groups, interest groups, donors, policy experts, political strategists, the press, their “base,” and other elected officials (including the president). But they also interact with the people they represent, and have a duty to represent those people, without regard to whether those people are part of their “base.” And they’re the ones with a certificate of election.
I hope many more of them follow the lead of people like Beto when it comes to taking only small campaign contributions from individual donors, charting their own authentic course in campaigning, and campaigning outside their political base.
Be a team player when necessary, but assert yourself, represent your constituents, and be a policy entrepreneur when necessary. Bring policy and politics into alignment using the system as designed. Know that we’re watching and we’re not all stupid.
1
It is amazing to see the admiration on vice president Pence´s face, he makes vice president Quayle Nobel Price material !
3
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. was highly prescient on this and many other matters (his book "The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society" should be required reading). Many kudos to Kruse & Zelizer (and the NYT) for publishing this. Rand Paul was my first choice in 2016 because he was the only presidential candidate actively campaigning on ending the imperial presidency.
As Kruse & Zelizer point out, unfortunately Democrats abandoned their 1970's positions in identifying & trying to limit imperial presidency. Millions of us voted for Obama in 2008 based on his rhetoric & history as Constitutional Law professor, only to see him abuse the 2001 "Authorization for Use Of Military Force" to extend intervention-first regime change efforts to Libya and Syria. To some extent, Obama tried to get Congress to do its job but when they failed, he happily expanded imperial presidency. Same thing with DACA & DAPA, which Saturday Night Live spoofed in skit evoking the old School House Rock kid's show. Shame is that, unlike Trump, Obama knew better.
Also amazing to see GOP, who supported Bush as CIA director to shut down cooperation w/Church Committee & complained about Iran-Contra, suddenly acknowledge the "deep state" after all & executive overreach, as seems to have occurred with Obama/FISA courts.
1
Is that a joke? What "imperial presidency"? Give me a break. This president can't even get his single directive implemented without getting bogged down in courts. He cannot even get his simplest decision, like getting the lousy 2000 troops out of a useless war, carried out without every two-bit bureaucrat challenging and reversing it at will. He cannot even get the lousy $3 billion on a lousy border fence approved by the lousy Congress. He simply does not rule this country (or not allowed to) - the Deep State does. And it always did. It just looked like previous president were in charge because neither of them dared to challenge the actual rulers.
trump did not win the popular vote yet he's POTUS. Rural American (States) should not be the tail that wags the dog in a true democracy.
4
As the poet Maya Angelou so aptly stated:.."When someone shows you you who they are believe them the first time". Trump has repeatedly shown us who he is..there is no mystery, no pivot, or no late breaking enlightenment. He is exactly what he appears to be. Incompetent, ineffective, ignorant, inexperienced, incapable, indiscreet and dishonest. But what else is new? This didn't start 2 years ago. It goes back to his childhood.
4
The cracks in GOP support have appeared and are widening with every passing day.
The Trump administration has provided a new example of an old concept: the “imperial presidency.”
No it's the "All about me presidency"
3
Could we just tell him that the new Oval Office is now, wow, in Trump Tower, NYC, send him there, lock the door and throw away the key? McDonalds could deliver his daily meals and he could tweet til the cows come home, tweets no one would pay any attention to at all. He could think he's in charge but could harm no one ever again.
We're wandering in Wonderland now, so a girl can dream can't she, just like Alice?
2
Unilaterally deciding to shut down the government and use 800,000 American lives as leverage to get his ill conceived "wall" is a blatant act of imperialism. If the Democrats give in to his relentless threats over the wall it will be tantamount to giving him extra-constitutional power - he will then be able to use the shutting down of the government to pursue whatever demands he chooses in the future. Please don't let him use this as a weapon against the people of this country. We must not indulge his reckless imperialistic pursuits!
2
This attack on the imperial Presidency would carry more weight if it didn't go out of its way to excuse Democratic Presidents for their imperial tendencies. When was the last time Congress actually declared war as per the constitution - oh yeah - 1941.
Worse than Trump's behavior and incompetence is that so many people in this country were willing to put him in the presidency. What is wrong with us? What does this say about a big faction of people in this country? What does it say about the people who voted in GOP primaries that someone with z-e-r-o govt experience, multiple bankruptcies, a showman approach to governance and with no respect for anyone else could win?
1
He may be imperial crested, but
Customs and Border $1.6 Bil requested,
$5.7 Billion I must have! Don protested.
GAO confirms,
In no uncertain terms,
The toddler in chief’s development is arrested.
Trump isn't going to starve, Pence isn't going to starve, Mnuchin, Mulvaney, Whitaker, etc. are not going to starve. No Republican Representative or Senator is going to starve. They would love to starve the Federal employees to hurt the Democrats. Are the Democrats willing to do the same. Trump will win this battle, because he's been starving people his whole life.
No, this commentary parses the past and present with examples and the interpretation of laws, but it doesn't go far enough. Not nearly.
Trump, it is safe to say, is 10 to 100 times worse that almost any historical example of the presidency and the abuse of power. If he were better informed and more inclined toward actual government, as opposed to constant tweeting, he would be able to multiply his erratic tendencies and we would be in a frightful constitutional pickle right now.
Consider this: what if Trump or another president becomes 100 times worst that what we have seen so far? What could we the people do? Scream louder back at the television screen when Trump passes off misinformation and lies as vital to his decisions? What could we do?
The War Powers Act and a half a dozen other stopgaps put in place following Nixon/Watergate are largely ineffective, largely a big, stinking joke. They represent, excuse the expression, a paper wall between a president and the intention to abuse power. The ability of a president to make war, to order drone strikes and send troops almost anywhere in the world is all but completely unchecked. What would we do if it were 100 times worst?
We must have a means of citizen power to withdraw support for any president, force a resignation and hold a new election. Until we get that power, we will always face the potential of Trump like stupidity and danger.
We need actual citizen power, not attenuated, representative power.
28
Trump is a demagogue, a kleptocrat and a traitor. He is being enabled by the Republican senate, and by Fox, Sinclair and the rest of the right wing "news" media. Terrifying.
8
We’ve had enough of him two years ago.
5
Yes, I have had enough. Can't end soon enough. Tired of the drama, the vitriol, the ignorance, the racism, the amorality, the narcissism, the nepotism, the despotism....the list seems endless.
I cannot wait until he is relegated to the dustbin of history, though I hope our republic can survive his "reign".
6
Yes, but look who is next in line. From the frying pan into the fire. For the sake of all of those who are without paychecks....stop the madness and let government workers collect their salaries. Stop using them as pawns in a ridiculous game.
3
"For all his bluster, Donald Trump is generally seen by presidential observers as a shockingly weak president."
Bluster and weakness go hand in hand. Mr. Trump is a weak President because he is a weak man, like any bully. He seeks external validation at every turn, and needs to constantly prove how much more powerful, intelligent, and dominant he is to those around him. Those aren't the attributes of anyone who has any inner strength.
But a weak personality coupled with great power is an incredibly dangerous mix, because Mr. Trump has used - and will continue to use - every possibility he can find to demonstrate how powerful he is as a person, whether such possibilities or legal or not.
The only thing stopping President Trump from an Imperial Presidency is Congress and the courts. And that will only happen if they have the inner strength to do so.
37
Who we choose as an enemy seems to define us these days. I seem to remember when it was our friends that did that. The curious thing about Donald Trump is that he doesn't do "friends". He was quite ready to ditch the Kurds. I think that's what happens when you elect a businessman as President; friendship doesn't have much of a place in making deals. It would be nice though, if he could at least see immigrants as a business opportunity.
6
The authors write something that baffles me: that Trump "has used his power to aggravate, rather than calm, the fault lines that have divided our country." I agree but this aspect always seems to be dismissed as just bad manners or a brutish political style.
Why isn't this seen as giving aid and comfort to our enemies? Why isn't this condemned as both unpatriotic and a violation of his oath? The Presidency means more than just legislation. He has viciously attacked judges, politicians, entire immigrant populations and even mocked and derided private U.S. citizens who happen to disagree with him. He has single-handedly done more to weaken our country than anyone else. He has crushed the souls of the people of this country. How is that faithfully upholding the constitution?
His actions and words are betrayals, with real world consequences that harm the country and divide the people while enriching his own bottom line. If we allow the President to commit any morally vile action so long as it is deemed technically "legal" what does this say about us?
34
Yes character matters, and not just in a President.
Also in those tasked with the checks and balances; the Congress and the Supreme Court.
But most especially in the citizens, from whence a country derives it's character.
What we've experienced is the purposeful erosion of our country's character by anti-citizens with degraded character who have money they use to command alt-media programming.
This country has sold its character - its soul - for money, and for mere entertainment.
16
Presidential vetoes are part of the Constitution’s system of checks and balances. When a president vetoes or threatens to veto a bill, Congress must either muster the votes necessary to override the veto or present the president a compromise bill that he or she will sign or allow to become law by taking no action. This is the way the system of checks and balances is suppose to work.
But President Trump has not vetoed the spending bill, or any other bill. The House sent an appropriations bill to the Senate, but the Senate refused to consider it because it contained no Border Wall funding. Since spending bills have to originate in the House, the House needs to send the Senate a compromise spending bill or accept responsibility for the government shutdown. Until the House sends the Senate a spending bill with which the Senate will occur, Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats are responsible for he shutdown.
There is no justification using the Goverment and the Federal workforce as leverage in a policy dispute. If you don't have the votes, then move one. If the Democrats were to give in on this dispute, every time Trump wants another part of his agenda he will shut down the government. That is not how the Founders set up our system of Government.
31
Seems to me there was a bipartisan bill, sponsored and co-written by Republican Senator Graham, that would have avoided this mess. It appeared to have the votes at the time.
Trump had apparently said, “OK.”
But....
Then he got slammed by Fox, Coulter and Hannity.
Sen. McConnell pulls the bill from consideration.
Trump then (live— on TV, check it out!) proudly proclaimed he would own this shutdown.
It’s on him, as he wanted and willed.
2
There was a deal in December. The toddler-in-Chief agreed to it then changed his addled mind... again. Ugh.
You need to get on the phone to Mitch McConnell. He’s not doing his job. He could get the government running tomorrow. But of course he doesn’t know how to govern. Obstruction is his forte.
2
If Trump declares an emergency to build the wall, I would like the next Democratic President to declare a health emergency and impose Medicare for All. And Republicans to remain muted as now.
42
Generally, it is in times of good, popular leaders that executive offices ranging from presidents to monarchs to dictators, acquire power. Then, when a bad leader has that position, he or she has that power to use. The fundamental question Americans need to ask themselves is how they allowed so much of the Federal government's power to switch over the decades from the Congress to the Executive branch.
By and large, liberals and conservatives alike support Presidential power when their guy is in office and oppose it when the "other side" (in itself a sad commentary on where we currently are) is in power. Unfortunately, we are more and more coming to view the Supreme Court in the same manner.
8
Wow.
Imagine that. An elected President "imposing" his will - by making the decisions for which he was elected.
Seems dangerously constitutional.
1
Not sure what Constitution you`re referring to, but it's certainly not the United States Constitution. It is not up to the President to determine the scope of Executine power. That is the job of the Supreme Court. Harry Truman tried to force striking steel workers back to work by declaring a national emergency during the Korean War. The Supreme Court found that his actions exceeded his authority and blocked Truman's order. Even with the President's hyperbolic rhetort, it is pretty hard seeing the courts not blocking Trump efforts to build his wall by declaring a national emergency. is this situation.
6
But the president is not a dictator. Trump supporters don’t seem to understand that.
1
One of the reasons that Trump can ride roughshod over the checks and balences is that not only he has no sense of history or proper gorvening decorum but he has an willing enabler in the person of the Senate Majority Leader who is not willing to take ani ndependent tack against an Executive Office that often seems out of control. The Senate Majority Leader has taken also in the past dangerous precedents by pocket vetoing a Supereme Court nominee, something that no other Senate Majority leader has ever done, and then try to justify it by citing historical precedents that doen't apply. He has also sought to rush through a nominee whose checkered personal and professional background called for enhanced scrutiny, He now colludes with the President in not bringing a vote on any of the budget resolutions that were formerly passed in a bi-partisan manner, to avoid the President from having to use the potentialy embarassing action of using a veto. The country is thus held hostage by a petulant President and a win at all costs Senator working in an unholy alliance that puts their political calculas before the good of the American people.
28
@Milliband I know it's too much to think that Trump knows anything about the history of the office, but president have continually tried to overstep themselves. FDR did it when he tried to pack the court. I felt lonely when I looked with dismay at the way Obama — a president I much admire — employ executive orders. I thought it was a dangerous precedent, and I'm not happy to have been proven correct.
2
Strategically and tactically, it may be a mistake for Democrats to seek to fund and reopen some agencies of the Government. It's also a mistake to keep responding to the President's tirades and tantrums. Think of it this way: if the Government remains closed, agencies like the SEC can't review or approve stock offerings. The other agencies can't write regulations. Essentially, Trump's administration will be frozen in place. He will be unable to do nearly as much harm as he can with a functioning bureaucracy. Starve a fever and feed a cold.
4
The government keeps us safe. Whether it monitoring our air for polution, inspecting our food for contamination, the products we buy, our investments, our bank accounts, our security from terrorist plots and organized crime, our criminal and civil courts, our economy, our tax system and many many other important government function all rely on fully staffed Federal agencies that are now working with a skeleton staff, who are not getting paid. The idea that this is sustainable on any level is absurd. Over 800,000 Federal workers will not recieve a paycheck. What are their families supposed to do? What are all the business and people that rely on the functioning of these shutdown agencies going to do?
5
@Benjamin Gilbert You wouldn't feel that way if you were a federal employee with mouths to feed and bills to pay.
1
The real long-term solution would be to amend the constitution so that if a two thirds majority in the Senate isn’t obtained to remove a house impeached president, a simple majority can still do it if either a majority on the Supreme Court or the Chief Justice alone concurs. Even the most extremely conservative and liberal justices tend to tilt towards the law over partisanship whenever they see the institutions of democracy itself at direct risk. If an obvious crime is revealed during the process, I believe most of these lifetime appointed justices would act. I trust partisan senators far less to do the same, as evidenced by today’s shameful GOP crop. This additional safety valve could only help. Donald would also cement his desire for a famous place in history, as it would likely always be remembered as the Trump amendment.
4
The true "greatness" of the Trump presidency may be that the next democratic congress (2020) will pass laws that will stop the next would be dictator from damaging the country the way Trump has. In addition, tighter laws, could make it harder for the GOP to sell the country out to foreign adversaries. Real patriots, need to keep resisting, so this can be the start of something good.
7
"Mr. Trump has revealed that when a president is willing to cross what seemed to be clear lines, no one is there to hold him back."
To be precise, there are 52 " no one[s]" failing to fulfill a constitutional responsibility.
A constitutional amendment requiring Congress to pass the annual budget promptly upon the beginning of each fiscal year, to the exclusion of any other legislation, with the possible exception of a declaration of war, would be a huge barrier to deny the president the ability to hold the nation hostage to his whims and fixations. This would require some teeth, of course. I would suggest that, until the budget has passed, no Senator or Representative be allowed to leave the immediate Washington, DC, area for any reason other than the funeral of an immediate family member or for the hospitalization of same with a life-threatening condition. After all, what we are seeing now is putting tens of thousands of Americans in existential straits. Our "legislators" need to be painfully aware of their responsibilities, too. Additionally, no salaries will be paid prior to passage of the budget.
Housing them all in military barracks style conditions --in particular the vintage WWII units in use at Ft. Campbell, KY, in 1968-- might help focus their attention to the task at hand.
8
We are watching in real time how a country goes from an elected democracy to an authoritarian ruler. It takes a combination of events. It is necessary to have a leader who wants to have all power centered on himself and who is prepared to seize it. Trump is such a person. But it also requires the abdication of the opposition to such a seizure, in this case by the Congress. Are the GOP prepared to block such a seizure? Right now it is looking like that are all-in with anything Trump wants to do, making a massive lie out of their decades of espousal of Constitutional government.
16
Much of this is true but we must also look at how and why Congress has been happy to enable “imperial presidencies”. Over the decades legislators run for office not on what they have accomplished, but what the their opponents have done wrong, meaning to act is a risk vs a reward.... they have merrily abdicated their own power to free themselves from accountability. In the meantime, the government must be run and decisions made- so more and more it’s executive fiat. The people are likely to increasingly elect imperial presidents if the wheels of legislature seem permanently stuck in the mud and incapable of action.
5
All of this sounds well and good, however, since 9/11 there has been a general abandonment of the rule of law. Or, laws have been structured to abridge democracy in the name a national security. Those who should be prosecuted (i.e. Wall St. banksters) routinely are not. With Obama’s suspension of Habeas Corpus political repression has been codified. We have had two imperial Vice Presidents (Bush, Cheney) who operated with impunity, so what’s the big deal about Trump? The big deal is that he entered the presidency as a morally compromised person. Nothing in his past has ever held him accountable so, clearly, there are no effective restraints on him now. The War Powers Act has been perverted or ignored for decades. Congress routinely votes military spending increases despite the fact that the DOD is criminally unaccountable. So, if a president is given resources to wage war, whose to say he should not? The answer is We the People. Unfortunately, our opinions, blood, sweat, and tears are not considered important enough. If Trump succeeds in imperially constructing his wall on a false pretense (remember WMDs?) then there may be no stopping his willful destruction of the Republic to retain power. If, Trump is, in fact, guilty of “high crimes and misdemeanors”, then he will be highly motivated to avoid the prosecutions that might ensue if he lacks the protection of executive privilege. This debate is more than just academic.
6
How exactly will Trump “be held to account “ with a Senate dominated by Republicans who are either determined to let him have his way, or too spineless to appear in dissent? Impeachment is a meaningless threat with the GOP unwilling to lose their most effective tool.
It’s not like THEY have anything to lose they’re rich white men, for the most part, AND THEY ARE STILL GETTING PAID, even if their staff are going hungry or missing paying their rent. They can continue the state of affairs indefinitely, immune for now, to most of the consequences.
5
One thing Donald Trump has shown us is that the third branch of government, the judiciary, is really only a servant to the executive branch. As long as the President can hire and fire anyone he wants anytime he wants for not following his orders then the judiciary works for him and not for the people.
It is time to separate the Justice Department from the executive branch. We should elect our Attorney Generals just like most states do and let them campaign and govern on their philosophy of law and order, not the Presidents version. That way the Attorney General's job security would be in the hands of the people not the President.
6
I had enough of this president on day one. What I will never understand is why Congressional Republicans have stood by him this long. If we did not have the Electoral College and gerrymandered districts, Republicans might be seeing things differently and might turn on Trump. But maybe they think Russia will help them again in 2020, which is possible, or maybe they are afraid Russia will turn on them if they go against Trump. In the crazy world we are living in, anything is possible. In the end, it is up to each and every American to pay attention, learn the facts, and vote for the most truthful, competent, and deserving person. That is not what happened the last time.
10
We are watching the President of the United States destroy himself in front of everybody, on TV.
He does this over and over, anytime it isn't a scripted "reality show."
It will end very badly for Trump and his immediate family. I hope that it doesn't do everyone else too much more harm ... but it's all in the hands of the Republican minority now -- they control how long, and how much damage, Trump can do.
6
Well, the good news for the Middle class is that there are only 2 more years until another 4 years.
6
We have a solution that would easily resolve the Trump shutdown IF only Congressional Republicans would stop ignoring their oath to the Constitution instead of to Donald Trump. Republicans need to support a veto-proof budget and move on to a separate debate on Trump's wall if he ever decides to follow normal procedure and propose legislation for it. What we have now is a frontal attack on the Constitution by Trump and the Republicans to maintain the autocracy that characterized the first two years of their unified control of the federal government. The wall is a bogus issue threatening the very heart of our democracy--its "rule of law" and seeking to establish to replace it with the autocratic "rule of Trump." This goes well-beyond an "imperial presidency" to authoritarian rule. The Democrats are right to say "No" and the Republicans should join them.
6
What went wrong is that a democracy with the US systems of checks and balances with a President having far-reaching powers in emergency situations and other circumstances depends on the good faith of all the component parts involved. If one element is not in good faith the whole system collapses and you get what you get here -- abuse of those powers. In this case exacerbated even more because you have a senate dominated by Republicans acting in bad faith as well.
8
'Even a feeble president can impose his will on the nation if he lacks any sense of restraint or respect for political norms '
Yes, he or she can impose his will on the Nation, but ONLY, when the elected officials of the House and Senate refuse to do their duty.
It is a sad fact that the Constitution , when it came to the the power of the President was not worth the paper on it was written on.
Although the Constitution states unambiguously that the power to declare war is solely the responsibility of Congress, President after President to the US to War without approval of Congress.
The last time Congress declared War was in 1942. Count the Wars the US has entered since.
7
Ultimately, character is “destiny” whether for a single person or a nation of 330 million people. What is so deeply disturbing with the election of Trump to the Presidency is that despite prior knowledge of his experiential, moral, intellectual, and emotional unfitness for office, he not only captured the Republican Party nomination but prevailed in the general election. Rightfully, he should have been the first candidate soundly eliminated from contention during the primary season, and quickly faded from the national consciousness. How does an advanced democratic republic protect itself from the lack of any sound civic judgement of its own citizens? That is the profound conundrum revealed by Trump.
13
@John Grillo: The Electoral College was supposed to protect the democratic republic from a lack of civic judgment, but they were derelict in that duty with Trump.
2
What we are seeing now is that when for once one of the Houses of Congress will not kowtow to his whims, he goes completely off the rails. Unfortunately the other House of Congress enables such behavior. And it is the country that is the victim.
11
"Most important, reforming presidential power will fall on the shoulders of voters."
This may be true, but if it is, there's not much hope is there? About 45% of the voting-eligible population doesn't even bother to vote. Of the remaining 55%, nearly half seem fine with El Presidente even after two years of witnessing his abominable performance. Worse, our horrendous system of representation means that a minority—currently the one that supports Trump—has disproportionate power. Even without a popular majority, the Republicans control the Senate and the Presidency. That gives them control of the composition of the Courts as well. And the House, while now controlled by Democrats, still has a disproportionate number of Republicans and is thwarted by the Republican Senate and President anyway. Add in state governments that can engage in gerrymandering and voter suppression and the role of money in our elections and you have a system where the majority's will hardly matters at all.
Let's hope we get lucky and the Republicans are soundly defeated in 2020—and the Democrats hold the Presidency and have strong majorities in the House and Senate that can last long enough (a decade or more) to allow reform to take place and to reverse the stacking of our Courts. But if that doesn't happen, the US is doomed. The structural flaws in our system of government—grounded in a weak, ambiguously worded, and outdated Constitution—will lead inexorably to the collapse of our democracy.
4
In response to Trump's presidency the following laws need to be implemented.
1) Any person who runs for the office of president must have held a previously elected position in either state or federal government for at least one full term.
2) Candidates must provide tax returns for at least the previous ten years.
3) Candidates must prove their willingness to completely separate from any businesses that they own or are involved in. Paperwork must be in place before the election and immediately signed if elected.
4) The FCC needs to re implement the equal time provision so no single candidate can dominate the airwaves.
5) Tweets or other forms of social media by candidates should be banned during campaigns and possibly after.
6) Sitting presidents should pay for all travel expenses not directly related to governing. This would include reimbursing the government for costs of housing government employees who travel with the president. Presidents already pay for their own household expenses. Weekend travel to resorts is not considered governing. They could be allowed two paid vacations a year, like the rest of us.
26
@Larry Yes to all but #1. The worst thing we could do is limit any elected office to professional politicians. Just because this president turned out to be so lousy doesn't mean that another private citizen couldn't be a great president.
Citizens United has had the profound effect on allowing a a weak president to have so much power. The Koch money, other billionaires money, foreign country's money, and foreign corporation's money has been allowed to pour in to our politics and corrupt our elections.
The rule of law is at a disadvantage because of the Citizens United SCOTUS decision and it must be reversed.
16
@Newman1979: The Supreme Court has already been packed with very sheltered corporate flunkies.
Some political commentators and experts, apparently unknown to these authors, have been continuously concerned about the imperial presidency. They tend to be on the left and to see the imperial presidency as a means of enforcing U.S. standards of capitalism.
2
@Thomas Zaslavsky, and nominally on the "right," such as the small libertarian wing of the GOP, such as Rand Paul, Justin Amash, etc.
2
@Thomas Zaslavsky: Republicans are shameless about committing treason to undermine Democratic presidents.
1
I am especially disappointed in the Congress and particularly the Republicans, could be doing much more to keep Trump under control. At this point, King McConnell is as much of a hindrance to reopening the government as is Trump. McConnell will protect Trump and his party above all, including what's good for the country.
17
@Ken L Which means that, if he sees disaster in 2020, he might want impeachment so Pence is president.
@Ken L: Once they corner the judiciary, the law will become as vapid as the mind of Trump.
Trump isn't the least bit patriotic. He is using the country and the presidency to further his own self interests. He is willing to tear down the pillars of our democracy to get his way. It is beyond time for him to go...
10
None of this would be possible without FOX. Rupert Murdoch's makes his fortune by providing an alternate reality for the under-educated, just like the yellow journalism Murdoch got his start with.
So now we're in a situation where republican politicians are afraid to defend the defining values of the US because of the threat of a FOX-Conservative media led primary challenge. And Murdoch and company make too much money for them to do something patriotic like seeking bipartisan solutions. Something must be done to stop this demagogic propaganda machine from destroying our democratic norms.
9
@Henry Crawford: Three generations of Americans are primed for divine intervention by the Pledge of Allegience.
Two more years! Time can't come quick enough.
4
The Trump Administration has revealed some glaring weaknesses in our system.
First, obviously, what the authors point out about the Imperial Presidency. We must address this.
Second, though, we need to come to terms with the anti-democratic institutions of the Senate and the Electoral College. We must fix this so the will of the people is not subject to tyranny of the minority.
The majority of Americans are sensible. But our voices are blunted and our will subjected to abuse by the minority, and that has left us wide open to a tyrant like Trump.
9
And by the way, stop referring to the president as commander-in-chief. The president is only the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, NOT of the country, and certainly NOT of the citizens.
You ought to, and likely do, know better. Print a retraction.
15
I just can't get over the idea that he's systematically testing every law on the books. On purpose, and with a deadly aim - to put an end to all the palaver every time someone does something that it's either anti-constitutional or legal. If nothing else good happens from this presidency, that will be a masterful accomplishment. I am just watching from the sidelines, and trying to parse what I see.
2
The most important thing in organizations is never the organizational structure or position design, it's always the person. Put a good person in a poor structure and everything will run smoothly; put a bad person in a well designed structure and everything will go down the tubes.
132
@ed4445 there is a hidden but equal problem of a bad person in a well designed structure. He/she if they have the hiring authority usually brings in people like themselves. In other words one bad apple can damage the whole basket.
8
@ed4445: Treating corporations as persons is rank idiocy. They are only tools of their managements who animate them.
3
Answer: YES.
1
The thing is, the imperial presidency started long before Nixon. It goes back at the very least to Jefferson, who did things he had spent years writing against, such as the Louisiana Purchase. The most imperial president was Andrew Jackson, who essentially ignored the rest of government. The people who wrote the Constitution perhaps wanted equal branches, but what they set up doesn't work, the branches aren't close to equal. And as Jefferson shows, its unclear they even really wanted equal branches, Jefferson spent years ranting about small government and local control, and as soon as he was president he did the exact opposite.
5
The Republicans are just reaping what the have sown. It started with Reagan's famous mantra that government could not only solve the problem it was the "problem". Every prior President from both parties each recognized that there were certain unwritten rules and social norms that they understood, respected and followed. And regardless of party or policy positions were the product of an organized political party and system. This environment, while not perfect, created leaders who knew and acknowledged that there were unwritten customs and codes of conduct governing their behavior. While this may be called the "establishment" or "swamp", the reality is it also is part of the thin veneer of civilization. A society where which was ultimately ruled by the rule of law and not the rule of man. While not perfect, this created a stable society which lead to America being the leader of the free world. When Trump was elected, he neither knew nor did he care about the rule of law and rather saw the Presidency as being subject only to his own personal whims with no regard for law or unwritten social and political norms. His only experience was that of a small businessman with a long record or doing whatever he could get away with without answering to anyone unlike for example, a publicly traded company. He is the most unqualified President in history. This has lead to the chaos we are now living in. We can only hope to survive him.
4
Aside from the role of Commander in Chief, the executive is not, by nature, the most powerful branch of government. In fact, the three branches are rather well balanced in times of peace.
What the Founders never envisioned was a national security state undergirded by the perpetual war that we have been in since WWII. That state of war, though undeclared by a supine Congress, gives the president massive powers to act unilaterally.
If we want to take back our democracy, we need our troops home and not traipsing around the globe fighting villagers in the Hindu Khush there “so we don’t have to fight them here.” An absurd argument given that many of those fighters can’t afford shoes, never mind plane tickets to JFK.
8
@Objectively Subjective, and something, as Jon Finer and Robert Malley just argued in NYT opinion, Trump actually gets right, notwithstanding the uproar and push-back from those who seem to oppose anything Trump does, even when he (very occasionally) gets it right. So disappointing to see Democrats arguing against bringing troops home from undeclared wars versus countries that never attacked US soil, such as Syria; or trillion-dollar "forever" wars such as Afghanistan, that have lasted longer than US involvement in World War II and almost as long as Vietnam.
3
@GRH: Disagree. Trump just shoots from the hip without any planning, that's what Democrats were against with his ill-advised decision on Syria that McMaster felt compelled to resign for, because Trump hadn't discussed it with him or anyone else for that matter. It's Bolton of all people who now implements a planning for the withdrawal of American troops in Syria, without endangering the lives of Kurdish allies.
Congress needs to limit presidential powers, don't expect the voters to choose a candidate who will abide historic norms and expectations. That clearly doesn't work.
3
Putin is really getting his money's worth. Great ROI on that Trump stock.
21
@sb
Precisely so. I am constantly astonished that so many Americans fail to see that Trump's actions always, ALWAYS serve Putin's intent to damage the United States and advance Russia's interests.
1
Trump is feeble, but cowardly Republicans in the Senate are far worse. If they would just do what is right for this country, Trump would be fangless.
365
@AE
Don't fall for that line. They are not cowardly and they are accomplishing their objectives, with Trump's help.
15
@AE Unfortunately, our fellow citizens/voters are the real problem. Yes, president trump - can't quite bring myself to capitalize anything to do with that cretin - is clearly the proximate cause of dysfunction in Washington and elsewhere. As examples, 'just to name a 'few': scorched-earth/ruthless/amoral republican: voter suppression efforts under facile guise of 'fraud' prevention - where no fraud exists; take no-prisoners gerrymandering; total-war all-out obstruction of anything and everything the 'other' side wants, including a zero willingness to compromise - which is, somehow, viewed as 'surrender. See mitch mcconnell, the original immovable object, who originally instructed 'his' minions to reject thoroughly, completely and without qualification or nuance, anything and everything that President Obama did or was likely to propose. [Sorry about the run-on sentences - I'm, ahem, on 'a bit of a tear.'] But, make no mistake, the republicans were/are most 'effective' at this game, though the Republic is worse off. Who decides - that is, where are the political 'Geneva Conventions,' United Nations, and other political institutions, that might regulate this behavior?! In the end, it's the voters - and the voters, especially on one side, have thrown in their lot with the devil, given in to their worse impulses, and totally abdicated their civil and citizenship responsibilities. Having uncorked the bottle, it will most difficult - if not impossible - to re-insert the stopper.
6
Until their corporate donors are also going down with the ship, the GOP won't lift a finger, and not a moment before.
9
The imperial presidency stems back to TR and was enhanced by FDR. When an imperial president like FDR puts the citizens first, then it is not an issue, and sometimes an asset. When a president like Trump puts ego first, it is clearly a problem. The critics of FDR knew that the imperial presidency could be a problem in the future. They were apparently correct.
5
@Anthony Putting citizens first .. Perhaps like sending 110,000 Japanese-American citizens into internment camps by the pen stroke of an executive order?
You are kind calling Trump a feeble president with no sense of restraint or respect for political norms. Here is the truth. Trump is paranoid, obsessive/compulsive, narcissistic, a bully, racist, misogynist, and can't spell the word forest when he threatens to defund FEMA's disaster money to California. Trump isn't mentally fit to be president.
25th Amendment before he brings the whole country to ruin.
41
Finally somebody who can see clearly that Trump is a very sick man who is also ignorant, unintelligent, a shameless, compulsive liar, an egomaniac, delusional, and overweight. He never wanted to be President and has been pretty upset ever since he found out that somehow he had won the election.
There is no point in trying to guess what a madman is going to do next, nor why, nor what his next "diabolically clever" gambit might be. He has no idea what he's going to do next; he has no plan; he just wants to be loved. After all, it is what he thinks he deserves since he has the biggest brain ever and knows more about drones than anybody (I think he was confusing bees with unmanned aircraft - he learned about bee drones just before he got kicked out of school in fourth grade).
1
One thing to consider when considering new & improved reform legislation to limit executive overreach, is the necessity of a president who will sign it into law.
James E Carter was such a president, however much you may have heard of his 'ineffectiveness' - how many Americans or foreigners died in military actions during his single term?
If a monetarist had been in place at the beginning of his term instead of at the end, we might have a very different, and vastly better, history & country.
4
drain the swamp mr. president....you have only just begun.
Let the shutdown last until 2020 if necessary
12
@ms hendley,
I have frequently questioned the educational system of the south. Thank you for validating my opinion. I wish I were wrong.
143
@ms hendley
What a generic comment that could've been posted more aptly in several other comments sections today. Why is this a NYT Pick? It isn't even on topic.
69
@ms hendley
Please explain how the shutdown is draining the swamp. I thought draining the swamp was a desire to get rid of decision makers and policy setters, the folks at the top. I never thought draining the swamp referred to the "small fry" doing their jobs as directed by the decision makers. I don't think that a cleaning woman or a ticket taker at the Smithsonian needs to be drained. Do you? If so, please explain why.
45
As we get closer to the final steps in the demise of this presidency I hope that Mr. Mueller has such an airtight case against Trump there is nothing left for him to do but resign. Now that we see Manafort's collusion with the Russians we just need to find out that Trump was aware of it and it's over. How we recover from this is a mystery. I hope the evidence is so overwhelming that even the blindest Trump supporters will be forced to shuffle off into silence. The American voter is ultimately responsible for the place we are. Wise up folks. Wise up.
7
The Founders, bless them, have been exposed for the unicorn-chasing idealists they were. They knew there were Trumps, they just never expected Americans to be this stupid or this greed-driven.
Republicans in Congress have been exposed for the flaccid toadies they are.
The President didn't need to be exposed. We, at least those with NYC connections knew all along what we were getting.
And we got it: an unprincipled bigot unconcerned with anything but his bank account and his personal privilege.
Actually, unconcerned may be generous. Our President sees no fault in destroying any- and everything around him if it results some gain for himself. He considers those who object losers, liars, liabilities.
So, we have to fix this. We have to take back and clarify some Presidential powers. We have to force the Senate to act like an adult. We have make certain the House can never again become the rude clique of traitors and thieves it has recently been.
We have to open our elections to more than two tired parties, and we have to take control of their length and their cost.
While we're at it, I'd just as soon not continue paying Evangelicals to destroy my country, or Catholics for destroying our children. Could we fix that too please?
Its time these people pay their own way. If they're good, they'll get support. If they continue as they are now, they'll be gone in a heart-beat, thank God.
Its the American religious way.
7
Our problem is not just an imperial president but also a sycophant Republican majority. The people we send to Washington are not representing the majority of the people. This also needs to stop.
17
Trump imagines himself to be king, but he was elected to be president.
Should we perhaps refer to him as our "faux-king" president ?
13
To criticize Trump for exercising his power is like punishing a dog for making a mess on the carpet 2 minutes after you made it watch a 20 minute video explaining on potty training.
Most people in power will exercise their power. That's what they do. You can't blame the guy for that.
The problem is almost always the owner not the dog. Which in this case is the GOP. The GOP owns Trump, and they need to house train him. What is acceptable and what isn't. Am I missing something? Come on Mitch, curb your dog.
9
To borrow from Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the spineless GOP leadership is “defining Presidential deviancy down”. One thing that should happen right now is that if Congressional failure implements a shutdown, or the President refuses to sign, the responsible party loses pay and it is not refunded. They should suffer the same consequences as many workers, especially low income workers, who work for government contractors. How much longer America?
4
Trump's election taught me two things I did not realize.
Racism is still rampart in America/
The office of the presidency has too much unchecked authority.
16
Yes what if Trump's family real estate holdings overseas are threatened would he declare national emergency and engineer a coup with a dictators favorable to Trump financial interests. Perhaps bombing Canada if they defy him on an issue where does the power of the Imperial President end especially if we have an erratic, ignorant self interested buffoon in the job.
5
Morality cannot be legislated. But if there is no formal vetting process for a president's morality other than the vote of its citizenry functioning in effect as advice and consent, then the electoral process has failed and should be eliminated.
2
A Tale of Two Presidents, Lincoln and Trump.
It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.
A time of civil war, when a President held us together.
A time of moral war, when a president deserted us.
One of these presidents said...the truest test of a person's character is to give them power.
9
@David, I’m tired of the misdirected Lincoln references. He was truly an imperial President who regularly abused his power. He was also relatively unpopular and mismanaged the Civil War until Grant slaughtered his way to victory. His aim was to preserve the Union at all costs and that he did. No need to canonize him.
3
Our system of government is sustained only by our collective belief in it and in our willingness to abide by a constitution. Trump does not play by any rule, guideline, tradition or intent inherent in the U.S. Constitution. Instead, he has recognized he can twist those things to strangle us.
12
@katies
So true the morally corrupt GOP has enabled him to do it. I have never seen so many men and women in the GOP who cant think for themselves. The crowning of the new Supreme Court member showed how pathetic they are . Susan Collins, Sarah Palin are an embarrassment thank goodness Hatch has retired. Trump is the head traitor and the rest of his minions are just mean, racist stupid sheep.
If Trump should last to 20/20 there needs to be a education plan for the entire country to ensure that the voting public know what issues are on the table and what they are voting for. The candidates need to be grilled and held to account for their past voting actions and who they take corporate money from. Forget the costly TV ads or email messages, Facebook etc get people together and communicate clearly and concisely. We may not get another chance to save democracy.
"In the end, the most effective check on presidential power is to elect presidents who will exercise their authority with some restraint and respect our democratic traditions." Hmm...in other words we need some mechanism to insure that presidents are decent, competent and understand the role. The Framers saw this too, hence the Electoral College. An institution that when truly needed, failed, and was doomed by its now, unintended by the framers, partisan nature. And to think that some states have laws that would punish electors who voted against the will of the majority of the people. The people, as Madison knew, are a potential serious problem; they can be conned by the likes of Trump. I know he did not win a majority of the votes cast by a good margin, but the fact the even 1000 people in this country voted for this man is a tragedy and a warning. So what is the new plan to make sure we elect folks who will respect the rules? The voters should be wiser will not work.
4
The fact of the matter is that what we were taught in school about the nearly perfect system of government that our founding fathers created for us is at best a flawed notion and at worst a flat out lie. I understand the system of checks and balances built into our Constitution but the reality is that the overriding will of the American people is being circumvented by a determined minority that allows them to control the Senate and redistrict voting in order to give a greater say in our country to some over others. Allowing states such latitude in determining their elections (except when Republicans might come up short as in Bush v. Gore) and giving proportional representation to the LOWER rather than the UPPER House of Congress were grave mistakes. The greater powers of the Senate should have been given proportional representation, not the House. The ability on the part of states to set their own guidelines on how they set their election districts likewise has undercut the voices of millions in cities throughout this country. Finally, we're seeing that an unscrupulous president can seriously threaten our very democracy and the means to check him are far too onerous. I therefore conclude that our Constitution is fatally flawed but knowing that it will not substantially change in my lifetime, I guess whether or not I'm tired of an "Imperial President" or not is a pretty rhetorical question since there's not a darn thing I can do about it, ladies and gentlemen.
8
The effect of this presidency will cause a break from the Republican Party the likes of which has never been seen before. Their overwhelming support for Mr Trump's childlike temper tantrums over the wall and the rest of his misguided thoughts will severely backfire. May the Democratic Party handle itself with continued grace and rule well when the moment arrives.
14
From your lips to gods ears
This dreadful and superficial president has not only used his power to "to inflict extensive damage on our political institutions and public culture" and polarize us, but - we must remember - to wreak havoc on our environment, possibly the part of his "legacy" which will take the longest to be repaired, if it can even be repaired.
4
His approval ratings are not consistently low. He has often exceeded Obama. Obama and Bush became popular after they left office.
1
Only in the approval ratings from his own party. Overall, his approval ratings have been consistently below those of President Obama. See the graph at Real Clear Politics.
16
I wish I could write something erudite to this opinion piece. I completely agree with what is stated here. My problem is that I have gotten to the point where I both loath Donald Trump and I've grown numb to the daily insults that his Presidency brings to the entire country and the basis upon which we were founded.
He insults immigrants, of which we are all descended save Native Americans. He insults the institutions of governance which have mostly, to this point in the United States' history, served the country well. He insults the Office of the President and any dignity that it once had. He insults the diversity and different origins of our population, choosing at each turn to sound the dog whistle to his racist base.
And yet, beyond my imagination, 40% of Americans apparently think we're on the right path with this petty, small minded dictator want to be.
I am tired of it, worn out and dispirited.
25
It is clearly on the shoulders of Congress. But sadly, the system our framers set up is not what is driving our government today. Instead of three branches competing and holding each other in check, we have two political parties fighting over power.
5
Trump had congress for two years. Where is his responsibility n all this?
4
@M I mean that it is the role of the congress to hold the president in check. It goes without saying that Trump is utterly unfit for the job. But how does our system handle such a situation? Congress needs to put country over party.
1
Of great concern: The Imperial Presidency is here to stay outliving Trump. Wow
Bravo Kevin and Julian. One of the most insightful, contextualizing Opinion pieces.
I’m curious what legislation in 2018-2020 is needed to update the 1970s powers and rights. Specifically how can
-the Majority Leader like McConnell be reduced in power
-guardrails so the Presidency is held accountable to the people not Fox News Pundits. Why do we have to wait 2-4 years for regime changes? Can’t we update by poll? What would it take to replace the electoral college system? Protect against foreign actors like Russia?
-the backlash to Trump can put us on an endless cycle until the institutions are updated.
Ironically the GOP with a false call to values has installed a “leader” who highlighted the need for institutional responses to protect against the baseless, most corrupt, and lack of oversight from one branch (Congress) to Executive.
I fear our poor media literacy and critical thinking will lead to cycle on cycle of populism on both sides with little true progress and restraint.
3
One doesn't need additional insight into how dangerous this president is and has been. Just think of what a criminal can do as president, even/especially when badly wounded. And he has the GOP watching his back.
7
which branch of goverment does Mitch McConnell represent - the Legislative, the Executive, the Republican?
11
Mitch represents Mitch. Not unlike far too many politicians
One future reform for Congress is for the Senate and the House to be able to override the blockage of legislation by a single person, i.e., the Speaker of the House or the Senate Majority Leader. With the refusal of McConnell to introduce a bill to open the government, McConnell is aiding and abetting this president. Members of each body should, with say 60% of members, be able to introduce a bill over the objections of the Speaker or the Leader. Too much power is concentrated in these two individuals. Whether this can be done by rules in each chamber or require an amendment to the Constitution is something legal scholars need to examine.
9
I am not for the imperial presidency, but I also fear the kind of post-Watergate blow back that gave us Jimmy Carter, who lacked fundamental leadership skills and was neither respected nor feared. I hope that history does not repeat itself.
14
That's the problem of who is best prepared to restore our country? I wouldn't panic if it was Pelosi for a year or two.
35
@Want2know We got Carter because Ford pardoned Nixon, let's hope Pence doesn't do the same thing.
28
@Want2know What fundamental leadership skills did Carter lack? Please explain.
93
Nixon was elected twice as was George W. Bush (and Cheney), so let's be honest about "imperial presidencies." The unpleasant reality is that there are tens of millions of Americans for whom authoritarianism + fascism + white supremacy is not only seductive but desirable.
33
This National “Condition” is due not only to a “President’s”
weakness.... it, as well to his Personal state of Being. Donald
Trump has continued to manifest a chronic Sociopathic Presence, which he has successfully transferred into the
Office and Oval Office of our Presidency. I repeat....”President” Trump is not only “Weak”...He is Pathological, Sociopathological.
This position is a major reason why it is so difficult, indeed,
impossible, to actually Communicate with Him. Before he
occupied the Oval Office,, he was free-lancing his Pathology...
and thoroughly enjoying the Spoils. Now we, the People, can be
Part of the “Spoils”. I believe there have been a number of Psychiatrists and Psychotherapists who have Tried to make Public Awareness, but to No Public Avail. “President” Trump
May be beyond Treatment; we, the People, seem to be Sick.
3
It is so silly that we must always look towards one man to solve our problems. How isn't this like having a king? George Washington refused the mantle of "king" and decided on "president" instead, one who presides, not one with the power to wreck everything we as a people have ever worked for.
So every four years, us human animals scramble to find the person with the most testosterone to do the job so we can all worship for another four years. If that person is despicable, like Trump is, then we are in trouble. Just look at all that he has destroyed and is trying to destroy: peace, environment, business regulation that protects us, world relations, relations between Americans. His destruction goes on and on because he is essentially our king. What a system. We must reform the office of the presidency.
8
@Jojojo What makes this constant search for a political "savior" even sillier is that politics/gov't in this country is largely a front for the small elite that dominates the economic system and most of wealth that the vast majority of increasingly impotent Americans are responsible for producing.
2
@Jojojo
The blue wave didn't happen in a vacuum we all worked for this change. We just have to make democracy a must do every day in our lives. Teach our children civics and get them involved. People want to be involved with the political process because the majority of us are good people and we can right this wrong If not for ourselves than for our grandchildren and the future. We have to careThis insanity must end .
2
On election day in 2016, I encountered a fellow in a deli who was grumbling to the cashier about politics, and I asked if he had voted yet. He said he never voted, because there was no difference between the candidates. I replied that sometimes that did seem to be the case, but this time the choice was clear. I've wondered since then if he had changed his mind.
Too many citizens vote for candidates they know little about, and against candidates they dislike for one reason or another. My own sister voted for Trump--despite my reasons for disliking him--because she didn't think Hillary Clinton was "honest" and Trump was "too rich to be greedy." Say what? She must know better now (we avoid discussing politics) but too late.
There should be some restriction on presidents, and anyone in power, when personal obsession (like building a wall nobody else wants) causes havoc (like shutting down the government). With 800,000 people denied vital paychecks and national problems resulting from their absence from work, all because of Trump's I-want-my-wall tantrum, there is obviously a serious problem with the way our system works. We can't assume that American voters will avoid such mistakes in the future, so we have to fix the obvious problems--starting with weakening the influence of big money, and of course, eliminating the poisonous Electoral College.
307
@carrobin
There is also the problem that most of trump’s base watch a propaganda station - Fox News. They are probably also propagandized on Facebook.
31
Wow you had me until the Electoral College. All of the reforms mentioned in this article would only take a simple vote in both the House and Senate. Repealing the electoral college would take a 2/3 majority at a minimum and more likely a constitutional amendment. Not going to happen, give it up and move on.
5
@carrobin
The States decided that the Constitution would be approved and the federal government created.
States get to decide LOTS of things when they are doing the work, and the electoral College keeps all national elections from being decided in the biggest handful of states where, ironically, the voting seems to be the most fraudulent.
You might be a lot happier in a country where people are more homogeniously liberal, and where the pittance of information you cling to isn't that far out of line with everyone else.
Check out the Harvard-Harris poll released recently on how the voters think about the border.
2
"The reformers of the 1970s missed the ways in which reforms simply cannot restrain a president who doesn’t care about institutions. The most important source of presidential restraint has been the character of the person in office."
By that accounting we're doomed. Right now, the only check to a current president like this one would reside in the other two branches of government. Well, controlling the house isn't the same as controlling Congress, and increasingly the courts under Mitch McConnell are being packed with conservative justices.
I hate to say this, but I think Donald J. Trump has managed to accomplish one quite venal feat during his presidency: the exposure of inherent weaknesses in our Constitution that can be exploited by a clever enough tyrant supported by his party.
The founding fathers were idealists first, pragmatists second. They could never have dreamed of the day when all a budding demagogue needed was the support of at least one branch of government other than the executive.
526
@ChristineMcM Precisely. Mitch McConnell has decided that the United States will be governed by a minority-supported, corporatist, far right-wing party, and that's that. We can't do anything about it, even if the House were 435 Democrats.
Our institutions are built for stability, no matter how weak the occupant of a given office is, and the GOP discovered in 2016 that they had all the power they needed (and discovered it again in the midterms because they won the Senate) and that they could work their will on the nation within the structures that were there regardless of popular derision or acclaim.
Once McConnell crossed the line with Merrick Garland, the message was clear: We run this country, you don't. Sit down and shut up.
The Democrats will end up caving on this one because the GOP can't allow McConnell to. As ChristineMcM says, we're doomed. In fact, we're already done.
43
@ChristineMcM
I'm sure the founding fathers were pragmatic idealists, not pragmatists second. They set up the Electoral College partly to prevent our getting presidents like Trump. But the Electoral College has been completely undermined by being turned into an instrument of the winning party of each state.
13
@ChristineMcM
Excellent comment. I am dismayed to see that the checks and balances we Americans are so proud of are, what? Suggestions? I have never before been riveted by politics, but this exposure of our Constitution's weaknesses is shocking; more so, because Trump isn't clever. Cunning, maybe, and sick enough to have no moral compass. Meanwhile, those who respect our institutions and live by the tenets appear to be constrained by them.
And @Rex: Please, stop with the defeatist comments. We are most certainly not "done".
Now, would someone with some teeth, some eloquence, and the experience and intellect to know what needs to be done, please, STEP UP.
21
I can't believe people really think the Wall's purpose is to keep Mexicans out. Its real purpose is to keep us in. When Trump decides to declare emergency after emergency, as he is poised to do, declare martial law and start arresting liberals in droves, when he pulls the trigger on turning the US into North Korea, the infrastructure needs to be already in place to keep people from escaping. Whether a wall is also built on the Canadian border, or whether, as is more likely, Trump simply annexes Canada as Hitler did to Austria, the result is still the same. Google and Apple and therefore Homeland Security have all of our data, there are surveillance cameras and GPS trackers everywhere. Once we're walled in, it's probably all over.
2
I would like to see an article about some of the existing National emergencies that have been implemented. It seems to me that if they benefit the US they are ignored or watered down as to mean very little.
Blocking Property of Persons Threatening the Peace, Security, or Stability of Yemen (May 16, 2012)
Blocking Property of Certain Persons and Prohibiting the Export of Certain Goods to Syria (May 11, 2004)
Blocking the Property of Certain Persons Engaging in Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities (April 1, 2015)
Blocking Property of Certain Persons Contributing to the Situation in Ukraine (March 6, 2014)
These are only three of the 30+ items currently on the books.
1
@Gichigami
"four"
1
My question has always been: Why did the Republican party fail to properly vet their candidates in 2016? They could not have chosen or more unqualified candidate. It is very disturbing to encounter so many Americans who support him. Does the USA have any collective character?
2
Trump's relentless assertion of executive power looks like like a warm-up for becoming THE GREATEST DICTATOR EVER.
2
FOX News has developed into the state run media of the GOP as it dominated our 3 branches.
Pres Bill Clinton and the GOP repealed anti monopoly laws for media, passed in the 1930s. FOX then grew across the nation.
FOX might not have become so huge and influential if Dem Clinton had opposed the GOP in the 90s, and stood firm against media monopoly. Then maybe FOX wouldn't be advising Trump today.
There are other big media monopolies, but they don't put out daily lies, and ignore stories that might not fit their views, like FOX does.
Campaign finance is the huge neglected issue working behind the scenes to weaken our democracy.The S. Court's ruling in Citizens United has disunited the country, but has united big money donors into a huge organizational force to turn politics rightward. Most voters and many politicians want to reverse it. Where is the media publicity on this?
We need columns and media pundits to explain the Campaign Finance Reform Act of 1974, public financing and and donor limits. Show how it was weakened, so that ex Pres Jimmy Carter said we veer toward oligarchy, since candidates must now raise millions from mega donors to run for any office.
The media profits from the biggest election cost---paid ads on media, swamping our voters. Some nations ban paid ads in their elections so that special interests can't dominating political discourse.
The Times owes the public some op ed columns discussing this huge issue.
10
The authors correctly point out that Nixon did not want to destroy the government; it's clear that trump either has a treasonous reason for doing so, or he is so ignorant of our history and government that he doesn't care, or doesn't realize what he is doing. Whatever the scenario, the blame goes to the GOP. Trump should not have been allowed to be the nominee, and once in power congress should have acted to restrain this potential destroyer. That they did not makes them complicit in this disaster. So, okay, the dems in congress also abdicated their co-equal power over the years. Awful and I look forward to the book's chronicling of this historic error. That said, they are not trump's partner in the destruction of our norms, culture, laws, government agencies and status in the world. For this, I hope the voters will punish the GOP mightily in 2020. Hard to do with a senate skewed to the minority of americans, and an EC that has failed us twice just in this century. Turnout and monitoring of elections is our only hope.
202
@Karen
I've often argued that Nixon was more principled than Trump and was laughed at.
Very few are laughing now.
15
@Michele K,
You are right. Trump has no principles at all.
12
@karen
Of course the blame goes to the GOP. They have the president and policies, and the judges, they wanted.
9
Well thought out article. However, here is a shock:
Trump supporters don't care about facts or logic, especially the evangelicals & racist. He is their dog and they are sticking with him. He will continue to remain if office unless the republicans can find their way to come to their senses.
I'm not holding my breath. It's very hard for older white males to admit they made a very serious mistake.
18
Kruse and Zelizer say: Mr. Trump failed to secure a signature legislative accomplishment. I say: what about criminal justice reform? Many remain happy he killed TPP and is dead set to end useful military adventures. The rest is either frosting or unfrosting of the cake depending on your slant.
1
If we get out of this presidency alive, a good starting place for limiting executive power is to amend the constitution to elect the Attorney General and to enable the indictment of all elected officers, including the president. While we’re at, mandatory voting on non-workdays would be a nice update as well.
9
It's not only the weakness of this president that we have to contend with -- it's the weakness of the Republican Senate that fails to rein him in.
15
The USA's problem is not overweening government power, presidential or otherwise, but the inability of government to do anything.
A few of the things government can't do:
- Build infrastructure
- Reduce the debt
- Control guns
- Control drugs
- Control the border
- Reform prisons
- Reform health care
- Fix the tax code
- Get out of the Middle East
And the list goes on. The US is sclerotic. Trump won't fix these, nor will anyone else. These will all still be issues when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is as old as Nancy Pelosi. The US is ungovernable.
6
I appreciate the knowledgable article. At least Americans are aware there is a problem. Next door, Canadians have no idea how vulnerable our system is to the emergence of dictatorship. Members of Parliament in truth are representatives of their respective party leaders back to constituents more so than they are practically obliged to stand up for their constituents. If they don't play their leader's game they can forget about having their re-nomination approved. And we have a scandalous section in our constitution which, if you read it, is practically a recipe for a totalitarian state that any leader with a parliamentary majority at his back can invoke. Plus, for a Canadian Prime Minister the power of appointment is essentially unfettered. You Americans are soooo lucky you don't have Canada' s constitution and electoral laws. Meanwhile, naive Canadians tut tut about Trump!! Blindly on the way to some future disaster...
4
"Most important, reforming presidential power will fall on the shoulders of voters. In the end, the most effective check on presidential power is to elect presidents who will exercise their authority with some restraint and respect our democratic institutions."
The voters did NOT elect this president. It's time to stop placing the blame for this administration on the public that voted overwhelmingly for someone else.
Yes, voters can be better informed, more conscientious, and committed to holding power, from county clerk to president, to account. But until a system skewed by gerrymandering, obscene amounts of money, and unequal representation is reformed for 21st century demographics and technology, the shame for the current debacle must be shared with the cynical power brokers who created it.
1
I've thought for some time the presidency was too powerful.
I thought that when President Obama put hundreds of thousands of acres into a 'federal monument' with no input or approval from Congress.
I have thought a number of the wars we have gotten into since WW II were ill-advised, but Congress never was asked about it.
2
@Jim
And I fear for all those thousands of acres of federal lands now at risk under the present administration.
8
Trump has done incalculable harm at home and abroad. He has taken hold of the Republican Party in a way not seen in decades. And, he remains president despite it all. Thus, I’m not sure how anyone can say he is weak.
1
@Mark he is not weak, he is only astronomically stupid, just where mitch mcconnell wants him.
many things have contributed to the disaster called the Trump presidency, but to me, more than any other factor, it is the result of the Supreme Court's highly partisan Citizens United decision, giving most of the political
power in the country to those with the most money and an axe to grind. only campaign finance reform will give us the foundation for preserving democracy. right now, we've just put the country up for sale, and only rhe very richest can afford the price, so they call the shots.
8
Thank you for this read. There is a lot of focus - and rightfully so - on what Trump is doing on a daily basis. But I constantly wonder what is really to stop another person just like Trump from coming into office and repeating this? Men like President Trump are plenty in the world - they just never become presidents. The solutions to prevent this have to be more long-term and systemic - so appreciate this lesson in history.
9
@Farah The theory is (according to David Cay Johnston and the Constitution) that the Electoral College is there to protect our nation from someone like President Trump. No idea what kind of revolution that would have fomented. Maybe the electors could have refused to approve Trump until he released his tax returns.
2
Apparently the authors slept through the 2016 election, so let me give them a recap: Sixty five million Americans showed that they neither know, nor care, about democratic norms. They chose to vote for a fellow angry toddler who promised to smash all the toys of all the girls and non-whites on the playground, then throw them all off said playground.
People with little knowledge of, and no concern for, facts, history, or how government works do not provide checks on the likes of Trump.
41
What these authors and yes, Schumer and Pelosi missed as that the responsibility for the shutdown lies at the moment not with Trump, but with McConnell. By giving Trump a veto prior to a bill even passing, he has installed a dictator in the White House. If a vote were to take place today, enough Republican Senators would pass the House bill, and put the ball squarely in Trump's hands. He might veto it, but the pressure to override that veto would be overwhelming on both sides of the aisle.
10
Government has three independent branches, supposed to work cooperatively while, at the same time, regulate and avoid any excesses committed, say, by the Executive. That Trump is weak goes without saying, otherwise one cannot explain the unhinged lashing- out at the least provocation, and unable to recognize that constructive criticism is a balm to correct course, to prevent mayhem, especially in a democracy. When we say weak, we mean also 'insecure', and in Trump's case,'immature' as well. This combines with his deep ignorance, and the arrogance it gives rise to (by thinking that he 'knows' more than the generals). But this ignorance is by choice, hence, malevolent and intent to do harm...just because he can, out of spite and cruelty. And given he is adamant in ruling by instilling fear and hate and division, he is absolutely unfit for office. Most unfortunately, the presidency itself has been given far too much power...to abuse, due to the dereliction of duty of the Legislative, asleep at the wheel. And that's the rub!
7
I believe your article is extremely shortsighted. The larger problem is the lack of check & balances on Congress, a corpocracy not a democracy, where money & profit takes priority over upholding the Constitution & the needed amendments to the Constitution for a 21st century world. Our president & lawmakers need to be held accountable, expressly defining powers & lack of where liberties have been taken (ie obstructing- advise & consent for Supreme Court Justice nominations), creating definable impeachable powers for Congressional members, expanded qualifications & fitness (experience, intellectual, emotional, mental & physical) to qualify & serve as president & congressional member (prior to running). Much of our problems are due to Congress' unwillingness & inability to do their jobs.--They seek out money making opportunities & money for their campaigns to secure their future. Knowledge of issues doesn't exist. Knowledge on issues needs to be obtained through a coalition of sources. This requires a wholistic approach- not a closed off one. The US believes they invented the wheel with the only solution to every issue. Trump believes he knows everything, Congressional members & backers reiterating the same -when in fact, they know nothing. Now, with an unqualified, intellectually, emotionally, mentally unfit & dangerous president we have had an equally unfit Congress, confirming unfit cabinet members, putting the US, its citizens & the world in danger.
3
Frankly, we wouldn't be in this position if Republicans in congress simply did their jobs, had backbones, had moral compasses and weren't afraid of upsetting Trump's small but rabid base. McConnell is obsessed with the judiciary, because he knows he accomplished little else and will be defined by his destruction -- of norms, of Obama's legacy -- rather than anything that benefited the country. Fortunately, their moderate base has begun to wander away, leaving the most extreme (usually racist) Trump supporters. So with luck the Republican party will either die and be reborn to look more centrist or hypocrites like Lindsey Graham will wake up and remember the oaths they took and stop pandering to a man who is likely headed for serious legal trouble.
Indeed, the "wall" itself is a symbol of weakness and lack of faith in our own government, rather than a projection of national strength.
The wall presents Americans as weak, fearful, and foolish, which is perhaps one reason most citizens and politicians reject the idea: we do not wish to be remade in Donald Trump's image.
5
To look at this as a presidential problem does not quite cut it. I am more inclined to believe that the underling problem, was touched upon. The fact that no one is willing or able, in this arena, to do anything beyond party serving, and or self serving functions,and still expect to have a career.
Here, I believe is the underling issue in our govt today.It can not continue to function in this capacity, it is a destroying nature and will not and can not last. There is no resolve to this self serving self led way of doing business, that in it self must change. I do know this is all for a purpose 21 They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
22 For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
These are passages from Deuteronomy 32 it is the song of Moses. The song that God wanted everyone to be singing at this time. Revelation 15:3 And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. You all might want to start singing!
Total agreement. One of the saddest sites on record; a US President using the oval to herald a trumped-up crisis because two women on his staff, who regularly lie on his behalf, told him to.
With the exception of Richard Nixon's final goodbye, I never saw a president so cowed. He looked like a boy who lost his dog.
At this point, all of his weight is around his waist and jowls.
1
I feel like I'm reading the abstract for what should be an undergraduate textbook.
--Here is how congress abdicated control over the executive branch.
--Here is why partisanship prevents congress from reestablishing authority.
--Here is the role media plays in normalizing a dysfunctional system.
The conclusions and comparisons need strengthening but the meat of the subject is already there. There's one point we should add though. Nixon and Trump are both "imperial" in a manner of conduct. However, Trump is completely inept as a statesman, particularly in foreign policy. Nixon was not.
I do not agree with the manner in which Nixon removed the US from Vietnam. However, you can't say continuing the war was politically viable. Similarly, I don't like the result of Nixon's relationship with China. However, his actions made sense when viewed through a certain contextual prism.
I don't think we can say the same thing about Trump on almost any issue, particularly foreign policy. The emperor is not only naked; he's riding a donkey backwards up a river. The only world where Trump appears "imperially" competent is in the fictional land of make believe presented by media partisans.
Trump is dangerous but he is still incompetent.
2
@Andy Trump's incompetence is his ONLY saving grace.
There is that other branch of government that could help with this situation: the 4th Estate. These authors mention the noxious F(alse)ox network as an influence in the current White House and this so called network is part of the problem. When a large segment of our population is beyond ignorant about the current state of affairs, holding politicians accountable becomes even more treacherous.
A new form of the Fairness Doctrine needs to be established and the lies and propaganda from right wing media need to be called out for the lies and propaganda that they are.
Our form of democracy was the first in the modern world and those that have come since have taken the best of our system and improved it; in many cases.
We elect our presidents in much the same way we elect our beauty pageant winners; based on cuteness, personality, charisma, and emotion. Maybe if our news medias weren't being such cheerleaders for the horse race and the beauty contest our voters would be a bit smarter.
As it is I'm not sure our voters are actually the solution to the current mess.
2
Trump, like many Americans, believes that he can do whatever he wants unless someone catches and stops him, in other words, "It's a free country.". This mentality is problematic and is tantamount to behaving as a scofflaw or criminal.
3
What the problem is is that a backwoods state such as Kentucky has a greater representation in the senate than a populous state like NY. The number of senators should be assigned by a percentage of a states population. Why does Wyoming have two and a state with at least 10 times their population only have two senators?
5
text: to insure low population rural, agricultural states aren't steamrollered by populous, urban, mercantile states. subtect: to insure rich people in the South could maintain slavery despite Northern, urban opposition. our original American sin, and we're not over it yet.
2
"If Mr. Trump invokes emergency power to build a wall, Congress needs to respond by passing legislation that will take back some of the power it granted in 1976."
Perhaps the writers need to be reminded, such legislation would be vetoed by any President, which currently means 17 republican Senators would have to join in overriding the veto.
The popular TV program of several years to "24" ground out episodes where there was an immanent threat to the country, that only swift action, transcend existing constants were approved by a benevolent courageous president. While the scenarios were contrived, highly unlikely, they were not unfeasible, anymore than three fully fueled airplanes could cause the carnage of 9-11-01.
Nixon not only would not bring the country down with him as he faced removal, we forget that when there was strong evidence that he had actually won Illinois and Texas, giving him the Presidency in 1960, he refused to contest it based on the harm it would have done to trust in our democracy.
Contrast this with Trump, who on the night of the election he stated, "I will accept the results, as long as I win" Many considered this a joke. It wasn't
6
@Call Me Al , although Nixon reportedly demanded the full and unlimited pardon, knowing it would doom Ford, and he threatened to unwind and disclose many secrets if he did not receive this pardon, including "the whole Bay of Pigs thing" (supposedly the Nixon administration's code phrase for JFK assassination, according to Haldeman.
It is essential to this purpose of reducing the "Imperial" presidency that the entire Mueller Report is shared with the public. We have financed it and it bears upon our hopes for a genuine and honest democracy. It is important that no article or account be hidden from view by anything called "executive privilege."
11
Impose his will, yes, but not by himself. 20 Republican senators and 53-54 Republican house members can be the start of mending America's partisan divide. Two thirds of the House and Senate, not the President, have the last word on national policy according to executive veto provisions in the US Constitution, Article I, Section 7, Clause 2.
5
Trump's power depends on the support of Senate Republicans. It may be true that Presidents of both "colors" used executive power to pursue issues they deemed important. It is also true that when faced with evidence of abuse of power, the Legislative Branch acted to try and intervene. In the case of 45, numerous egregious acts and lies are being ignored by Mitch and Co. That will only change if enough voters engage.
3
The election of Trump should give us all pause about the way we select candidates to run for the presidency.It is simply not enough to play well in New Hampshire and Iowa.The candidates should be vetted in a serious way.One candidate, Paul Tsongas, was appealing but did not get the nod fortunately because he died from in incurable disease shortly after his run.John Edwards made an impressive run only to end up in Court shortly thereafter.The American presidency is way too important to be nothing but a popularity contest, particularly now when social media can sway large numbers of people and the line between truth and fiction has become blurred.
29
@Janet Michael All true but you make no suggestions on how to fix it. Democrats have super delegates to prevent a solely populist candidate like Trump. But they’re doing away with them because people want to be able to choose who they want - essentially the definition of populism. Of course, that is the reason the Founders required human Electors to choose the President, but most state laws have negated that (illegally IMO), so they voted for Trump even if they knew better.
1
@Janet Michael "The line between truth and fiction has become blurred."
Actually that line is there and is as clear (or not) as it has ever been.
The problem is that the ability of the under-educated ill-informed non-critical segment of the population cannot discern it.
Festering as it stands, this surely will engender our ultimate comeuppance; DEATH.
Have a nice day. Uh-huh, you betcha.
1
the purpose of the Electors was to offset a largely drunk and illiterate popular vote that could go against the interests of the mainly upper crust and highly educated framers, who talked a good line but meant their noble principles to protect the interests of white, Christian, property owning Englishmen... and mainly to protect the institution of slavery without which there could be no union powerful enough to contest the Crown.
2
The reality that voters have accepted is that presidential candidates may present one face to get elected and another one after they take office. I believe many Trump voters truly thought that Trump would become presidential after being inaugurated.
Given this how can we the voters be absolutely positive that our next president will restore order and respect to the office instead of hanging on to the destruction of norms by Trump and also govern by chaos? Whether we put America's house back in order or not depends as much on the character and intention of the person we elect as it does the voters' choice of that person. The American people have become used to campaign promises being literally campaign promises not promises fulfilled upon taking office. Regions of the United States vary greatly. The people of one state care about entirely different issues and demand entirely different promises than the people of another state.
America is vast in size and differences. We are alike in ways but we are seeing the destruction that a president who is willing to exploit those differences can cause.
Do we need an entirely new system of government that is more responsive and does not put the hopes and dreams of so many different people's into one person? I don't know but I do know that we need those who represent us right now to make sure Trump is held accountable for every sin he commits against our country and to put our norms into the form of law.
10
While Donald Trump was campaigning for president, Frank Rich published a clever essay in New York Magazine, titled "Donald J. Trump is Saving American Democracy." Trump, he wrote was exposing the many flaws in our government and politics. For all his flaws, Trump has revealed that our government is broken, that our campaigns are a corrupt farce, that our parties care about winning, rather than about democracy, and that voters are susceptible to demagoguery. The question is this: What, if anything, are we going to do to fix these problems?
43
@Chris Rasmussen He has also brought to the fore the deep flaws in our Constitution, not just the Electoral College, but particularly the disproportionate power given to rural regions that are unrepresentative of the nation. The problem is these flaws seem impossible to fix, given that the consent of those unfairly advantaged would be needed.
27
@Robert Hall The problem is not just the distribution of electoral votes, but state laws (that are unconstitutional, IMO) that prevent electors from exercising their Constitutional duty to prevent the election of a crazy man.
5
When Congress is not doing his legislative work, two things could happen:
1)President legislates by Executive Order; and
2)the Courts including the Supreme Court legislate from the bench.
Also, since the end of World War II, the Congress delegates his power of peace and war to the President through resolutions, the most celebrate one being the Gulf of Tonkin resolution of 1964. Some of them are still valid today and could lead the USA in war. In 1955, the Congress adopted the Formosa Resolution which gave the power to the President of using force against any agression or threath of the People Republic of China against the Republic of China (Taiwan). So in 2019, President Trump can and may go to war against the PRC without the permission of Congress by using the Formosa Resolution.
1
@Wilbray Thiffault Short of nuclear weapons that is not going to happen. And, nuclear weapons would be suicide for mankind.
I believe multiple Constitutional amendments are needed to restrain the presidency, the current scope of which would never have been tolerated by the Founders. Trump will not be the last one like him.
32
The authors provide a cogent summary of presidential power in the US. And they end with the recommendation that it’s up to voters to ensure that presidential power is reformed.
I’m not a historian but I realize that recently there have been questions about the wisdom of a “presidential system” of government, as opposed to a parliamentary form of government for example. Apparently presidential systems have inherent flaws and we seem to have followed that trajectory to our peril, just as has happened with other presidential systems.
This leads to the question: Will we try to patch up the problems of our presidential system? Or will we look at the research and consider that changing to a parliamentary form of government might be the wisest way of checking the power of someone at the pinnacle of government?
A Prime Minister, for example, is chosen from among the already sitting members of the parliament. That guarantees that the chosen leader has government experience and a track record of holding leadership posts within the party. We lack such guarantees!
A Prime Minister, for another example, can be removed. Through a vote of “no confidence” - very quickly, without the necessity of impeachment. We lack such a method!
I know it may seem heretical to propose that we question our very form of government. But I’m a Voter. The writers propose that it’s up to voters to ensure that presidential power is checked. Why have presidents at all, when they are so risky?
19
@TheraP
This is a very important post. I moved to Canada for work nearly a decade ago. I knew the US system well, but admittedly was a bit sketchy on how a parliamentary democracy as we have in Canada works. So I picked up an excellent book called "The Canadian Regime" by Patrick Malcolmson and Richard Myers. The preface and first chapter make interesting comparisons between the US system—with its separation of powers and checks and balances—and the Canadian system, which fuses legislative and executive power and emphasizes responsive and accountable government. I admit that as an American I was unconvinced. If the legislature and executive are fused won't the government become too powerful? Doesn't separation of powers protect liberty and prevent tyranny? Over the past decade, experience has taught me that the American in me was wrong. The parliamentary system is better. The reason is simple. When the executive and legislature are separate, the executive is a king in his own domain and, particularly in a large government, that domain will expand and dominate. The regulatory state dominates the legislative. Also when government is divided, there is no clear accountability. House blames Senate and both blame the President. Who is in control is never clear. In a parliamentary system, the government is the government. If it fails, you vote it all out and vote in a whole new one. I now believe fused powers are better than separate—and presidential systems tend toward autocracy.
11
@617to416
Prime Minister McConnell.
@Betobacker
After the last election, it would be Prime Minister Pelosi. Has a nice ring to it, no?
I think that this terrible experience will force Congress to address this issue. No-one in this country should have unlimited power. Of course the President needs to act quickly in true emergency. The problem of course is defining a "real emergency". Wanting to stoke one's own ego and play to his base is not an emergency, maybe to President Trump, but not to our Nation.
I was a young adult during the Watergate era. That was scary enough, this is so over the top, that there are no words to even describe the trauma this Nation is living through. It's time for Congress to act.
36
@wolf201
I hope you are right, but it doesn't seem that the Senate (I won't tar the whole of Congress) has seen fit to do anything yet, so...
Formula for improved (vastly) checks and balances:
1. Reverse Citizens United
2. Eliminate lobbyists
3. Align senatorial allocations with population
4. Divide congressional districts evenly among population (make "gerrymandering" useless)
5. Eliminate the electoral college
A Trump will never happen again.
109
@Jason Vanrell
You are taking the republicans power away from them. Can you offer anything in return?
@Jason Vanrell
#2 will never, ever happen. I would love to see states divided into 2 groups with the top ten states (or 20% to allow for an 11th to be added if we ever added 5 more states) by population receiving a 3rd Senator. It would move the Senate to 110 and shift the dynamics significantly without eliminating the intent of the founders (however badly motivated with slavery in mind) that small states and large ones have relatively equality in the Senate. It would preserve the House as the directly proportionate body and the Senate as the one representative of the states. This would also have the desirable effect of states being interested in competing for residents.
3
@Jason Vanrell kudos on your list, every one needing to be reversed, starting with the electoral college.
Congress has no one to blame but themselves for this. Not only have they passed the slew of 1970's laws listed, but have given away ever more power to the Executive Branch by delegating one authority after another to the president and to unelected secretaries and bureaucrats. We, the citizenry, are paying the price.
Often this is due to Congress not wanting to take an actual stand and be the "bad guy", or, often, the adult. Better to hold hearings that go no where on things like sports or social media, huff and puff, and then move on to the next photo-op. Or to make laws with someone's name on it that duplicates state statutes, doing nothing more than engaging in "look at what we did for you" grandstanding.
Yes, in theory the branches are co-equal, but by design, actually, Congress is the more powerful. Consider - the president, despite all the bluff and bravado, cannot really order them to do much of anything (much to the frustration of Trump or Obama with his "Congress won't act (i.e, do what i say"); the president can't remove a judge or any member of Congress - but THEY can impeach the president or any senior official, deny the president the approval of his own cabinet members, reject treaties, limit the jurisdiction of the courts.
It's about time for Congress to step up and regain more control of the government before its too late. Far too much power has been given to the presidency, who is treated like a monarch.
23
"Most important, reforming presidential power will fall on the shoulders of voters. In the end, the most effective check on presidential power is to elect presidents who will exercise their authority with some restraint and respect our democratic institutions. That is the choice voters will have in 2020."
This is the essence of a solution to the Trumpian trampling of democratic norms. It will always be difficult to legislate controls on political leaders in any position of power who seek to advance only their own interests and whims rather than those they are chosen to govern. Hence the overriding importance of character, morality, empathy, and intellect in selection of those who would serve as our leaders. On those qualifications our current President is found sadly lacking. Unfortunately there are others we have elected or chosen in positions of power who are also lacking. Certainly there are many quality and dedicated individuals in the field of public service, but voters and their elected leaders choosing public servants will not always make the best choices. When events and outcomes reveal poor choices the best remedy is to replace those underperforming with more competent and appropriate choices. The best, but not only way to accomplish this is through the ballot box. Let us all commit to exercise this remedy in the 2020 elections while also being open to an impeachment process should revealed evidence and circumstances warrant.
9
@BruceC
Good in theory, but as we have seen first with Obama and now with Trump, people only object when it isn't "their guy" that is taking too much power. Not many Democrats objected to Obama's "if Congress won't act" line, as if there is some clause in the constitution that allowed the president to assume the duties of the legislature when they "won't act" (real translation, they won't do what he wants) and rule by executive decree.
1
@George S, I agree with you to a point. At least the Dems knew Obama was not nuts, ignorant of our form of government, and a grifter determined to make money off the presidency while in office. Trump?
3
"In the end, the most effective check on presidential power is to elect presidents who will exercise their authority with some restraint and respect our democratic institutions".
The ballot box is not just an 'effective check'. It is the ONLY way to thwart an imperial presidency.
286
@Karl Gauss
Congress has abdicated its Constitutional powers, particularly the power to declare war, which the Founders were very careful to deny the President. The current emergency powers of the President are part of this, as he is given authority to respond to terrorist attacks. People must be elected to Congress who are willing to take back its Constitutional powers.
121
@skeptonomist
He didn't look "feeble" last night. Trump made Chuck and Nancy look like two worried parents waiting for their teenage daughter who missed curfew.
2
@Frank Leibold
More like the aunt and uncle--the GOP of McConnell and Ann Coulter being the parents--of a troubled teen who may need to be institutionalized because he is a danger to himself and others. Tough to know what to do with the young man as he has power to do things but has little insight into how to use it pro-socially.
38
This Trump shutdown could conclude today if republican Mitch McConnell gave a darn about our country. But he won't bring up a vote in case it doesn't pass... what a coward. The senate voice voted on a budget resolution in December and it passed almost unanimously. The Democrats have brought that same exact bill to the House floor for a vote and it passed last week. Maybe since McConnell has only passed a few bills in his many years of leadership, he doesn't realize that the congress is supposed to be an equally important part of government function. Congress could pass the budget today, send it to Trump to sign. When he refuses there are certainly enough votes to override his veto. It is time to stop letting this spoiled rotten baby president have his way. He cares nothing about our country, only himself. If he had any compassion a million families would not be looking at a missed paycheck right after the holidays. This is a republican problem and they darn well better fix it soon or they will be gone after the 2020 elections.
67
@Mary Dalrymple
This from the OpEd piece highlighted this problem for me:
"Since the 1970s, Democrats and Republicans have sorted themselves by party, with less room for internal dissent and less of a will to criticize or challenge a president from one’s own party."
My high school government teacher taught us that Russia had a two-chamber legislature just like ours, but the Communist Party rendered them irrelevant by imposing party discipline on elected members.
Our founding fathers worried that "factions" (political parties) could override the checks and balances in the same way.
8
@Mary Dalrymple. McConnell isn’t a coward. He is a traitor to the Constitution and to the nation’s voters on more than one occasion. However, he is loyal to a fault to corporate America, his political party and to extreme right wing Evangelicals anxious to get a God-preferred federal court system.
12
We don't need to be completely Trump-obsessed, but we do need to be Trump-concerned. While praising the intelligence of the American electorate, Trump secretly knows that they can be led around like bulls with nose rings - only instead of bullrings, he uses their beliefs and prejudices to lead them wherever he wants.
If DJT doesn't destroy our fragile democracy, he has published the blueprint and playbook for some other demagogue to do it later. If a democracy like America's is going to exist, there will have to be a paradigm shift in human thought throughout the world.
In the near future, we will program the human mind in the computer based on a linguistic "survival" algorithm, which will provide irrefutable proof as to how we trick the mind with our ridiculous beliefs about what is supposed to survive - producing minds programmed de facto for destruction. These minds see the survival of a particular belief as more important than the survival of all. When we understand this, we will begin the long trek back to reason and sanity.
See RevolutionOfReason.com
7
The Congress needs to keep repeating “ We are a CO-EQUAL branch of government!”
End the shutdown now. After ending that emergency for 800,000 Americans, you can negotiate anything you want.
Just end the idiotic shutdown.
23
Republicans thought they could bend Trump to their will, once he got installed in the Oval Office. They didn’t realize that Coulter, Hannity, Dobbs and Miller would be calling the shots. It took a while because Trump had individual people to slime, but now the entire Republican Party is being revealed for what it is - a corrupt, money-grubbing, bigoted, sexist and ammoral bunch of White guys wanting to run the country in such a way that they and their donor class will emerge enriched.
Eventually, every single person who has allied themselves with Trump will be degraded. You can’t rein in crazy. Let’s hope there’s a way that we can rid ourselves of this monstrous man before he ruins everything good about America. Only then can we begin the long road back to making America great again.
14
I fear it is too late to save our Democracy. The corporate takeover of ever facet in our lives including controlling the media, the corporate buying off of politicians, dark money in politics, voter suppression, fomenting divisiveness in our society, a public consumed by paranoia and conspiracy theories, high levels of hate for the other, stacking of illegal conservative justices, fake social media posts,a decimated education system and health care, infrastructure collapse, endless unfunded and unapproved wars, rigged voting and the list goes on. How in the world are we to overcome this? If our people are too stupid and too distracted to participate, how can we overcome these tremendous obstacles?
12
The main problem is not presidential power. The compromise on slavery required to pass the Constitution gave us an electoral college and the brutal clause "that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate."
This design, in a country in which population differences between states are become enormous, mandates increased minority rule of the country.The majority party in the senate, which appoints the judicial third branch, is controlled by a minority of voters. In a few decades 30% of voters will control 70% of the senate votes and slightly more than 20% will constitute a senate majority.
Creating some population input to provide large states additional senators requires small states to cede individual power. Unlikely. Perhaps they might under threat of large states dividing or become more amenable when Texas and Florida become reliably Blue. Statehood for Puerto Rico would mitigate Republican rule.
Perhaps D.C. should redefine itself as solely the grounds of the White House, Congress and Court and the balance of the District petition to become a state, "The District." It is absurd to have four senate votes for two Dakotas and none for D.C.
I suspect the arch-villain McConnell's interest in stacking courts is less about curtailing abortion rights or insuring Republican dogma than it is about preserving the gerrymandering, voter suppression and other tactics used by the Republicans to protect their minority power.
50
@JT. Don’t kid yourself. McConnell is concerned mostly about maintaining and expanding corporate and business rights, what used to be called “property rights” by the Founders. This happens to coincide with doctrinaire Right wing Christian goals and whenever possible that is what he has acted for.
3
Trump's woeful inadequacy will damage our nation for many years, but the real problem was there before Trump and will be with us after Trump. The crisis in America is not the southern border, but the ~40% of Americans who still support Trump after clear evidence that he is an unworthy president and an awful human being. When Trump is gone, we'll still have the challenge of educating our fellow citizens and improving our culture so that a substantial minority does not believe that lying, cheating and racism comprise the American way of life.
24
This is what the Electoral College and the Trump University mentality and mendacity have wrought. With the help and exploitation by the clever Russians.
One person, one vote: Let's get back to the program.
We would not be in this cesspool of corruption and incompetence if the fallacious Electoral College premise had been addressed long ago.
There is a will, and there is a way. But are there any leaders to replace the geriatric stiffs in the equally outdated Senate.
24
What is needed is a less partisan and stronger Congress. The presidency should be a mostly ceremonial post, with little real power. He/she should be just a figurehead. We're seeing what can happen when a president is allowed to operate unrestrained. The founders couldn't have ever imagined that a man as ignorant, as uninterested and as self-involved would ever be president. They assumed that every president would be a patriot, self-serving and more dedicated to the nation than to his own fortunes and his own neediness. Then never thought someone as corrupt as Trump would ever be elected. We should start by changing the electoral college, and by taking power from the presidency. Leaving power in the hands of just one person is dangerous.
11
@Ms. Pea
They assumed that every president would be a patriot, self-serving and more dedicated to the nation than to his own fortunes and his own neediness.
Not self-serving, self-abnegating.
Just saying..........
The title, "...Trump's Weakness Masks The President's Power," may be backwards.
The power of the office masks the insufficiency, the less-than-mediocre intellect, the deficit of empathy and ultimate failure which marks Trump, the person.
16
"Mr. Trump has revealed that when a president is willing to cross what seemed to be clear lines, no one is there to hold him back"
Not quite. What Mr. Trump has revealed is how corrupt, unpatriotic, and cowardly the GOP controlled congress is.
81
@Felix
I fear it is partly the Russian controlled congress.
1
Republican congress people and Republican and conservative voters are Trump's enablers and accomplices. Had the first group not relinquish their decency, honor and integrity in order to accomplish the agenda of their wealthy donors and had not the second group put their lowest instincts of racism and xenophobia ahead of plain and simple human decency, we would not be here. Trump is not the sickness, he is the symptom that has brought to the attention of the world the sickness the Republican party and the conservative movements really are.
14
In part an imperial presidency stems from the flawed hypocritical Electoral College, on its face a rebuke to tyrannical populism but in reality an aristo ploy to let slave-owning founders retain their slaves. Nixon dressing out his Marine guard like Brits at the Palace points in the direction of Trump’s military parade and a repeat of the gratitude of his cabinet for being invited to deep six their careers, as if Trump never watched a replay of the first go round that looked like a police state gathering and was as vocally disturbing as fingernails on a blackboard. Trump has spent his life behind a wall of his father’s making, bankrupting six times to the tune of nine or ten billion dollars and yet calling himself a deal maker. His life is scripted as are those of his offspring and now the people who suffer in his administration and in the world he can neither comprehend nor control. Wealth has spared him the truth about himself but now wealth has nothing to do with his fate except how much of it he will squander trying to avoid prison for himself and his brood. That he could have nominated a horse to a Federal bench without curling McConnell’s long pasty lip doesn’t mean he can escape the laws the horse would have to adjudicate in the end. The end is nigh, brethren!
11
Dance around it all you want. This "president" is seriously unhinged. Editorials by anonymous ! The amount of solid experienced people jumping ship in droves. His negative and derogatory comments about all our systems of checks and balances . The wheels are coming off the bus. Is he unstable? Obviously he is. 25 amendment is made for situations exactly like this. Get him out before it's to late.
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Time and time again, I am finding myself going back to the partners in crime, so to speak, of this most unfit, unhinged, and imperialistic president. Ross has just presented us with a recent history of what should be the checks and balances of an executive branch gone amok. Yes, it is Congress, the equally important and most necessary legislative branch of our government. But we are finding that our present Republican Senate is both weak-spirited and devoid of a moral compass. In other words, Mich McConnell and his colleagues are as guilty as their boss in the unconscionable acts and threats spewing from Trump’s stained and lost soul. I would dare say that this present GOP group is even more responsible for our ills and democratic injustices. Why? It is because they still have semblances of intact and sane minds. Trump is lost within himself. His psyche is irreparably delusional and irrational. This is a bleak paradigm indeed. Yet, we still have the power to save our goverment. WE can do it with our voices and our ballots. WE must do it.
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Lord Acton:
"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
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"True, Mr. Trump has not been able to run roughshod over Congress..."
Well for the first two years of his administration the President my observation was, President Trump not only ran roughshod over the Republican Congress, he had them worshiping his actions so as not to lose favor with their constituents. Trump owns the Republican Party, we saw that in the midterms, almost any Republican he opposed was not elected to the House or Senate.
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I disagree with two contentions in this op-ed essay. 1. Arthur Schlesinger began work on The Imperial Presidency before the Watergate Scandal engulfed the Nixon administration, and published the book in 1973, a year ahead of Nixon's resignation. Schlesinger's thesis was that the presidency had grown so powerful that it had undone the constitutional system of checks and balances. Many factors contributed to the presidency's undue power, but the main factor was the Cold War, which led to concentraion of too much power (much of it secretive and shielded from public or even Congressional oversight) in the Oval Office.
2. I disagree with the authors' contention that Congress seriously limited the president's power in the wake of the Vietnam War and Watergate. Yes, Congress passed the War Powers Resolution and other measures, but, despite these laws, the presidency's power has grown steadily, principally because Congress has abdicated its own power. Congress has too often allowed presidents to wage war. Congress and voters look to the White House to set a legislative agenda, when Congress ought to be the nation's lawmaker. I will agree with the authors' declaration that voters and members of Congress need to restore our Madisonian system of checks and balances. The president's power needs to be substantially diminished.
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The notion of an enfeebled or weakened President of the United States is delusionally foolish and ludicrous.
America has 5% of humanity and 25% of nominal GDP.. Along with an American military that is as expensive and powerful as the next eight nations combined including 10x Russia and 3x China. America has 25% of the world's prisoners. America has more allies and alliances than any other nation.
Thanks to the Electoral College buried deeply in our Constitution we have one and only Article II executive office President of the United States. Despite the fact that a majority of Americans did not vote for Donald Trump in 2016. In our divided limited power constitutional republic of united states votes cast in one state do not count nor matter in any other state.
The President of the United States is nominally the only official who represents all Americans. And under the neo-conservative unitary executive theory the President is the Executive Branch without constraint from within or without that branch.
Trump has a majority in the Senate and on the Supreme Court the two most undemocratic branches of our government. Every state has two Senators from Wyoming with a half a million people to California with 39. 5 million folks. And Senators serve staggered six year terms while Supreme Court Justices serve for a lifetime and good behavior. Removing them the farthest from democratic control and oversight from within our republic.
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I wish, when people point out what Congress needs to do, they would note the difference between the Democratic Congress and the Republican congress. They are not two sides of a coin, or even on a line stretching from left to right. They are completely different animals, predator and prey. The Republican Party has been acting in bad faith for a long long time and now here we are.
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"In the end, the most effective check on presidential power is to elect presidents who will exercise their authority with some restraint and respect our democratic institutions. That is the choice voters will have in 2020."
If you're implying Donkeyparty candidates fit those criteria, that's quite inaccurate.
1
@asdfj This Elephant Party president has proven without a doubt that he does not fit those criteria. That's quite accurate.
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@Felix
True, but irrelevant...
The "imperial presidency" got its start with the four most progressive presidents of the 20th century: Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, FDR, and Lyndon Johnson. They expanded the ambit and the power of the office enormously.
In the late 19th century, Wilson wrote a Phd dissertation called Congressional Government, in which he argued that the Congress is too unwieldy to manage and direct the complicated domestic and foreign affairs of the United States. With Teddy Roosevelt and Wilson as presidents, more and more responsibilities and power devolved on to the presidency. The powers of the branches are now out of balance. The United States needs to return part way to the era of "Congressional Government".
14
It is wrong to say "Republicans have done much in the same vein." Republicans have not acted as Democrats have; they're destroying our entire system of government. Trump may be a weak president, but the First Branch of Government under the G.O.P. has been destroying American democracy.
To pretend that this is about things like "strict voter-ID laws" (nothing but a euphemism for blatant voter suppression) is preposterous. It ignores what Mitch McConnell and Republicans in Congress have done; stealing Merrick Garland's seat being just one example. It ignores what the G.O.P. just did in North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Michigan where a weak president was entirely irrelevant. A powerful, anti-Democratic, authoritarian G.O.P. effected a series of coups, negated election results, stripped all newly elected Democratic officials, including Governors, of power lawfully vested in them, all to maintain G.O.P. minority rule.
In Federalist 51, James Madison extolled checks and balances so as to protect our republic, but even the Founding Fathers never envisioned legislators as venal as Mitch McConnell and New Gingrich. Republicans should have asserted the authority of the First Branch of government and exerted vigorous Congressional oversight of the Executive Branch. Instead Congressional Republicans did everything to protect Trump despite his pervasive criminality and daily destruction of our republic. Congressional Republicans, not Trump, are the true threat to American democracy.
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Madison also warned that ".......an enlightened staesman will not always be at the helm......" Our governmental design was intended to weather such a circumstance, but DJT is truly giving Madison's assertion a run for its money!
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@peterv
Madison likely was not familiar with our term "redundant systems", which applies here because we have a tripartite collapse: a crook and as traitor in the White House: a corrupt self-aggrandizing political bully running the Senate, and recent history of procedural rulings designed explicitly to eliminate democracy from the workings of Congress.
All those 'checks and balances' designed into the system are literally worthless at the moment.
The final bulwark of American government, proud standard bearer for fairness and justice has happily turned itself into a cesspit of partisan privilege and obeisance to the wealthy and the corporate.
The wealthy and the corporate are stunned into stupidity by there own magnificence. Not one of them has the brains to realize they betray the country that made their fortunes possible. Because not one of them concedes they owe anything to anybody else.
We are naked before the world, here, and we need to get dressed in rather a hurry if we are to survive.
16
Wonderful column. My copy of the book co authored by these historians arrived yesterday and I am looking forward to diving in.
Despite the many tears I have shed since the early morning of November 9, 2016, I remain an optimist. I have been inspired by my fellow citizens, who have swung into action, in ways big and small, to preserve our democracy: marching, volunteering, demanding change from elected officials, campaigning for candidates they admire, and running for office. Most importantly, in the 2018 midterms, turnout was the best it had been in almost 100 years. All of a sudden, gerrymandering, voting rights, and voter suppression are topics that people are engaged about.
Sometimes, it does take a crisis to galvanize us. I’ll grant him that, Donald has done it in spades. The old devil can sniff out every flaw in the system and he has no compunction about personally gaining from every one. Imperial and greedy.
Let’s start with HR-1. Get it passed and start reforming these institutions. Let’s look at the Presidency, Congress, and while we’re at it SCOTUS. A golden age of good governance may lie ahead.
In our lifetimes, there are people who were killed because they dared to exercise their right to protest or to vote. We should not let that be in vain or forgotten.
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I think the basic problem is that republicans do not believe in democracy.
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@hddvt. They don’t believe in governing either. The proof? In two years all they’ve managed to pass is a Tax Cut Bill and install a beer loving judge on the Court.
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@hddvt They believe in oligarchy or even kakistocracy--government by the worst, so anyone who wants to do evil can get away with it without any consequences, legal or otherwise.
How compromised is the entire GOP with Russian money, either directly, or via the NRA? I'm afraid it is quite a lot.
14
Yes, they would pretty easily tell you that. Modern day Tories yearning for a king.
The problem is not Presidential power.
The problem is the comprehensive rejection of democracy and the will of the people by the very radical Republican Party.
The flourishing of Jim Crow voter ID suppression laws in the 21st century....the rampant unsupervised purging of central voter files...the criminal and unConstitutional gerrymander...the use of unaudited black-box-voting machines....the slave-state-inspired Electoral College....the thoroughly undemocratic and unrepresentative Senate...the perverted legalization of 0.1% moneyed political speech....the 2016 McConnell suspension of the Constitution to rig the court radically rightward...and the refusal of the Republican Party to engage in bipartisanship....and 50 different sets of murky, corrupted voting rules....all of these issues compound to deliver a right-wing overthrow of the USA by a political criminal syndicate whose sensibilities are much more Putinesque than Jeffersonian.
The problem is much broader.
Not only is Trump illegitimate, the Senate and the Supreme Court are also illegitimate, and so is our entire electoral process which has elevated an entire party of unindicted co-conspirators into office.
Republicans can't stand representative government or the will of the people.
They need to be removed from every elected office in 2020 with an epic voter registration and voter turnout effort.
America requires a radical voting revolution to fix the Republican rot and corruption in this hijacked country.
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@Socrates The problem is, as you state, much broader. At the risk of sounding conspiratorial, there is actually a consistent theme running through all of the GOP's actions that are whittling away at the fabric of our society in ways that most people just don't realize. Check this out: https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/meet-the-economist-behind-the-one-percents-stealth-takeover-of-america?fbclid=IwAR2EyopUy2vhLLklzYiRN6dMz7LLPuJ10ztUg5Ttnvec2TttpG_-0rnNcrk
There was a time in which voters would split their votes with the idea that by so doing it would somehow keep the other side in check. The article in this link should convince anyone that this is not a good idea at all. The article shows that the rot needs to be removed at a much more basic level.
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@asdfj
If the shoe fits!
(BTW-- with global warming-- the sky is, actually, falling)
12
@asdfj Welcome to the cadre of the staunch supporters of a past criminal President, Richard Nixon, who despite overwhelming evidence, stuck with him to the bitter end. Is authoritarian rule really that desirable?
15
If only to have Nixon back. A man who “would not try to take down the government to save himself.”
Excellent article. Thank you.
13
The article says, "Mr. Trump has illustrated that even a feeble commander in chief can impose his will on the nation if he lacks any sense of restraint or respect for political norms and guardrails."
This is not an isolated circumstance. There has been a 40+ year hostile financial takeover of OUR governments by the Koch brothers, Grover Norqiust and their brethren. Their plan is finally coming to fruition - they have managed to buy OUR U.S. Senate - especially democracy-destroying Traitor Mitch McConnell - until the elections in November OUR U.S. House, OUR white house and OUR U.S. Supreme Court.
They have managed to put us in Constitutional Crisis.
WE THE PEOPLE are the only ones who can/will stop them and save OUR United States of America and preserve the lifestyle we have enjoyed since WWII.
They would destroy it all. People in power in politics, law and OUR military, in concert with average Americans, MUST stop them NOW.
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@njglea
I wouldn't count on the military. It is true that the military can act as a final check on the road to authoritarianism. A recent example is the opposition to Erdegan in Turkey. Unfortunately, the involvement of the military in politics is effectively the end of democracy—irrespective of its success. So let's hope it never gets that far.
44
You are right, EvdM, if the military acted alone. It would become a military coup, which is not democratic. I am suggesting that powerful people in every category join forces to oust The Con Don.
19
@njglea
Here's a emerging "liberal" narrative: the Republicans have overthrown democracy; therefore, democratically inclined Americans can legitimately call for an overthrow of the current Republican hegemony by non-democratic means -- for example, a military coup. It'll be interesting to see how much traction this point of view achieves in the months to come. Its emergence comes as no surprise to those of us who noted how willing soi-disant liberals were to make excuses for the authoritarian demeanor of the Obama administration.
1
“Even with his party in control of the White House and Congress for two years, beyond a typical Republican tax cut, [the president] failed to secure a signature legislative accomplishment”.
Yes, the public doesn’t want a border wall but his supporters do, and that is the problem. Since his inauguration, this president has governed with only his base in mind, perhaps 35-40% of American voters, while snubbing the rest of them. Perhaps it’s his way of getting even with them for having lost the popular vote which remains a huge burr under his saddle.
This “imperial presidency” is fueled by the president’s resentment, with a huge dose of nationalism.
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@silver vibes
Sadly, this sort of continued strengthening of the bonds of affection--though not expansion--of his base may be an effective way to be reelected. If you combine his 38% with the number of people who simply won't vote for a Democrat or could be easily swayed to believe that any Republican is a better bet than a Democrat, one can envision a path to an electoral college win in 2020. The hard part is getting the MAGA people to the ballot box (many hadn't voted in recent presidential elections) and his doubling down on his ridiculous campaign rhetoric will ensure they show up for him in November '20.
2
Trump is facing a crises of his own. For 2 years he ruled as an Autocrat. He ran America just as he ran his businesses with himself always having the last word. But the American people pulled a fast one on him and he doesn't know what to do. He is no longer an Autocrat and it's a shock to his system, the House now has a democratic majority, and doesn't have to do anything it doesn't want to do, he is also finding out that the House has a lot of say so concerning the budget and a host of other things, and Trump big baby that he is doesn't like this. he actually has to listen to other people now, people who do not have to agree with him. The fact that many of these people are female, minority and young is another big problem. Also, it's pretty clear that a recession will be in full force just around the time of the 2020 election, and many of his economic policies, like his economic war with China will come back to haunt him. He is already heading to a Trillion dollar federal budget deficit, and there is not going to be much money lying around to solve the myriad of problems that are going to rise. Trump is holding on by a thin string hoping the stock market doesn't desert him, hoping jobs continue to grow. He really doesn't know what he's doing, and he's hoping the voters don't catch on.
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@Lonnie
Except that America hasn't pulled a fast one on Trump - it is he who has pulled a fast one on all of you.
2