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I came across this article earlier today and decided it might make an interesting discussion.
Further:
We see examples of this every day on DP. We frequently imply all the President has to do is wave his hand or flip a switch and whatever he wants done will magically occur. The reality is far more complex. First off the Constitution is pretty clear on how the Founders thought things should run; the Powers of the President and Congress are pretty well delineated (or "enumerated". And after over two hundred years those lines are pretty blurry.
To accomplish most things the President has to work with Congress - half of which didn't want him to get the job. He's the Command in Chief of the military but requires agreement with Congress (in most cases) to employ it; he annually prepares a budget which Congress typically ignores.
Anyway, the link makes some interesting observations - maybe even some worthy of discussion.
Neither Left nor Right sees the president as the Framers saw him: a constitutionally constrained chief executive with an important, but limited job: to defend the country when attacked, check Congress when it violates the Constitution, enforce the law—and little else. Today, for conservatives as well as liberals, it is the president’s job to protect us from harm, to ‘grow the economy,’ to spread democracy and American ideals abroad, and even to heal spiritual malaise…
Further:
Healy notes that few people, “find anything amiss in the notion that it is the president’s duty to solve all large national problems and to unite us all in the service of a higher calling.” Like fish that do not notice the water they swim in, “The vision of the president as national guardian and redeemer is so ubiquitous that it goes unnoticed.”
The “vision of the president as national guardian,” Healy argues, is not “appropriate for a self-governing republic” or a “limited, constitutional government.”
We see examples of this every day on DP. We frequently imply all the President has to do is wave his hand or flip a switch and whatever he wants done will magically occur. The reality is far more complex. First off the Constitution is pretty clear on how the Founders thought things should run; the Powers of the President and Congress are pretty well delineated (or "enumerated". And after over two hundred years those lines are pretty blurry.
To accomplish most things the President has to work with Congress - half of which didn't want him to get the job. He's the Command in Chief of the military but requires agreement with Congress (in most cases) to employ it; he annually prepares a budget which Congress typically ignores.
Anyway, the link makes some interesting observations - maybe even some worthy of discussion.