Jack wrote this in September, 2005:
The framers of the US Constitution knew all about kings.
That’s the reason when they created the job of president, they were careful to studiously limit his powers, making it so almost anything he did required the consent of the US Congress.
The Constitution of the US gives the President the power to pass, or veto acts passed by Congress, with the caveat that Congress can over-ride his veto.
The Constitution makes him the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. He’s allowed to make war, provided a declaration of war has been passed by Congress.
He owns the diplomatic corps and gets to appoint judges and cabinet members, but only with the advice and consent of Congress.
Otherwise, the framers didn’t allow the president to do much of anything.
They didn’t want a king. They knew perfectly well what kings, dictators emperors, and presidents behaving as any of the above were capable of doing.
Today, Americans have come the full circle.
While the dictators have mostly been stripped of their powers all over the world, while the monarchs are eunich figureheads, while the emporers have all fallen into the wastebins of history, Americans are demanding, absolutely begging for the American president to become a king, (or remain one) and continue ignoring the limits of the office established by the US Constitution.
This hurricane disaster is a glowing example of Americans once more demanding that their president act as a king, or emperor.
The people who are whining and complaining aren’t, as they should be, demanding that the president act precisely in accordance with the requirements of the Constitution. They are screaming hatred at him because he’s not behaving the way they fanaticize some king they’d prefer from another political party might behave, given the opportunity.
I don’t like this guy. He’s already performing plenty well enough like a king to overly satisfy my needs and desires. The people who are demanding he become a monarch wouldn’t like him better if he was more like one, either.
And there’s cause to doubt any of us would like a king from the other party any better, comes to that.
This country doesn’t need a king. It doesn’t even need a president. The machinery of government is so entrenched the country would go on operating business as usual indefinitely, were he to simply vanish.
The only people who would miss him, miss the office are the king worshipers and the media.
The framers of the US Constitution knew all about kings and king worshipers.
Jack
So Far From Heaven 