I’ve said this before but in our government as defined the most powerful elected official in the United States is the Speaker of the House of Representatives. The second most powerful is the Majority Leader of the Senate. The president of the United States is third.
It is only Congressional inaction and dereliction that has resulted in the ever-increasing power of the presidency. The Imperial Presidency is a creation of the Congress.
In our government as intended you might be correct, but since party affiliation has come to dominate and with partisanship dominating Congress we really have a strongman government with power vested in POTUS. It is worse now because of Trump’s dominance of the party. No one in his own party seriously challenges him.
Steve
Just from reading, I’d say it’s been true since FDR. At the latest it appears to have been the case since since the 60s. Perhaps the age of non-newspaper media driven.
I would say that more generally there has been a tension between the way our government is defined and what politicians want to do that goes all the way back to the very beginning or at least as far back as Jefferson. PD can probably give some examples from Washington or Adams.
The tension is not merely reflected in giving the president more power than the Constitution allows. It also extends to giving more power to the Congress than the Constitution allows. Or the Supreme Court. I could give a half dozen examples right off the top of my head.
IMO the worst problems are
– dereliction by the Congress
– usurpation by the Supreme Court
I wouldn’t challenge that, Dave. It’s the nature of power. You all know what I say next……
I suppose the only question is was there a point of acceleration we could point to. My vote is FDR. Never let a good crisis go to waste.
You may be right about it being a Roosevelt but possibly a different one. There’s a good argument that the inflection point was Theodore Roosevelt (or his predecessor McKinley). McKinley’s presidency is a good point at which to mark the beginning of American Empire.
The big turning point was the federal income tax – That increased the role and scope of the federal government over time which also increased the de facto authority and power of the executive.
That was enacted in 1909. But there had been quite a number of expansions of the federal government just before it had been enacted, e.g. the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1901, the Hepburn Act.
I guess my point is that the adoption of 16th Amendment was a continuation of a pre-existing trend.
“IMO the worst problems are
– dereliction by the Congress
– usurpation by the Supreme Court”
To that I would add:
— the two-party system
— the electoral college’
— gerrymandering
— usurpation of SCOTUS by Jews, Roman Catholics and lawyers