Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

spanone

(135,832 posts)
Sat Jun 21, 2014, 09:24 AM Jun 2014

george will has joined the crazies.....'Stopping a lawless president'

What philosopher Harvey Mansfield calls “taming the prince” — making executive power compatible with democracy’s abhorrence of arbitrary power — has been a perennial problem of modern politics. It is now more urgent in the United States than at any time since the Founders, having rebelled against George III’s unfettered exercise of “royal prerogative,” stipulated that presidents “shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”

Serious as are the policy disagreements roiling Washington, none is as important as the structural distortion threatening constitutional equilibrium. Institutional derangement driven by unchecked presidential aggrandizement did not begin with Barack Obama, but his offenses against the separation of powers have been egregious in quantity and qualitatively different.

Regarding immigration, health care, welfare, education, drug policy and more, Obama has suspended, waived and rewritten laws, including the Affordable Care Act. It required the employer mandate to begin this year. But Obama wrote a new law, giving to companies of a certain size a delay until 2016 and stipulating that other employers must certify they will not drop employees to avoid the mandate. Doing so would trigger criminal perjury charges; so he created a new crime, that of adopting a business practice he opposes.

Presidents must exercise some discretion in interpreting laws, must have some latitude in allocating finite resources to the enforcement of laws and must have some freedom to act in the absence of law. Obama, however, has perpetrated more than 40 suspensions of laws. Were presidents the sole judges of the limits of their latitude, they would effectively have plenary power to vitiate the separation of powers, the Founders’ bulwark against despotism.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/george-f-will-stopping-a-lawless-president/2014/06/20/377c4d6e-f7e5-11e3-a3a5-42be35962a52_story.html?hpid=z2

6 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
george will has joined the crazies.....'Stopping a lawless president' (Original Post) spanone Jun 2014 OP
has??? he has been one for years beachbum bob Jun 2014 #1
he's swimming in the tea party's pool now... spanone Jun 2014 #2
This Evergreen Emerald Jun 2014 #3
Will has been among the crazies for years. MineralMan Jun 2014 #4
I would like to meet George Will one day lake loon Jun 2014 #5
And while you have him down, I'd like to snatch that horrible toupee off his head and throw it kimbutgar Jun 2014 #6

spanone

(135,832 posts)
2. he's swimming in the tea party's pool now...
Sat Jun 21, 2014, 09:45 AM
Jun 2014

he once kept up an appearance of civility....no longer

 

lake loon

(99 posts)
5. I would like to meet George Will one day
Sat Jun 21, 2014, 10:41 AM
Jun 2014

... to pound his face into a DC sidewalk. No kidding. Gotta stop his endless victimhood.

kimbutgar

(21,148 posts)
6. And while you have him down, I'd like to snatch that horrible toupee off his head and throw it
Sat Jun 21, 2014, 11:04 AM
Jun 2014

In a pile of dog poop. He really is an odious man.

Latest Discussions»General Discussion»george will has joined th...