A Recipe For Dictatorship
"A deviant theory, inherently anti-American, with no place anywhere in our system of government."
The "Unitary Executive" theory is really just another name for the ancient "King With Advisors" form of government, widely used around the world for thousands of years in human history. The basic idea is that the King has the final authority and makes all the final decisions. He may consult with his advisors, but he is free to disregard their advice. He may look at the law, but he is not required to follow it. The role of the people is to go along quietly with whatever the King wants to do.
THE ESSENTIAL PROBLEM FOR US is that this Theory denies the authority of Congress, the Supreme Court, or anything else to interfere with the President's performance of his functions, however he chooses. Thus Congress and the Supreme Court become merely Advisors, with no authority over the President.
That is Dictatorship, the very thing the American Revolution was fought to eliminate. Thus we see that the Unitary Executive Theory is a deviant theory, inherently anti-American, and has no place anywhere in our system of goverment. - Details below.
http://patriot.net/~bmcgin/unitaryexecutivetheory.html'Unitary Executive' Or Autocracy?
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Or to take an example that has not yet occurred, if Bush decides that Nancy Pelosi’s criticisms of him are impeding his War on Terror, he could invite her to the White House, bring her out to the South Lawn, and shoot her in the head. After all, it’s a matter of national security—and that means he decides what’s illegal and what isn’t.
Of course, he would never do such a thing, right? But a democracy does not depend on the good will and good sense of its leaders to constrain such behavior. It depends on the rule of law—laws from which no one is immune no matter what office he holds.
Despite the steadily increasing dismay of the American people as they suffer the fruits of Republican rule, it seems unlikely that anyone in this administration will pay any real price for their assault on the very idea that we are a nation of laws. One might have imagined that the lawyers and judges who populate the government, regardless of their party affiliation, would rise up in protest. But save for a brave few, they have not; indeed, those with the greatest willingness to cast the Constitution into the trash have found themselves rewarded with promotion and the attention of high officials, their ideas greeted with nodding heads in the Oval Office. Some have been granted lifetime appointments to the federal bench.
Should a Democrat win the White House in 2008, no doubt many conservative proponents of the theory of autocracy known as the “unitary executive” will awaken as from a dream, and revert to the belief that unlimited power vested in the hands of a president might not be quite compatible with our democratic heritage. Or perhaps not—perhaps their belief in the president’s absolute authority really is about principle, and not just about power. That would be even more frightening...More
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/03/08/unitary_executive_or_autocracy.phpIn Cheney's Shadow, Counsel Pushes the Conservative Cause
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The unitary executive notion can be found in the torture memo. "In light of the president's complete authority over the conduct of war, without a clear statement otherwise, criminal statutes are not read as infringing on the president's ultimate authority in these areas," the memo said. Prohibitions on torture "must be construed as inapplicable to interrogations undertaken pursuant to his commander-in-chief authority. . . . Congress may no more regulate the president's ability to detain and interrogate enemy combatants than it may regulate his ability to direct troop movements on the battlefield." The same would go for "federal officials acting pursuant to the president's constitutional authority." MORE
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22665-2004Oct10.html