Presidency

America, Meet Your New Dictator-in-Chief

by John W. Whitehead June 2, 2022

“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness have given way to permanent crisis management: to policing the planet and fighting preventative wars of ideological containment, usually on terrain chosen by, and favorable to, our enemies. Limited government and constitutional accountability have been shouldered aside by the kind of imperial presidency our constitutional system was explicitly designed to prevent.” — ...

Biden’s Executive Orders vs. American Public Opinion

by Richard M. Ebeling February 3, 2021

In the first ten days of his new administration, following his inauguration on January 20, 2021, President Joe Biden signed more than 25 executive orders changing the direction and content of federal government activities. That is four times as many executive orders as were signed in the same number of first days in the White House as Donald Trump, ...

Biden’s “Passion and Purpose” is More Political Paternalism

by Richard M. Ebeling August 26, 2020

Political election years are viewed in democracies as momentous events in the country’s history. Through ballots rather than bullets are chosen those who will hold political office, and through them the implementation and enforcement of the laws of the land and a variety of government policies considered to be in the “common good” or the “general welfare.” In other ...

The Presidential Political Circus Has Begun

by Richard M. Ebeling May 7, 2019

Like the carnival side shows at the circus, the candidates for the Democratic party nomination — do I even need to name the more than 20 of them? — are all standing in front of their respective campaign tents trying to attract the potential voter onlookers to join them inside, hope for that campaign contribution and support during the ...

Obama’s Forgotten Frauds and Debacles

by James Bovard April 1, 2019

Former President Barack Obama is again busy lecturing Americans on politics. His speeches have contained many snappy lines that would deserve attention if they came from an untainted source. But Obama as president was guilty of many of the things against which he now warns his fellow citizens. Last September, Obama received the Paul H. Douglas Award for Ethics in ...

George H.W. Bush’s Forgotten Debacles and Demagoguery

by James Bovard March 1, 2019

After former President George H.W. Bush died late last year, he was widely hailed as a great leader and patriot. At the National Cathedral funeral service, biographer Jon Meachan declared that Bush was a “twentieth-century Founding Father.” The minister of Bush’s church in Houston compared him to Jesus. Bush’s gentlemanly manners were lauded by many people outraged by President ...

Who Is the Most Qualified to Be President?

by Laurence M. Vance December 13, 2018

Perhaps it was just a coincidence. George H.W. Bush, the 41st president of the United States, died at his home on Saturday, November 30, age 94. Just three days later, on Monday, December 3, Joseph “Joe” R. Biden, the nation’s 47th vice president, said he believed that he was the “most qualified person” to be the president of the United ...

Freedom Frauds: No Halo for George H.W. (video)

by James Bovard December 11, 2018

With the recent death of former president George H.W. Bush, there has been an outpouring of praise for his statesmanship and civility. FFF policy advisor James Bovard know that Bush was no Boy Scout. Go to the audio podcast.

The Imperial Presidency Embodies Political and Economic Hubris

by Richard M. Ebeling November 30, 2018

Historian Arthur M. Schlesinger coined the term “imperial presidency” in the 1960s. It was meant to indicate that the role of the president of the United States had dramatically grown in the 20th century from being an important but fairly limited position of implementing the laws of the land as specified in the Constitution and congressional legislation to being ...

Presidential Hubris: “Let Me Run the Country”

by Richard M. Ebeling November 16, 2018

The television news cycle and social media have been filled with comments and criticisms concerning the combative exchange of words between the current president and CNN reporter James Acosta during a recent White House press conference. What seemingly received little or no attention were the words that Donald Trump used in describing his role as the president of the ...

The Rise of the American Imperial President

by John W. Whitehead March 8, 2018

“The presidency will survive. The real question is what leads American presidents into the imperial temptation. When the American presidency conceives itself as the appointed savior of a world in which mortal danger requires rapid and incessant deployment of men, weapons, and decisions behind a wall of secrecy, power rushes from Capitol Hill to the White ...

Trump and the Right to #Resist

by James Bovard March 1, 2018

Since Donald Trump’s election, it has become fashionable for his opponents to use a #Resist hashtag on their social media postings. Public demonstrations have become more fashionable than at any time since the Vietnam War. Federal agencies are actively working to thwart the Trump administration; the Obama holdover chief of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau even refused to vacate ...