Downsize the White House
An imperial presidency does not suit the United States
Irecently read a Los Angeles Times story on mental health in the age of Donald Trump. “Therapists nationwide say they’ve been overwhelmed by the strong feelings triggered by one of the most divisive figures in modern political history.” People have complained of anxiety, insomnia, inability to concentrate, and feelings of alienation from family and friends who voted for the president.
Conservatives know a bit about what this is like. Liberals swooned over the rhetoric of Barack Obama, but we often noticed that, on a careful listen, he’d finger us as the bad guys. A retired conservative once told me that, while he usually disagreed with Bill Clinton, he did not feel as though the president was
against him. Barack Obama, on the other hand, was a different matter. “I feel like he really does not like me,” I remember him saying.
Before that, liberals believed that George W. Bush was not just wrong, but dangerous. Charles Krauthammer called this “Bush Derangement Syndrome.”
Why do we keep doing this to each other? How has Presidential Derangement Syndrome become a bipartisan feature of our lives? The Constitution empowers the government to act only in cases when the “general welfare” requires it. How have we gone from that bright, republican ideal to this — where one side gets to drive the other side crazy for four or eight years, only to have the tables turned on them once again.
The Framers of the Constitution would probably say we were nuts. They bequeathed us a government that separated power across three federal branches, two chambers of Congress, 13 states and a multitude of localities. And yet, over the course of 228 years, we have centralized power in the executive branch, and especially in the person of the president.
On top of that, all the ridiculous pomp and circumstance surrounding the office makes the president seem like a king. Take last week’s special address to Congress. Those used to be a rarity. In fact, for more 100 years, the president delivered the State of the Union address in writing. But now it is a big event, almost like the Queen of England visiting Parliament.
No wonder we’ve driven ourselves around the bend. This is an amazingly diverse country. It always has been, which is one reason the Founding Fathers decentralized political power. No single person could reliably represent the interests of the whole country. In all likelihood, he would reflect the views and desires of one faction.
But the Progressive Movement of the early 20th century did not agree. President Woodrow Wilson thought that the country had finally developed a national identity, and that separating power was keeping the public interest from being realized. He initiated a slow but steady process of corralling the authority and majesty of government around the president.
I think Wilson was wrong. We are simply too diverse to have power revolve around one human being, and that is why Presidential Derangement Syndrome has become a permanent feature of our political life. This country does not share a single race, ethnicity or religion. With the rise of the mass media in the mid20th century, we had a similar culture for a time, but even that has disappeared, as entertainment options have proliferated and we have gone our own ways. And yet, we still have this one-size-fits-all president of the United States. No wonder he makes us so uncomfortable.
Thomas Jefferson had a better idea. In his ideal state, the more distant the government, the less involved it was in your life. So, the national government would tend to world affairs. States would handle issues like infrastructure. And local communities would deal with matters that come closest to home, like education.
Doesn’t that sound … relaxing? I think it high time we dethrone the imperial presidency, and start distributing power back to states and communities. That seems like a surefire cure for Presidential Derangement Syndrome.