There are a lot of things that Trump could have done and there are lots of things that Congress has tied has hands at. Interesting when he tries to force his hand as POTUS he is criticized and if he doesn't do something he is criticized. It's a no win for him in the eyes of some.
Well, now.
Despite the bitterness of our current ideological battles, liberals and conservatives largely agree on the boundless nature of presidential responsibility. Neither Left nor Right sees the president as the Framers saw him: a constitutionally constrained chief executive with important, but limited, responsibilities. Today, for conservatives as well as liberals, it is the president's job to protect us from harm, to grow the economy, spread American ideals abroad, and even to heal spiritual malaise.
Worse still, the irrational expectations Americans invest in the office drive the growthof presidential power. Asked to perform miracles, modern presidents have often sought powers to match that responsibility—and all too often Congress has obliged . . . Skepticism toward power lies at the heart of our constitutional culture, and if it makes it harder for presidents to do great works, it also makes it harder for them to abuse power. ---Gene Healy,
from "Congressional Abdication and the Cult of the Presidency," Cato Institute White House Studies.
Harder but not, alas, impossible, as we've seen only too often in our lifetimes.
Just as we've seen only too much outcry against the over-reaching executive when it's "their" guy in the White House but---when it's "our" (actual or alleged) guy in the White House assumes or seeks to exercise over-reaching power, and those to whom the over-reaching executive is
contra constitutional regardless of whose guy it is say so---"our" side screams blue murder at them for trying to "tie his hands."
You don't need me to remind you that the very Democrats getting constitutional religion over President Tweety's "trying to force his hand" are the same Democrats (give or take a few seat changes in Congress) who denounced those objecting to His Excellency Al-Hashish Field Marshmallow Dr. Barack Obama Dada, COD, RIP, LSMFT, Would-Have-Been-Life President's extra-constitutional forcings of
his hands. Even as, I hope devoutly again, you don't need me to remind you that the very Republicans (again, give or take a few seat changes) who got constitutional religion over His Excellency's forcings of his hands now denounce those objecting to President Tweety's actual or attempted extra-constitutional forcings of
his hands.
Indeed are a president's hands
supposed to be tied when they reach beyond his constitutionally sanctioned purview or competence, whether he's "their" guy
or "our" guy. A point the presidency cultists either miss or ignore, just as those Congresses who fobbed off no few of their constitutionally prescribed responsibilities upon the executive either ignored the laws of unintended consequences or succumbed to a certain degree of cult-of-presidency seduction themselves.
Mr. Healy has written two books, both of which I have read and re-read:
The Cult of the Presidency: America's Dangerous Devotion to Executive Power (2008) and its followup,
False Idol: Barack Obama and the Continuing Cult of the Presidency (2012). (You have to buy
The Cult of the Presidency but it's worth the price; you can, however, get
False Idol on the house at the link.) I wonder what he'd write for such a followup covering President Tweety's presidency . . .
