October 14, 2008
Does the American System Demand Too Much of its President?
From the Center for Public Justice:
Think about it for a moment. In a country of 300 million people, the national citizenry has the opportunity to elect only a single public official.
That’s got to be a drag on something. And in fact, it is. It leads us to expect too much of the president because we, as a national citizenry, have no way to demand much of Congress. American citizens altogether elect not a single member of Congress. Therefore, we have to demand and expect everything of the president who has to be all things to all people. That is impossible, of course, and it is made even more impossible by the fact that the president has to work with a Congress that is less and less responsive to the national citizenry and more and more dependent on interest-group brokering, which yields all too little benefit to the common good of the republic as a whole.
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I’m confused. To address the problem of one leader who must be all things to all people, we should…elect 400 leaders to be all things to all people? I don’t see how averaging our votes out to select a lowest-common-denominator Congress would enhance franchisement.
“Enfranchisement,” even.
A valid point, Mike. But what does fascinate me is the shift towards federalism which was not exactly the sort of thing in mind when National government was sketched out in the Constitution. The changing shape of our democracy may mean a need for change in the National government.
I think the idea is worth batting around, anyway.
Oh, sure. And I’m not saying the idea is wrong, just I don’t quite see what the alternative they suggest would look like in practice.
I’ve been thinking about federalism lately; local (local-er) government should be responsive to the will of its constituents, but I think improved transportation, communication, the internet and such have homogenized the country to an extent that we should be able to yield more power to the federal government.
I suppose that last statement is an argument in support of what these guys are getting at. It’s a tough nut…I’d like a strong federal government when it is pushing policies I support (say racial equality), but not when it is against me (say Bush’s lawsuit against CA’s stricter clean air requirements).
we’re all federalists when our folks are in power.
exactly.