Friday, May 09, 2008

More on Priest-Kings.

Lawdog has more on folks misunderstanding the concept of just what we're supposed to be hiring someone to do this November. (HINT: "Fixing the Economy" and "Affordable Health Care" are nowhere mentioned in Article II of the Constitution.)
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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think my perfect candidate would run on the platform of "I plan on staying the hell out of your life and fishing...a lot. Oh, and spending lots of money on the military and not much else."

1:03 PM, May 09, 2008
Somerled said...

The District of Columbia is a reclaimed swamp. It should be converted back to wetlands. Ducks and geese are people, too. Protecting our environment is certainly one important way the President "services" us under a "living Constitution."

1:45 PM, May 09, 2008
BobG said...

"The District of Columbia is a reclaimed swamp. It should be converted back to wetlands."

Might as well, it's full of bottom-feeders already.

1:58 PM, May 09, 2008
Anonymous said...

This topic is of immense interest to me, and it's one that has been largely overlooked by libertarians: the American public's growing, tacit belief that our presidents are supposed to be "leaders," that we are "electing a temporary king," as Ross Douthat recently wrote (without irony).

Gene Healy just cracked the wall with his new book, "The Cult of the Presidency." It's also Reason's cover story this month, though I don't think they've yet posted it online.

It's one of the most dismaying aspects of all this campaign brouhaha (and of Obamania in particular). So much intense public interest, so much energy, so much hype and noise. All stems from this implicit view of the presidency as So Very Important.

We shouldn't care this much who's elected president, because the president isn't supposed to matter this much in the first place.

The whole exercise serves only to further empower the presidential role, creating an ever bigger threat to freedom. Alas, I'm not sure there's any way out. People seem to genuinely crave the theater of it all, the notion of one human personality being vested with such power. It's like a real-life soap opera, and it's apparently too alluring for people to willingly turn off.

12:39 PM, May 10, 2008

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