Conservatives and the Presidency

[randy_byers]

As if in response to my questions yesterday about where all the authoritarians and Great Leader worshippers came from, the libertarian Cato Institute has posted an article by Gene Healy about the history of the conservative pursuit of an imperial presidency. Shorter version: it developed out of the Cold War and the downfall of Nixon. Money quote (from Russell Kirk): "It is characteristic of the radical that he thinks of power as a force for good -- so long as the power falls into his hands ... "

Interesting that the downfall of Nixon was a big trigger, because it seems that the impeachment of Clinton was one of the major causes of the new liberal revolution, wherever the hell it's leading. Back to a powerful Congress?

Via Yglesias.

Comments

[del-c.livejournal.com]

It doesn't make sense, to me, to say that the downfall of Nixon was the trigger for the drive to an all-powerful Republican president. If that's the case, where did the Nixon administration's drive to an all-powerful Republican president come from?

I think it's the same wealthy minority as it was before, inching ever closer to being able to sweep away all that "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" nonsense for good.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Did you read the article? He describes the original impulse as a function of the Cold War, i.e., a byproduct of the national security state and the supposed need for a strong president as an agent of foreign policy. Which is to say that it started before the Nixon administration (typically, the Goldwater presidential campaign in 1964 is seen as the beginning of the modern conservative era in the US). But the downfall of Nixon not only riled the already existing conservative movement in general, it was also a lesson to folks like Cheney (who worked in Nixon's administration) on what mistakes to avoid and on the need to grab even *more* power in the executive so that the bastards couldn't drag you down. They learned even more about that during Iran-Contra, which is another reason why so much of the truly ugly policy and action is coming out of the Vice President's office. They felt there was less oversight of the VP, thus a great place to run secret intelligence operations and generally to set up a parallel executive beyond the control of ... anyone.

Blaming it all on an anonymous "wealthy minority" is a bit lacking in historical detail, by the way.