djnoll Today I received an e-mail on a new book by Eric Posner (The Executive Unbound: After the Madisonian Republic) about the idea of what a modern president should or should not be. It is coming out March 16th, so I have not read it. On this I want to be perfectly clear – I HAVE NOT READ THIS BOOK! I state this so that people will understand that even without reading it, I am afraid of this book and what it has to say. The comments on it by legal writers are all very nice and scholarly, but they, like most academics, live in an isolated world where the written word does not often have serious repercussions.
As I understand it, Posner puts forth that an imperial presidency, not constrained by laws but rather by political realities, is what is needed to lead a nation like the United States today, regardless of whether we are at war or not.  He is applying the teachings of one Carl Schmitt to the governance principles of the United States. In case you do not know who Schmitt was – he was a Nazi who justified the rise of Hitler as being a good thing for the German people and nation. He wrote that only the political machine could constrain a president and that the laws of the land did not have any affect on how a president acted or should act. In other words, a President of this country could break the law of the land with impunity, and that only through our elections or through the actions of a political entity could such a president be contained. Posner supposedly argues that an imperial presidency is what is needed today in this country because it is the only way to get anything accomplished of any significance, and that the public will act as a check-and-balance on such a presidency in a way that Congress and the Supreme Court could not. He does not apparently factor in the influences of the corporate structure or the religious influences of today’s political structure into his work.
Now as I stated at the beginning, I have not read this book, only the reviews and write-up on it, so my comments are based on those things and on reading about Carl Schmitt (whom several of the comments referred to). If Posner’s book is in fact what it is implied to be, then book is a dangerous justification for the war crimes of any president, the economic policies that have crippled this country in recent years, and will be the justification document for every president going forward who does not feel that the American people have the right to hold them accountable under the rule of law. This is the kind of book that FOX News will wave around as being sound, and the GOP/Tea Party movement will use as justification for a GOP presidency that will make George W. Bush look like a piker. Carl Schmitt was an apologist for the Nazi party – and gave them a veneer of academic wisdom which they did not deserve. Schmitt was a fool of the greatest kind, and that such a presidency as he helped create in Germany in the 1930’s should be acceptable in the US in 2011 is unthinkable. Posner’s book, if it is as reviewed, will be embraced by the GOP and will be lauded by the likes of Bill Clinton and the Bush family, and probably by Obama as well, although I would hope he would see the danger in such a book.
Apparently Posner was not around in this reality, maybe because of his scholarly pursuits in writing this book, during the last decade. Perhaps he is not a scholar of history who sees what happened in Germany from 1933 to 1945. I do not know, but I do know this: his book is dangerous because far too many people are going to buy it and accept it as realistic or something we should strive for in this country. We have seen how a quasi-imperialistic president acts: lies, leads us to war, favors special interests over public good, supports religious theology over good governance, trashes our economy, all while being considered above the law. History will look back on the presidency of Barack Obama and say that by letting the violations of the Bush Administration go unaddressed, he allowed the ideal of an imperial presidency to stand as a testament that the President of the United States is above the law. It will be the greatest failing of his presidency.
Posner is wrong in his premise. He believes that the people of this nation and the political structure of this nation will keep a check on an imperial presidency. To have that be a valid assumption, you need an independent press, an engaged, educated electorate, and a free society where special interests do not control the political atmosphere. None of these things exist in this country today, and therefore, the rise of the imperial president is a danger to our democratic republic, just as it was in Germany in the 1930s. Madison and Jefferson understood that a free democratic republic required an educated populace, a free trade of goods and services, and that the government be responsive to the people, with no one branch of government being stronger than any other branch. They fought against an imperial presidency, and it was only in the last 30 years that we have seen the rise of one as a viable option. Posner rubber-stamps this with his book, and states that it is a good thing. Let’s get this straight: AN IMPERIAL PRESIDENCY IS NOT ACCOUNTABLE TO THE LAW OF THE LAND, AND THEREFORE, IS A DICTATORSHIP BECAUSE WHEN ONE MAN IS ABOVE THE LAW, THEN NO MAN CAN HOLD HIM ACCOUNTABLE!
Posner’s book may make great academic reading and arguing, but make no mistake, this book is dangerous in the hands of politicians and the Tea Party movement and the likes of Rupert Murdoch and his puppets at FOX News. Posner is the American version of Carl Schmitt and an apologist for an administration that bankrupted this county, put us into two wars, and now would bankrupt us again, abandon our people, and support a corporate/theocratic state in this nation. In other words, he is giving reasons for the rise of an American Hitler and American-style Nazi party. This man’s writings are dangerous. Read the book when you can, consider the work of Carl Schmitt, and then rise up against anyone who would embrace such insanity when you see them running for office. You might start with Carl Walker and his fellow governors who think that the American worker should be without rights.
