King George

Compare and constrast for a moment:

The accumulation of all powers legislative, executive and judiciary in the same hands, whether of one, a few or many...may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.

- James Madison, Federalist No. 47

"I do not need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being the president. Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don't feel I owe anybody an explanation."

- George W. Bush, to Bob Woodward, 2001.

Perhaps the greatest legacy of the framers of our constitution was the establishment of seperate branches of government with a clear and equitable division of power between them, so as to serve as a break against the accumulation of too much power by one branch. The "checks and balances" that we heard about in school is a fluid and dynamic system, and currently it is at the breaking point because of a president who does not have much of a sense of accountability and who has agressively expanded executive power since he took his first oath of office in 2001. Meanwhile, President Bush has successfully reshaped the courts to accept his image of a "unitary executive" and a compliant Congress has allowed itself to be emasculated.

In his zeal to prosecute the war on terror and to ameliorate the interests that enabled his rise to the Presidency, Bush has cast himself as a man with very limited accountability. This trend is at the root of just about every complaint I have against Bush's administration, from the mishandling of the Iraq occupation to the illegal expansion of wiretapping to the abrogation of torture protocols to the flagrant violation of congressional intent. A president unchecked by congress or the courts becomes a king.

For more, read this. It's long and arcane, but worth your time if you are interested. If anyone asks me why I won't vote for a Republican in this year's congressional and Senate elections, I will tell them that my reason is simple: the Republican-led congess stood by as the President arrogated to himself exceptional and (in the case of the wiretaps) extra-legal authority; and this flies in the face of the intent of our constitution and the traditions of our Republic.