The Obama administration continues a trend begun by his predecessor, President Bush, to concentrate power in the Executive Branch. Recent moves to rule by fiat are especially disturbing – ignoring the War Powers Act, selective enforcement of immigration law, and selective enforcement by the DOJ in general. Apart from obvious damage to the rule of law, an overweening Executive also contributes to the polarization of American politics.
America needs a multi-party government. Fiscally responsible Democrats must split from their socialist wing. Moderate Republicans must divorce the religious right. For good measure, we could add a Green party. Congress is designed for power sharing, but the Executive is not.
America’s two-party system, with its nightmare gridlock and polarization, is enforced by competition for the presidency. If either side produces a strong third-party candidate, this is guaranteed to “split the vote” and hand victory to the other side.
We the people, with Congress and the courts, must take steps to check the growing power of the presidency. Otherwise, we will have continuing polarization – and a king.
Good article. I would first like to point out that the power grab for the executive branch started well before Bush, either of them. I would tend to look back to FDR when he tried to stack the SCOTUS.
I would like to see a run off system in place for the presidential elections. Multiple candidates are on the ticket and as long as one does not have over 50% of the vote the top two vote getters go to a run off election and the people choose between those two. Think about, “news” channels would love to have two presidential elections to try and suck in viewers.
Or maybe give every voter an up and a down vote. They choose who they do want as president and then cast a vote for who they definitely do not want. Candidates that received a down vote loose one up vote. This one may be a bit more confusing, but it would save us the money have holding a second national election.