Good evening, kiddies. Tonight’s bedtime story is based on an oft-lauded but little read document called the Constitution of the United States of America. Ever hear of it? It gets tossed around like a frisbee these days, usually by people that are unequivocally against Something and want to firmly root their standing by claiming the issue to be “unconstitutional”. As a writer, a child of the 80’s, and a frequent visitor to those federal installations I found myself and 40 other close friends chained to, I admit I have used the word myself. But, that’s not what tonight’s tale is about. Tonight’s romp through the literary annals of Time concerns itself with the Founding Fathers’ blind faith in the goodness of human nature and Article II of the Constitution. The question I posit to all of you after watching the debacle of the last few weeks that has been the White House response to the coronavirus pandemic crisis is simply this: do we NEED a President?
Before everybody flips out and starts calling me a radical leftist anarchist I should mention I’m not the first that’s asked this question- not by a long shot. In fact, a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away a similar question was asked at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 and was met with what Founder James Madison described as “a considerable pause”. And rightly so. I mean, c’mon. They had just fought a long and bloody war to shake off the yoke of tyranny and oppression caused by one man– did they really wanna set themselves up for another? Originally, the plan was to have the Legislature pick one guy that would serve 7 years and be done with it, never to be elected again. That was scrapped because they felt he’d only become a tool for the Legislative branch. (Later on, that would happen anyway, but I digress). So, they gave the job to Washington, being the one man that everyone knew and could trust- and because of that they probably gave him more power than they ordinarily would have, including the power to veto, but coupled with a four year term with the chance for re-election they believed it would provide some accountability. Fair enough.
But that was George Washington. And Thomas Jefferson. And James Madison. And the list goes on until you get to some real losers like Andrew Johnson and then it REALLY goes to hell. All that “full faith and confidence ” they placed in the hands of the people to duly elect a representative went right down the crapper.
And they certainly never foresaw anything like the fuckery we’re witnessing now with Sideshow Bob and his Menagerie of Trained Apes.
The office of the President has very specific duties outlined within the Constitution and it’s not even gotten around to until Article II, so clearly the Founders felt the Legislative branch in Article I to be far more important. What can the President do exactly? Well, he’s the figurehead when visiting dignitaries wanna come hang; he’s the Commander in Chief of the Military (although that’s been an absolute misnomer since Washington and , yes, I am including Grant); he can implement and enforce laws Congress passes; and he can appoint the heads to all the cabinet positions and bullshit agencies that suck up most of the Federal budget. Beyond that, nothing. Let me be clear: those four duties are all he has. That’s it. Period.
And that’s straight out of the Constitution of the United States of America.
So, if we abolished the Presidency what would happen?
OMG! What if there’s a war? What if? The President can’t declare war- only Congress has the power to do that, although he sure as hell can cause them (read your history). But, he’s the Commander-in-Chief, you say. What would our troops do? Listen to the Generals that actually know what the fuck is going on on the battlefield-or don’t. Kind of a crapshoot there, but you get my point.
What about our laws? Who would make the laws?? Well, lets hope like hell one man hasn’t been doing that! The most the President can do is “recommend” not make- and that worked out real well when it was “recommended” that we needed a Department of Education, didn’t it?
The Supreme Court judges he appoints? Frankly, they should be voted in, by the People, and have to run for election like any other judge. If your ass is gonna sit in the same damn chair until you die, you better give me a good reason why. The other agencies? Appoint and promote from within. We just witnessed an absolute shitshow courtesy of the Secretary of Defense with the Secretary of the Navy- who’s experience at PriceWaterhouse Cooper I’m sure was invaluable while telling the crew of the USS Theodore Roosevelt their captain was “stupid” (you’re AWESOME, Captain Crozier!). Cronyism and nepotism does not belong in our democracy and we’re all learning that now.
The pandemic response has been coordinated from the beginning by an outstanding coalition of governors and state and federal senators, taking care of each other and their own. The Federal response has done nothing but muck up the waters as I’ve said before. I live in an area that has a natural disaster hit every year or so like clockwork and I can tell you that once FEMA gets involved it IS a disaster. (The churches, schools, and local businesses do more good here than FEMA, and there’s no paperwork to fill out). Within the context of the pandemic, FEMA has diverted shipments of medical supplies intended for hospitals and other facilities EN ROUTE and laid claim to desperately needed PPE and N95 masks, so they can be the sole distributors/saviors (“please, sir, may I have some more?”) in this time of national crisis. The “daily briefings” that, for a while, were keeping us on top of the virus spread and news from far flung parts, as well as new models to mitigate from Drs. Fauci and Birx, devolved into lengthy one-man campaign rallies, ramblings and self aggrandizing tales of how wonderful the non-existent federal response was at any given time. As I write this, over 20000 Americans have lost their lives to this illness, but DAMN! his ratings are awesome!
The coronavirus and the lack of timely response (and even empathy) from the White House) has, to my way of thinking, proven that we really don’t need a President. We really don’t need one man to subvert that much power, attention and money. We could do very well with a system based on a coalition of governors that worked in tandem with our legislature, and the duties attributed to the office of the President redistributed in a manner like I suggested. I’m not talking about dissolving into complete anarchy; I’m talking about doing away with the office of one man (well, okay, two- the Vice President would be out of a job, too, but, really, it’s not like he has one). Do we really wanna stay the course on this one, or do we maybe wanna change things up a little bit?
I believe the Constitution is very much a dynamic document, fully capable of bearing the weight of any change the Founding Fathers never foresaw. I also believe they never foresaw the return of the sort of greed, corruption, negligence and apathy that existed in their day, but here it is. This pandemic has drawn many lines and cut through many facades that we ordinarily would not have seen through. I think it’s our chance- maybe our last chance- to actually do something right, to get it right this time, whatever that “it” may be. I don’t know if a full governmental overhaul is the answer, but I do know we cannot continue down the road we have been on and expect everything to be business as usual, not after where we’ve been and the things we’ve seen. We just can’t. Changes have to be made- and change is never easy. But nearly 3000 people died yesterday- and that wasn’t easy either. Where we go from here is up to us- it’s always been up to us. We have the power to make that determination, not Them. Determine something better for us all.
On the Edge of History 