New York Times Opinion Columnist Talks Dangers Of Presidential Power

New York Times Opinion Columnist, David French, helped to wrap up the week at Chautauqua Institution, discussing the dangers of the president having too much power.
P-J photo by Sara Holthouse

CHAUTAUQUA — David French, a New York Times opinion columnist and self-proclaimed nerd, brought his Chautauqua Institution audience back to the time of the writing of the Constitution to show how presidential power has changed and why.

Helping to wrap up the first week of Chautauqua Institution’s summer season, French discussed presidential power, how it has become so powerful, why, and what American citizens can do about it, along with why American politics has become so angry and dysfunctional.

French began his explanation by going back to the start of his “extreme nerdery”, saying there are certain things someone will hear someone say that elicit an involuntary reaction from them. For him, this is the best and worst “Star Wars” movies, college football, and saying that the branches of government are co-equal.

“Now, you may think, why on earth, this is a phrase I have heard my entire life?” French said. “This is what the checks and balances are. It’s that you have the executive, you have the legislature, you have the judiciary, and they’re supposed to be equal in power and authority. That’s how they check each other, that’s how we keep from living in a land where judges run the place or living in a land where the president just runs the place like a king or where a rogue Congress can run rough shot over everything.”

French said when looking into the actual text of the Constitution, there comes a realization that the three branches are not equal. He went on to explain how the powers that used to belong to Congress have been given to the president over the years, and why.

One of the powers Congress has is the ability to fire the president. In consideration of the co-equal branches French gave an example of spending time in law firms, saying that if the manager came and fired him he would have some ability to check his boss, but that would not make him not his boss. Congress has control over money and the ability to fire someone from the Supreme Court and the ability to declare war.

“You look at Congress on paper and they are what you might call, first among equals,” French said. “It’s not that you can’t check Congress, the Supreme Court through judicial review can invalidate as unconstitutional an act of Congress. The president can veto an act of Congress, but Congress can override the veto.”

While Congress is able to be checked, on paper French said they are meant to be more powerful than the president, with reasons including that Congress is the branch of government closest to the people. At the beginning Congress was the place where democracy was put into practice and gave the American experiment the place to grow. French said, these days that is not the case as the powers of Congress and the president have pretty much switched.

“Now we’re in a position where the executive is more powerful,” French said. “Why is that bad, you might ask? Let’s look at this from a practical democratic perspective.”

French said the majority of Americans do not feel they have a meaningful voice in the presidential selection process, adding that he has never lived in a swing state or district and that people who do not live in those areas tend to feel that way. Every presidential election, French said that people hear that this is the most important election in their lifetimes. With the growth of presidential power and authority, every four years America is electing the most powerful peacetime president in American history, French said. He added that this happened because the founders of the Constitution made a human mistake, not taking politics into account as much as they could have.

One big aspect of this is fear, not just in times of crisis but during normal times. French used an example of the 1950s when President Truman sent troops into Korea to help South Korea fight North Korea, starting the Korean War. He also discussed the imperial presidency such as when Truman tried to seize control of steel manufacturing or when President Trump had a travel ban litigation against migrants.

One other big aspect that French pointed out was that these days Congress members see themselves less as a member of Congress and more as a member of their political party. This is where the founders of the Constitution messed up, according to French, as they had more of a concern about one branch trying to crush the other and less about it being Republicans or Democrats trying to run everything.

That being said, French cited both Washington’s farewell address and one of the Federalist Papers written by James Madison where both men were concerned about factions and political parties and warned against them. But, he said they were concerned about many factions arising, not just the two that did.

“What happens if a prime focus of a member of Congress isn’t on making Congress stronger, it’s about making Republicans strong, making Democrats strong?” French said. “So then what began to happen over time to reach the point at which members of Congress began to punt up to the president the powers that Congress traditionally held or turning a blind eye when the president, as long as they’re a member of their own party, asserted or usurped the powers of Congress?”

French added that Congress members had more loyalty to faction than to branch of government in order for them to turn a blind eye and let the president gain more power. Even when a decent person is president, French said democracy still has strains and is less stable, and when someone who is not a good person is in power this preexisting instability can move towards crisis.

In order to prevent this power being grasped by those who should not have it, French said people need to change their mindset and alter the notion that in order to deal with the extra power you just have to make sure the person you want to win wins. People need to be mature enough to know that it is a cycle, French said, and that sometimes the other side is going to win.

“If this power that the president possesses would terrify me if it is in the hands of somebody I don’t support, maybe they shouldn’t have that power,” French said. “If we begin to say, now wait a minute, maybe we need to restore the power of Congress to declare war, we provide much more concrete limits on the limited authority of the president as commander in chief.”

During this time of the upcoming election and debate this week, what the more important issue is to go on will require moral courage, French said. It is not a red and blue divide, he continued, but more of a spectrum, with some people seeing politics as more of a hobby, and with 2/3rds of Americans making up the exhausted majority.

French discussed a conversation with a friend after January 6, where that person said he was turning off cable and social media and mostly watching sports because he could not do it anymore, which French said was good for them but bad for us because another good person had checked out. He also cited a poem written after World War I, which contains the phrase “the center cannot hold.” This center is the moral center, and French said people can make the decision to make sure the center holds in their families and communities, but after the debate this week he saw despair and hopelessness in those he was with while watching it. When he saw this, he said he thought of the words of the fictional character Aragorn, and his speech in the famous movie, “Return of the King”.

“I thought of the words of Aragorn at the front of the Black Gate in Mordor, when all hope seemed lost, what did he turn around and say to the battle band of brothers and sisters?” French said. “He said, ‘I see in your eyes, the same fear that would take the heart of me. There might be a time when the courage of men will fail, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. This day we fight.’”