Post #4052366
2026-07-24 02:54 UTC
And then there's the President, the "unitary executive" who can wash away a henchman's sins with one jagged scrawl from a black marker. It's not even a real signature these days, just a zigzag scrawl like a row of pointy teeth.
Richard Nixon wanted this really badly and he set the standard really, first voicing the "unitary executive" sentiment: if the President does it, it's legal. U.S. #conservatives say they want "small government" but what they really mean by that is they want a poorly defined government, one with lots of gaps and spaces through which leaders can exercise plenary powers.
(cont'd)
Replies (1)
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@mxchara@seattle.pink 2026-07-24 02:56
This goes back to the Roman roots of "Western civilization" for the Roman Republic was porous and vague in this same way, and this is what killed the Republic in the end: they had an office called the dictator that was supposed to be a temporary wartime measure, but the measure was easily made permanent. C. Octavius, so-called "Augustus", finally did away with the Republic except as a vestige, keeping alive a cosmetic Senate as a rubber-stamp body and distraction for court parasites and ruthless patriarchs to fight over. (cont'd)