Good evening everyone!
In class today we had a really interesting discussion about Presidential imperialism. Past Presidents set the precedent for increasing Presidential power to degrees that enabled the Executive Branch to be much more important than the other two branches of the checks and balances system.
Presidents such as Lincoln, Nixon, and Bush II used their power to perform certain acts that they believed were inherent and could be implied upon reading the Constitution.
One of the topics within the general theme related to Presidential signings, which is a way for Presidents to strike down a specific part of a Senate bill or publicly market himself to the press and Americans nationwide. This is actually one of the girl's topic for her research paper. It was great to have people with different views on whether it can be used for good or for bad, and just how much the media affects the people (my topic!).
After the discussion we had this morning, I learned a lot more about Presidential signings and now I feel stimulus to keep up with current events! ... But before I get ahead of myself, first things first. Back to working on the essay!
I'm sure your paper will be very well received.
ReplyDeleteYueming,
ReplyDeletePresidential signings were a very controversial tool used by W. and are still a matter of contention. He wasn’t alone in using them but he was the latest President so his tenure is still under heavy scrutiny and discussion.
Does it really matter whether these signings are for the good of the people or not? Isn’t the issue whether the President has the right to ignore laws that have been enacted by Congress?
And who’s to say whether these signings are for the good of the people? In most of the cases involving W’s signings, we can only imagine that the Republicans would have a radically different idea than the Democrats on whether these were good for the people or not.
Call me stupid or just stubborn but I believe in the rule of law. As long as we have a set of rules or laws then we’re all obligated to follow them. No one anointed us as God and gave us the authority to follow only the ones we agree with and ignore the rest. If we have rules, then we follow them. If we don’t like the rules, then we take action to change them. What’s irresolute, though, is that we don’t just break them.