The Cult of the Presidency · Updated with a new afterword on the Obama presidency by Healy, Gene -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Acknowledgements Introduction 1. - Our Chief Magistrate and His Powers

Republican in Form and Substance Unitarian Heresies No Man a King “In America, the Law Is King” Chaining the Dog of War The Chief Magistrate on the Home Front The “Myth” of the Modern Presidency? Minimum Leader Designing Men

2. - “Progress” and the Presidency

The Progressives’ Intellectual Revolution “As Big a Man as He Can” TR and the Joy of Power Warrior-Priest The Presidency in the Era of Normalcy War as Metaphor and Reality The Presidency Transformed

3. - The Age of the Heroic Presidency

Superman Comes to the Supermarket Up, Up, and Away Unilateral Powers Abroad Unilateral Powers at Home

4. - Hero Takes a Fall

Therapeutic Regicide Three Branches, After All A Culture of (Justified) Distrust How Conservatives Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Imperial Presidency The Post-Imperial Presidency? The Clinton Years: Arrogance of Power Redux Our Modern Dilemma With Great Responsibility Comes Great Power

5. - Superman Returns

Trapped and Paralyzed The “Voice of the People” Finds His Voice That’s Not Funny The Rock of Our Salvation The Ascendancy of National Greatness Conservatism “Our” Commander in Chief The War Metaphor America the Battlefield “Delegation Running Riot” “I Didn’t Realize What All Was in It” Power without Accountability “Debating” the Iraq War

6. - War President

The American Heritage of Anti-Militarism Power without Limit Faith-Based Constitutionalism Individualized Martial Law Military Surveillance at Home The Military and State Secrets Privilege Deployed in the USA Mission Creep “Suicide Pact”? “Situational Constitutionalism” and Executive Power

7. - Omnipotence and Impotence

It Only Looks Dead Pushback and Partial Climb-Down The “Sixth-Year Curse” The Buck Stops Here In Search of Monsters, to Distract Power amid Collapse New Fronts in the War at Home Blaming Pharaoh Empowering Pharaoh From Superhero to Scapegoat

8. - Why the Worst Get on Top . . . and Get Worse

The Paradox of Choice What It Takes Kingly Isolation: The Modern White House Environment A Presidency on a Human Scale “The Life of a Court” Power Corrupts (Judgment) The “Decider” as Manager The Problem Is the Office, Not the Man

9. - Toward Normalcy

Bind Him Down from Mischief An Enduring Cult? The Pop Culture Presidency Stirrings of Heresy The Vision Thing Demand and Supply

Afterword: Our Continuing Cult of the Presidency Notes About the Author Cato Institute