Cancel the Presidential Election!

Cancel the Presidential Election!

Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
LewRockwell.com
March 6, 2008

Nothing could be better for the country than cancelling the 2008 election. Leave the office of the presidency empty.

I can see only one possible justification for having a president of the United States: to preside over the dismantling of the federal government. If you think this is a radical idea, think again. This is, in part, what people have long voted for, even if they never actually get it. I can hardly remember a time when a president has been elected who didn’t promise to get the government off our backs.

In one way, this agenda makes no sense, of course. You don’t hire a CEO to drive a company into bankruptcy. You don’t appoint a pastor to shrink a congregation. Why should we expect a president to dismantle the thing that gives him power and fame, and his allies huge wealth? Well, realistically, you can’t. But it’s the best hope we have within the framework of conventional politics.

The irony is that most presidents get elected on the prospect that they will curb power. It was even true with George Washington, who had made innumerable speeches on the evil of tyranny only to take power and use it to the benefit of the powerful. Even Jefferson succumbed with his mistaken Louisiana Purchase, though he later entertained the possibility of a salutary breakup of the United States.

Nothing could be better for the country than cancelling the 2008 election. Leave the office of the presidency empty.

I can see only one possible justification for having a president of the United States: to preside over the dismantling of the federal government. If you think this is a radical idea, think again. This is, in part, what people have long voted for, even if they never actually get it. I can hardly remember a time when a president has been elected who didn’t promise to get the government off our backs.

In one way, this agenda makes no sense, of course. You don’t hire a CEO to drive a company into bankruptcy. You don’t appoint a pastor to shrink a congregation. Why should we expect a president to dismantle the thing that gives him power and fame, and his allies huge wealth? Well, realistically, you can’t. But it’s the best hope we have within the framework of conventional politics.

The irony is that most presidents get elected on the prospect that they will curb power. It’s true of George Bush, who promised domestic cuts and a humble foreign policy. Clinton was also elected on the promise of middle-class tax cuts. We can go back and back and see it was true for the first Bush, for Reagan, for Carter, for Nixon, and so on.

For that matter, FDR himself denounced government spending during this first campaign. "I accuse the present administration [Hoover’s] of being the greatest spending administration in peace times in all our history," and added, "On my part, I ask you very simply to assign to me the task of reducing the annual operating expenses of your national government." He further denounced the government for "fostering regimentation without stint or limit."

It was even true with George Washington, who had made innumerable speeches on the evil of tyranny only to take power and use it to the benefit of the powerful. Even Jefferson succumbed with his mistaken Louisiana Purchase, though he later entertained the possibility of a salutary breakup of the United States.

And so on it goes. And it will happen again, despite all promises.

Folks, there is something wrong with this model of governance, not just current policy but the whole structure. We might even argue that the error goes back to the Constitution, a document that created new government powers unprecedented in Colonial history, and put the government in charge of restraining itself. It set up competitive divisions within government under the presumption that they would keep each other in check. Instead, they cooperated toward mutual expansion, especially after the federal power seizure called the Civil War.

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