What is "imperial presidency?" can someone explain the jist?

Many countries claim the USA acts imperialistically, meaning that we believe strictly in our own version of how things should be run, and everyone else should get behind us in going down a certain path. Presidential Imperialism shows up when a President does things like declaring he'll sign a bill into law, then put in a disclaimer that he's not bound by it personally as leader of the country ( then again, Congress also exempts itself from minimum wage laws, and many others that the rest of us "common" folk are forced to obey that they've passed, but are considered "burdensome" to the Elitist Congressmen and women) . So, it's basically a President who refuses to believe that he's wrong, or that he's morally correct regardless what the rest of the world, country, or his own advisors tell him .


Univee is being disingenuous , don't believe for a SECOND that the Democrats / Liberals aren't elitist and Imperialistic....they just cloak the poison in syrupy sweet benefits to those that keep them in office, and never improve the lot of those at the bottom. Tax the rich, burden the middle class, and keep the poor citizens and emigrants in welfare checks and free bennies, and the Dems will still be sucking the Taxpayer money tit, just the same as the 'Publicans. They just do it a different way. Neither can claim a moral high ground, they're all out for power and money, for the most part.


- The Gremlin Guy -

What is "imperial presidency?" can someone explain the jist?
I find it very interesting that people who disagree with the policies of the current administration attempt to characterize it as "evil" and "despotic" instead of "incompetent" which is what it clearly is.





As for all of the accusations levied in the preceeding post, cannot the same be said about the L.Johnson and F.Roosevelt administrations?





The Far Right and the Far Left seldom hold the real answers. The truth, for those who are actually interested in finding it, is almost always somewhere in between. It is up to each individual to open their minds, sharpen their listening skills, and decipher what is fact from what is opinion...
Reply:The imperial presidency is a notion that comes into existence every time we get a home grown despot. In recent decades they have, tellingly, been Republicans, but it need not be so. In my life the three imperial presidencies were Nixon, Reagan and the current guy.





The pattern is always the same. The imperial president abandons any attempt at compromise, ignores the role of the Congress, plants stooges in the justice department to cover wrong-doing, does not accept criticism, makes all his doings top secret and claims unusual and unconstitutional powers. Our recent guy even has people sign loyalty oaths; a sure sign of actual moral weakness.





Many of us thought with the fall of Nixon that this would not happen again too quickly, but the next time the GOP was in power it arose again.





Oh yeah, the other thing about imperial presidencies. People are told by the corporate media that everything is fine, that the economy is thriving and that the president is popular. But when you look around the actual landscape you can clearly see that all these are lies propagated by the power elite to confuse the public.





I would suggest at this moment that there has never been a more unpopular and despised president than W; hell, there are nationally syndicated cartoon shows savaging him. But his followers, and the business oriented media claims his popularity and so people put their heads down and remain silent.





Stalin was popular in this exact way. So was Hitler. Popular because people were afraid to speak out.





That is why it is imperative to speak out and not be afraid of consequences. The alternative is to live willingly under a despot.