one of the most perverse thing is that the unitary executive theory has reached its height just as it has become ontologically false that the executive is unitary - ThreadSky

theophite.bsky.social • 13 days ago

one of the most perverse thing is that the unitary executive theory has reached its height just as it has become ontologically false that the executive is unitary

Reposted from Matthew Downhour

The whole idea of an elected president is that you can avoid electing a guy whose brain is mush, vulnerable to the whims of shady advisors, and yet we did exactly that

Comments

dkhunter.bsky.social•13 days ago

Making factionalism great again

cursed.monster•13 days ago

It’s just 90 degrees out of phase, like electric and magnetic fields

cursed.monster•13 days ago

I’m sorry, I don’t know why my brain does this

cursed.monster•13 days ago

Just kidding, I know exactly why

jamellebouie.net•13 days ago

my favorite fact about the unitary executive theory is it basically rests on two lines in the constitution, a misread passage from one of hamilton's federalist papers, and a vision of the 19th century presidency that has studiously resisted in any actual scholarship

scottwell.bsky.social•13 days ago

Have you (or someone else) written somewhere on the misreading / misconstruing at work here? I'd be curios to read more.

georgiststeve.bsky.social•12 days ago

is the Hamilton one the "vigorous executive" line that SCOTUS also used for the immunity ruling?

jamellebouie.net•13 days ago

among the first offices congress created was a comptroller position in the treasury that was independent of presidential control and intentionally so! james madison even acknowledged that there could be executive branch agents who did not serve at the pleasure of the president!

anaphoristand.bsky.social•13 days ago

Well sure, but how many Harlan Crow yacht vacays did old Jimmy Mads get gratuitied?

jamellebouie.net•13 days ago

there is a reason no one thought of the unitary executive theory until a bunch of conservative lawyers decided that their paramount aim was to allow a republican president to do a watergate but legal

smegmaticsmotrich.bsky.social•13 days ago

There’s A Reason no one thought the second amendment protected a right to self defense before the arms industry melted cousinfuckers brains with nearly a century and a half of propaganda about the Gubmint

hrimhari.bsky.social•13 days ago

And yeah, definitely only Republican funny how they all shut up while Obama and Biden were in power

swolecialism.bsky.social•13 days ago

for all that it's a 1.0 or even "open beta" effort, the actual constitution covers a lot of our problems quite neatly, its just that they didn't think we would fuck up how to use it so badly. like 95% of our problems are down to congress deciding to stop doing anything

cursed.monster•13 days ago

There are definitely cases in the debates (e.g. the debate over how to word the causes for impeachment) where they said “okay but what if ” and after hours of debate it was settled that a majority of the people probably wouldn’t be stupid or venal enough to allow it

cursed.monster•13 days ago

I think about that a lot lately

kygosi.bsky.social•13 days ago

Didn’t expect us to give up, eh? Dumb Founders.

burnstony.bsky.social•13 days ago

dumb founders indeed, there is very little evidence that a Presidential system works well.
I think if you revisit the document with clear eyes, you can see clearly that what it's trying to do is basically impossible, and that a parliamentary system makes a lot more sense.

golightly.bsky.social•13 days ago

📌

frizbgreg.bsky.social•13 days ago

Yeah but do you know who FDR was?

thefred.bsky.social•13 days ago

"The Three Pashas are legally one person and yet are distinct from each other."

satisfiedpsychic.bsky.social•13 days ago

Trinitarian Unitary Executive Theory.

swolecialism.bsky.social•13 days ago

the united states currently has like six separate foreign policies depending on who you talked to most recently

ammathor.bsky.social•13 days ago

President
Vice President
SecDef
SoS
Senate Judiciary

I think there's more but all of them have put out statements that all contradict each other.

swolecialism.bsky.social•13 days ago

elon, too

thebrett.bsky.social•13 days ago

Foreign policy seems to be the one area where the Muskite faction doesn't hold sway over Trump, so instead we get the shifting mess.

katiecannon.bsky.social•13 days ago

I honestly can’t figure Musk foreign policy out

My best guess is he thinks China will accept his dollar backed crypto as the new reserve currency

And everyone can be happy little techno kings within their own sphere

eke.bsky.social•13 days ago

missing the simple days of Trump 1 where you had the regular foreign policy and the "making secret deals with Jared Kushner" foreign policy and the "making secret deals with Donald Trump" foreign policy. a mere 3

oxzus.bsky.social•13 days ago

I love learning new words

notthatproud.bsky.social•13 days ago

I get what you’re saying about Trump/Musk, but it’s backwards. The unitary executive is an attack on new deal (and earlier) changes creating independent federal agencies. It’s reaching its height because it was a long term project to reverse the New Deal, when the non-unitary executive was stronger.

crabapplejones.bsky.social•13 days ago

Hahaha oh no

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