by Llewellyn H. Rockwell,
Jr.
Copyright 1998, WorldNetDaily.com
September 11, 1998
Let's say Clinton resigns
or is impeached. The tragedy is that
he'll be replaced. A better
idea: leave the office empty. Call
off the 2000 election, and
declare Clinton the last president.
The presidency has become
a drain on our economy, our culture,
and our national life. We'd
be better off without it.
At this point, the very institution
is inseparable from words
like deception, waste, corruption,
betrayal, and abuse of power.
If the presidency had to
survive a market test, it would be
bankrupt. If it were a non-profit
organization, it would be shut
down by the courts. If it
were a religious institution, it would
be denounced as a haven
for hucksters.
Let's disabuse ourselves
of the myth that the next inhabitant
will be a clean-living,
truth-telling, promise-keeping
statesman. He won't. The
office itself, embodying more power
than any mere mortal should
have, attracts and brings out the
worst in a person. When
was the last time a president didn't
disappoint?
It's not the man; it's the
office. Everywhere the president
goes, he's doted on like
some third-world autocrat. He's told by
pundits that the national
soul resides in his very person. He's
convinced that he is "leader
of the free world," even while the
government he heads conspires
every day to take away freedom. He
knows that "history" is
kindest to presidents who start wars,
centralize the economy,
and generally run roughshod over the
democratic process, so he
aspires to be like them.
The presidency is the head
of a vast bureaucratic empire with
trillions of dollars to
pass out. And we are surprised when the
political appointees get
entangled in conspiracy and graft?
That's what politics is
about. That's what power is about.
That's what the presidency
is about.
The office obeys no rule
of law. The presidency allows a person
to order up bombings on
foreign medicine factories on a whim.
Worse, it grants the power
to issue executive orders that
contradict the Constitution,
to bail out foreign governments it
likes and impose sanctions
on those it doesn't. It's the office
that permits one man to
H-bomb the world, if he's so inclined.
No one should have such power,
especially not in a country
conceived in liberty. Yet
the abuses began soon after the
Constitution was ratified.
Even the first president sent out the
troops to kill tax resisters.
So the office "grew" and conformed
to the power ambitions of
the men who held it.
It took less than a century
before a president saw himself as
occupying a holy office
in the national church, an office whose
piety and purity was perfected
in wartime. Thus began a long
line of tyrants-in-waiting.
We still see remnants of
this thinking in places like North
Korea and Cuba, where the
presidents declare themselves to be
"great leaders." Thank goodness
the rest of the world has moved
on. We know that the state
is a vast enterprise for declaring
all sorts of things legal
for itself that would be illegal for
us, such as burning down
religious communities, extorting and
bribing businesses, and
skimming off a third of people's income
without their permission.
After the failures of a century
and more of presidential
omnipotence, what's left
for the office to do? Socialize heath
care? Forget it. Negotiate
trade deals? Private business does
that already. Conduct a
"summit" in Moscow? What a joke. Clinton
says he can't be distracted
from "the nation's business," when
we are all much better off
if he is. The nation's business is
freedom, not obedience to
the Maximum Leader.
The other day, Madeline Albright
said the presidency could
conduct the "war of the
future" against "terrorists." Is she
serious? That's a line from
"Wag the Dog," when a political
consultant explains to a
CIA bureaucrat why the military must be
used to fool and distract
the people.
If Clinton is forced to hit
the road, let's just leave the
office vacant. After a year
or two of freedom from the
presidency, we'll all realize
we're better off without one.
Think about all the money
that won't be sucked down the election
rathole. The candidates
can stay in the private sector,
producing things for people
instead of taking things from them.
There will be no more presidential
"role models" to corrupt our
kids.
Let's apply the real lessons
of the recent presidential
meltdown, and just call
the whole thing off.
Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.,
is president of the Ludwig von Mises
Institute in Auburn, Alabama.