Executive Action

"This person, they...they go in the front door, then they go out a window and down a rope in the middle of the night? If I could do something like that, I'd be the star of my AARP meetings."
--Luther Whitney (Absolute Power)

Many credit FDR as the president who elevated executive power far beyond its Constitutional constraints. Of course, prior presidents, such as Abraham Lincoln, had been sidestepping the Constitution when it seemed convenient.

It seems clear, however, that the trailblazer for the modern US president was Theodore Roosevelt. In conducting foreign affairs, for instance, Roosevelt once noted that 'It is of enormous interest of this government to strengthen and give independence to the Executive in dealing with foreign powers.'

To be sure, the Framers toiled to produce a design that would squelch such a dominant executive.

But such a design is useless if no one follows it.