Unitary Executive
Peter Schultz
Issue posed by Cheney, et. al.: Is the “unitary executive” constitutional? This question ignores or covers up the question, Is a unitary executive politically beneficial? The most important guestion isn’t, does it exist, but is should it exist?
Cheney et. al. argued that presidents can’t do their jobs unless there is a unitary executive. In other words, the “centralization of authority in … presidents alone is … crucial….”
But this is true only for a particular conception of the president’s “job.” Centralization of authority only makes sense given a particular conception of president’s job. If the president’s job isn’t domination, then the centralization of authority in that office doesn’t make sense. And, of course, if domination is illusionary, both as a fact and as a good thing, then the centralization of authority ought to be rejected because it will lead to failure. If the political is a madhouse, and domination of it is illusionary, then what Cheney, et. al., take as an unalloyed good thing, centralization of executive authority, will lead to failure over and over again, e.g., in Vietnam, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Ukraine, in Cuba, in the Middle East, in Latin America, etc., etc., etc.
Ironically, it was during the covert centralization of executive authority in the Reagan Administration that the failures that made up what is called Iran-Contra came to be. But this was successfully covered up by the Congressional investigations and by the OIC under Walsh. Put differently, it was imperialism and imperialistic policies that led to the Iran-Contra failures. Why? Because although imperialism looks politically beneficial, it isn’t. In fact, like the political itself, it’s madness. This is what needed to be covered up in Iran-Contra, in Vietnam, in Iraq and Afghanistan, etc.
And if you can transform imperialists into criminals, ala’ as was done to Nixon during Watergate and as Walsh tried to do with North and Poindexter, then you can successfully cover up the madness of imperialism and of the political. Nixon, as a criminal, became the scapegoat who was used to cover up the madness of imperialism and of the political. (An article of impeachment that dealt with Nixon’s actions in Southeast Asia, i.e., with his imperialistic politics, was voted down in the House of Representatives.) Ditto regarding the criminalization of North and Poindexter.
