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As 2006 begins, we seem to be at a not completely unfamiliar crossroads in the long history of the American imperial presidency. It grew up, shedding presidential constraints, in the post-World War II years as part of the rise of the national-security state and the military-industrial complex.
It reached its constraint-less apogee with Richard Nixon's presidency and what became known as the Watergate scandal - an event marked by Nixon's attempt to create his own private national-security apparatus, which he directed to commit secretly various high crimes and misdemeanors for him. It was as close as the US came - until now - to a presidential coup d'etat that might functionally have abrogated the constitution. |
