Posted on 03/03/2015 1:47:35 AM PST by Jacquerie
First off, a dictator is not a tyrant. Yes, an online dictionary and a thesaurus I know of regard them as fairly synonymous. They are not.
Tyrants are outlaws hostile to republican freedom. Tyrants assume, grasp, and otherwise illegally seize powers. They either destroy republican institutions outright, or like Obama, they squeeze the neck of institutions like congress that stand in their way. In time, once free institutions become rubber stamps to the will of the tyrant and sooner or later legitimize his oppression.
OTOH, successful dictators are republican saviors. Classic, ancient dictators were freely given enormous authority for a short period of time to deal with specific threats. They did not eliminate or otherwise even harm republican institutions, but operated legally outside of them, and saved them. They issued orders that lapsed as if they never existed once the dictator’s term of office expired. A dictator leaves no imprint on the law. He establishes no precedent. The republican institutions which created the dictator operate in the background as they normally do.
In the event of a war emergency, most free republics believe they have only one of two choices, to decide whether or not to empower a sitting executive to exercise some level of arbitrary authority. If they don’t, which is a nonsensical decision, the republic is doomed. No modern, medieval, or ancient free or corrupt republic that I am aware of, ever seriously considered such stupidity. So one way or another, the executive branch, whether it is a king, president, or despot end up taking necessary measures to defend the nation. That is, unless the republic considers a third option, goes outside the structure of peacetime magistrates, and appoints a dictator.
Rome famously utilized dictators. To ensure her normal republican government had nothing to do with the actions of the dictator, Rome’s consuls were charged with appointing the dictator and could not choose themselves. This is an important point. Rome made sure the dictator had absolutely no effect on civil government, for the consuls, senate and tribunes remained while the dictator directed the nation. Despite the fact there were ready made executives at hand in the form of consuls, there was no way these constitutional magistrates were to be trusted with arbitrary rule. With the occasional dictator, the Roman republic and freedom survived for several hundred years.
Fast forward to the 18th century.
George Washington’s army was normally careful in the extreme to avoid violating local property. Yet, when finances went beyond miserable, and congress could not supply adequate food, shelter, clothing to his troops, General Washington was advised to plunder what he needed from the populace. Arbitrary power, yes? The yet to be ratified Articles of Confederation made no provision for dictators, but Congress and Washington resorted to such means when necessary. Reference to Washington as a modern Roman Cincinnatus, a dictator, was common. Like Cincinnatus, Washington did his duty, saved his country, and went home to his farm.
The subject of dictators came up at the VA Ratifying Convention of 1788. No less than the leading Anti-Federalist of the age, Patrick Henry, defended the service of Thomas Nelson, appointed “governor” of VA. He served for less than six months, just long enough to defeat Cornwallis. Wiki him. The republican principles of the deposed Governor, Thomas Jefferson, prevented him from taking the essential, difficult measures to deal with Cornwallis’ rampage through VA. Thomas Nelson wasn’t so restrained. He confiscated all the arms, food, supplies, transportation from the populace he thought necessary to supply General Washington and militia troops at Yorktown. A republican governor was given authority to do what it took to save the state. A dictator in all but name, yes?
What long term effect did his wholesale violations of the VA constitution have on the laws of the state and the rights, freedoms of its citizens? None. After his term, normal republican government in Yorktown and VA resumed.
Now, enter the American Republic.
In the US, the enabling statute is the declaration of war. Coupled with legitimate, constitutional authority to suspend habeas corpus in time of rebellion, and duty as Commander in Chief, the American President may constitutionally exercise arbitrary powers. While the US constitution doesn’t provide the appointment of a temporary dictator, service to the republic and laws which demand unnamed arbitrary executive actions go to a sitting chief executive. Absent sunset provisions, and unlike the orders of dictators, these laws last beyond the conclusion of hostilities.
I don’t claim extensive knowledge of the war between the states, but will simply observe that posts to FR regarding the extraordinary muscle exercised by Abraham Lincoln are common. Right or wrong, he saved the republic, but at an enormous price. He left behind a forever changed nation in which business and government began to thoroughly enjoy a cozy, symbiotic, mutually profitable relationship made possible by the war and its attendant laws.
As a daily reader of Freeper HomerJSimpson’s WWII posts of the NY Times seventy years ago to the day, I often read the left hand columns of the front page, which deals with domestic issues. Make no mistake, FDR exercised practical one-man rule. Congress established various war boards for production, banking, labor practices, wages, prices etc., and FDR wielded directive authority over the boards. In one memorable instance, he directed the Army to take over coal mine production when the United Mine Workers went on strike. Global conflict needed coal, lots of it, and no narrow labor dispute would disrupt the wider war effort. Considering that the statutory right to establish labor unions had only been in existence for a few years, FDR boldly exercised arbitrary, non-statutory authority to deal with the crisis.
By 1945, after a dozen years of the New Deal and WWII, the US more or less accepted arbitrary government intrusion into domestic affairs. The Leftist outrages of 1960s and 2010s were/are continuation of precedent established subsequent to law beginning in the 1930s.
What if the constitution provided for outright appointment of a dictator to deal with emergencies? What if men were statutorily appointed, Roman style, by the President to six month terms of incredible authority to deal with a specific crisis? No further congressional laws, no give and take compromises among rat/pubbie lawmaking, no permanent changes to the laws in order to deal with a situation that required temporary extra-republican remedies would be left over after the emergency.
American wars of survival have left their mark, and not just on her citizens, but on her laws, customs, subsequent executive orders and precedents. Laws associated with authority to deal with external threats remain after the war, which are later turned inward to oppress the people they were designed to protect.
Pardon me if I muse, but what if the American Republic had empowered a dictator now and then, rather than soil the hands of Presidents with legacies that have corrupted our republic and given us the tyrant Obama?
I tend to think of them synonymously sometimes, but there is still the fact that there have been ‘benevolent dictators’ in history. Not so for tyrants. :0)
Obama is a spoiled child and in 2 more years he’ll be retired.
” in 2 more years he’ll be retired.”
While former Republican presidents fade from public life former Democratic presidents stay in the news with moralistic pronouncements on every current issue. If you thought you were tired of hearing Obama’s clichés wait until he feels unrestrained by the office. You could always just leave the teacher’s lounge but now it will follow you everywhere there is a droning TV.
That was quite well thought out.
The concept is actually an ancient one, finding its first voice in Plato’s vision of The Republic, Kallipolis.
Plato (and his fellows in the Socratic School) recognized that all systems, no matter how ingeniously conceived would suffer the twin decay of atrophy and entropy. Just so, we are living in a nation whose Constitution has atrophied from disuse and suffering the entropy of repeated corruption mounting to the point of cronyism with no recognizable similarities to the Free Market Capitalism that built the economy in the first place.
Only the steady hand of the Benevolent Dictator could keep the ship of state aright in times of great duress.
The problem with this is of course that those so disposed to becoming dictator are most often those least able to fulfill the role, especially from an altruistic perspective. Men like Thomas Nelson and Lucius Cincinnatus just aren’t all that easy to find.
Although ..... If anyone is so inclined as to offer me the chance to be Dictator for say - six months? - I’ll have the alphabet soup in Washington all standing guard on the Southern Border and what’s left of ISIS, the Taliban and Hamas will be trying to pitch their tents by driving the pegs through glass.
Oh. You can have your doctor back too. I promise.
{;^)
Every ex-president I’ve experienced has pretty well much disappeared into rhetorical oblivion, or have just kept their noses out of other presidents business. There’s just so much influence lost when they take that last helicopter ride. In time, the democrats will look back and think WTF were we thinking?
The spark for my post was Chapter 34 of Machiavelli's Discourses on Livy.
He points out that institutions designed to keep free republics free, are counterproductive and harmful in corrupt republics.
That maxim is before our eyes. Congress used to represent the major elements of our republic, the people and states. The laws they created had a firm basis for nationwide support.
Today, the law is largely whatever Obama and his ministers say it is. Congress doesn't represent either the people nor states. Over time, congress increasingly serves party leaders and major money donors whose particular interest is typically opposed to the general interest, the general welfare.
So, the once law-giving institution of a free republic has bee reduced to that of a miserable servant to tyranny. It is why I will probably cease voting, for every vote increasingly serves to condone tyranny.
Let’s hope so. :0)
Carter and Clinton have hardly kept their mouths shut, but to be fair, Carter has only recently started trailing off due to senility, and I think Clinton is sick.
That man is not well.
“Every ex-president I’ve experienced has pretty well much disappeared into rhetorical oblivion, or have just kept their noses out of other presidents business.”
Jimmy Carter?
Oblivion. At it’s simplest , oblivion means nobody cares. Nothing Carter has ever said post presidency has gained any traction in the news. At most I’ve ever seen it was a blip in the daily news cycle.
Every DICTATOR, through out history, will promise anything and everything to the population of that country. UNTIL THEY TAKE COMPLETE CONTROL OF THAT COUNTRY. Let’s start with Napoleon. Once Napoleon had eliminated or silenced all his detractors, he began to destroy FRANCE. Hitler and Lenin did the same, and look at what they did to their countries. More often than not, these dictators were freely elected by the people. Then an only then will they show their real “SELF”
As I gaze into the crystal ball I see the ghost of Al Capone tapping Billy Jeff on the shoulder.
...”So, the once law-giving institution of a free republic has bee reduced to that of a miserable servant to tyranny. It is why I will probably cease voting, for every vote increasingly serves to condone tyranny.”...
When voting seems to be a useless activity which changes nothing, people will come to that conclusion. When you think of it, fixed elections in despotic nations are not a whole lot different than elections which change nothing anyway.
Obama is a spoiled child and in 2 more years he’ll be retired as will be the Republic.
Obama is a spoiled child and in 2 more years he’ll be retired as will be the Republic as will be the Republic.
Adds alot to my understanding. Thanks.
It sure opened my eyes.
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