For future reference, the next time there is a real conservative presidential candidate, one of the most difficult conservative ideas needs to be broached to him is that the presidency of the United States is too powerful, as an office, and as president, he needs to work with congress and the Supreme Court to reduce this power.
There is no real villain here, other than incremental increase in the power of the office since George Washington, but there needs to be an acceptance that this power is overgrown and needs to be trimmed.
To start with, the direct powers of the office that were not originally intended, such as the extremely unconstitutional presidential signing statements, the appointment of Czars, perpetual recess appointments, the state-land-seizing presidential proclamation, as well as the, since Eisenhower, contingency plans that would allow the president to assume dictatorial powers in an “emergency”, decided by him.
Since the Marbury v. Madison (1810) Supreme Court decision, the president cannot be compelled to perform his duties. But the balance of the branches requires that there be a means of *stopping* the president from doing things that he should not do, other than by impeachment.
This could be achieved by requiring that all presidential commands (excepting White House operations) *must* go through a senate confirmed cabinet officer. And hand in hand with that, the congress must assert its authority to impeach and remove cabinet officers for “high crimes and misdemeanors”. (Only one has ever been impeached, though many federal judges have been impeached, and some removed from the bench.)
As well, congress needs to put its foot down over its subpoenas, and contempt of congress. Lying in sworn testimony or refusing to testify must be met with sanctions.
As far as the SCOTUS goes, it needs to be enlarged, gradually, probably to 13 justices, along with a rational reorganization of the other federal benches based on eliminating bottlenecks. At the same time, the SCOTUS must be asked to produce “extended guidance” to lower federal courts about dealing with endless, petty, and redundant civil suits (I’m specifically thinking of school dress codes, student freedom of speech, and religion, etc., that perpetually clog the courts and are never resolved.)
What do you do about a congress that doesn’t write the laws it passes and doesn’t even read the laws it passes?
This is, for those paying attention, rule by decree.
Since it was evident to me at least that even the president was unfamiliar with the details of the laws he was pushing, the identity of the ones ruling by decree is unclear. If it wasn’t him, and it certainly wasn’t congress or the senate, where did these laws spring forth from?
We have a pantomime congress and a pantomime president. Not much chance of checks and balances with this clown circus.