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9/11 brought back the US Imperial Presidency, the effects of which we are still feeling today Edit: Downvote me harder, fascists

lr4444lr 3y ago
You are likely being downvoted just as much for the inaccurate implication that US Imperialism only started after 9-11 as the explicit accusation of US imperialism at all.
- dragonwriter 3y ago
  The "Imperial Presidency" is a term that is entirely orthogonal to US imperialism, though I suppose it is possible that people are ignorant enough to downvote for both of the reasons you suggest.
dragonwriter 3y ago
> 9/11 brought back the US Imperial Presidency The "imperial presidency" was pretty much a linear progression for decades before 9/11; 9/11 didn't materially impact it, and definitely didn't "bring it back" as if it had gone somewhere between when it was first identified and 9/11,
Mountain_Skies 3y ago
Centralization of power in the presidency had been going on for a long time before 9/11, motivated by two things: nuclear weapons and a semi-permanent Congress. Because of the need to be able to respond quickly during a nuclear attack, much of Congress's oversight in military matters were transferred to the presidency. Also, because congress critters tend to be cowards who want to avoid doing things that would upset the voters in their district, the presidency has been given lots of regulatory power it shouldn't have. Congress critters love giving presents to voters far more than they enjoy slapping them with a bunch of regulation and restrictions. Let the president and the Executive Branch's bureaucracy take that heat. 9/11 gave the government, especially the federal government, much more power than it had before, which means everyone's slice of that power grew, but I'm not convinced that it's all that responsible for the slice for the executive branch having grown to be such a large share as it was already there before the attack.

lr4444lr 3y ago

You are likely being downvoted just as much for the inaccurate implication that US Imperialism only started after 9-11 as the explicit accusation of US imperialism at all.

dragonwriter 3y ago
The "Imperial Presidency" is a term that is entirely orthogonal to US imperialism, though I suppose it is possible that people are ignorant enough to downvote for both of the reasons you suggest.

dragonwriter 3y ago

> 9/11 brought back the US Imperial Presidency The "imperial presidency" was pretty much a linear progression for decades before 9/11; 9/11 didn't materially impact it, and definitely didn't "bring it back" as if it had gone somewhere between when it was first identified and 9/11,

Mountain_Skies 3y ago

Centralization of power in the presidency had been going on for a long time before 9/11, motivated by two things: nuclear weapons and a semi-permanent Congress. Because of the need to be able to respond quickly during a nuclear attack, much of Congress's oversight in military matters were transferred to the presidency. Also, because congress critters tend to be cowards who want to avoid doing things that would upset the voters in their district, the presidency has been given lots of regulatory power it shouldn't have. Congress critters love giving presents to voters far more than they enjoy slapping them with a bunch of regulation and restrictions. Let the president and the Executive Branch's bureaucracy take that heat. 9/11 gave the government, especially the federal government, much more power than it had before, which means everyone's slice of that power grew, but I'm not convinced that it's all that responsible for the slice for the executive branch having grown to be such a large share as it was already there before the attack.