Democrats have been busy circling the wagons over the Obama administration's extravagant use of executive power — from Obamacare waivers, to unilaterally legalizing 5 million undocumented immigrants, to Arctic drilling restrictions and more. They claim President George W. Bush's "war on terror" agenda is what really threw down the constitutional barriers to expansive executive authority.
Perhaps. But if you really want to look at the origins of executive overreach, you've got to go back much further than Bush 43. Indeed, two American icons — one Republican and one Democrat — are as responsible as anyone for the "imperial presidency."
With apologies to Ken Burns, we'll call them "The Real Roosevelts."
Deifying Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt has become a national pastime — from Mount Rushmore to last year's widely acclaimed Burns documentary. But history (and those who write or film it) has been far too charitable to the distant cousins.
The "real" Roosevelts both used war to their advantage. Both disregarded constitutional limits. Both believed strongly in state control of the economy. And both were unwilling to give up the reins of power.
As a young assistant secretary to the Navy, Franklin conspired behind the scenes for America's entrance into World War I, believing such a conflict would oust his timid boss, Josephus Daniels, and make FDR secretary.
Around the same time, Teddy the Rough Rider took to jingoistic cries about Americanism and bellicose slurs directed at anyone, including German and Irish citizens, who opposed the trench warfare that would ultimately take millions of lives.
Eventually, President Woodrow Wilson — likened to a "coward" by TR — would betray his campaign slogan as "the man who kept us out of war" and upon re-election ask Congress to commence hostilities on April 2, 1917.