Part 2: Presidential Exploitation and Manipulation of Constitution

If you haven’t read Part 1 of this series, I really recommend that you do that before reading this.

We are going to pick up where we left on Part 1 by continuing to go over four more presidents who exemplify the exploitation and manipulation of the Constitution. I am still debating on doing a Supreme Court part because of the research likely required, it might be on hold due to time constraints. (My work schedule consists of 70 hour weeks) Anyway without further due, I think that these four presidents really will bring home the point of the series. We’ll look at them in chronological order starting with Lyndon B. Johnson, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Barack H. Obama.

Lyndon B. Johnson (Referred to as LBJ for short)

LBJ is a unique president, he took over after JFK’s assassination. He was most well known for his role as senate whip, his ability to coax legislation through Congress was unmatched. He came into office during troubling times in American history, the ramp up of the Vietnam war and economic trouble at home. These circumstances allowed LBJ some angles both new and old. One of Johnson’s proudest accomplishments was his Great Society. A literal bundle of legislation. The Great Society was similar to the New Deal. The difference being that the Great Society took the constitution’s tenth amendment allowing for federal government to liberally regulate things not given a role in the constitution.

In order to not ramble on, lets just take one or two examples like Education and voting rights. The ESEA or Education and Secondary Education act allowed the federal government to grant loans for college. No where in the constitution does it say that federal government has a right to do this, except in interpretation of tenth amendment. The Civil Rights Act of 1965, allow blacks to vote. Once again constitution doesn’t really give guidance on voting rights with the except of a few amendments. But before 1965, Jim Crow laws kept blacks from voting.

My point here is that LBJ’s Great Society changed the role of government within the everyday life of a citizen. FDR set the foundation with the New Deal, and LBJ built the frame with Great Society. Nearly all of the Great Society is still intact today. LBJ is infamous for his ramp up of the Vietnam war. I think JFK deserves some credit here as well because he planted some 10,000 advisors in Vietnam before his death. LBJ used a false flag in the gulf of tonkin, then once in the war, took advantage of tactics that once again not within view of the constitution. I’m referring to agent orange and the draft as well. George Washington did warn about standing armies. It was obviously ignored or forgotten. Also while agent orange may not violate the constitution, I think it violates the rules of engagement. (This is a whole other topic, putting pin in it here)

Ronald Reagan

Reagan was our first movie star president. I think sometimes he treated the presidency exactly like a movie role. I honestly can’t get enough of his Star Wars weapon system that he made up to trick the Soviets. But I think Reagan did more wacky things with money and drugs. Perhaps two of the things the constitution gives no guide. As we saw with Woodrow Wilson’s creation of the Federal Reserve, Reagan invented his brand of economics called trickle-down economics where he lowered taxes for the rich and businesses in hopes to trickle down jobs and money to lower classes. (Not commenting on whether or not it works) The problem with Reagan and this isn’t so much his fault as it is Congress, but Reagan drove up the deficit by trillions, over 2 trillion dollars by the time he left office. Reagan even stole from Social Security (FDR’s insolvent monster) to pay for defense spending which he also increased dramatically. I found this interesting website about the national debt, where it shows you how much each president increased or decreased it, check it out.

George W. Bush

Dubya or Bush has to be one of the most interesting presidents in history. A surprising amount of personality. I read his biography Decision Points after his presidency, give me a lot of insight on some of his obviously tough decisions. But here I want to focus mainly two things: War and the Patriot Act. Let’s start with the sham that was the war on terror. Although Bush personally was just the face, his team around him really pushed hard for war. The neoliberal agenda subverted the constitution to get the war racket started again. There were no WMD’s in Iraq. Bush admitted in his book they got false intelligence. (In fairness, they did and it was intentional) Either way, I think the war on terror exploited the new power of president’s to make war whenever they feel like it without congress approval. Even so, Congress still approved money because their lobbyist friends made sure they got a cut. It get worse though.

The Patriot Act is arguably the worst law passed by any president. It directly violates the fourth amendment which is supposed to protect from unreasonable search and seizure. If anyone can tell me how the NSA tapping phones and reading emails of Americans is catching terrorists who hailed from Saudi Arabia then please email me or message me on Twitter. (I’m serious) The Supreme Court is a gutless institution that is infected by political partisanship, its failed to strike down this obviously unconstitutional law. Once again, I’ll circle back to neoliberals by saying government has only expanded out from the NSA into social media as well. The line between a private social media company and a government subsidized one is quite blurry. This is certainly a stain on both democracy and justice system in America.

Barack H. Obama

Thanks Obama! Obama holds a weird place for me among presidents because overall I feel like he was almost entirely ineffective. However, there one or two things that I actually thought were decent moves. We’re running out of words, so lets get right to the infamous Obamacare and of course beating a dead horse with war. Obamacare is another one of those horrendous laws that outright violates the constitution. What kind of monster makes people who can’t afford insurance pay a fine if they don’t have insurance? Its legit tyranny, imagine the founders fighting over 3 percent tax. During the Obama administration, people didn’t blink at being fined 1200 dollars for not having insurance. Unfortunately the truth is that Obama was in bed with the big pharma and insurance companies, who wrote most of that bill. The results were bad and unsurprising. (Privatizing healthcare is the only good option here)

Obama was really terrible with starting wars without any approval. Syria, Libya, and Yemen to name a few. I think that Obama is just exploiting power that had already been set up by precedents. Although, this doesn’t shift the blame because every president has the opportunity to change it. (Neoliberal system doesn’t allow it, of course) The problem is that none of them change it for the better.

Conclusion

This series isn’t a comprehensive list of every president and every manipulative, exploiting thing they have done against the constitution. But I think Part 2 makes it clear that after World War 2, trampling the constitution is an automated process, done by Presidents almost unwittingly. The point of this series is to show that the constitution is either powerless to stop or not broad to reign in the rogue acts of power hungry politicians. The bigger problem and most troubling one to me, is that as citizens we have accepted this way. The central foundation of the constitution was the people would hold the government accountable. Its gone very off track, with government ignoring all accountability.

I personally believe the constitution and democracy it upholds, has failed. The proof is here in the eight presidents. But if you were to look at all 46 presidents, you would find thousands of examples. Voting won’t fix this. We have to reform how think about governance in modern society. Perhaps if you don’t already read my blog, you should check out some of ideas. Take a scroll through.

Thanks for reading!

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