Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

January 20, 2008

Until the early 20th Century, most Americans neither knew nor cared much about the president.

Although the presidency was always considered significant, it wasn?t until after our nation acquired an overseas empire that it came to be regarded as the most important office on earth.

The Constitution defined the presidency as an institutionally weak office with largely derivative powers: Its function was to carry out constitutionally sound laws, conduct diplomacy with foreign nations, make various appointments with the Senate?s consent, and supervise the military when called into action by Congress.

Today, by way of contrast, the powers claimed and exercised by the president are limited only by his imagination and by Congress?s appetite for subservience.

On this inaugural day, amid the engineered ecstasy over the installation of a new short-term political messiah, it?s useful to ask: How would the Founding Fathers view this orgy of imperial leader-worship?

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.