This afternoon, we talked to David Sirota, the journalist, screenwriter, former Bernie Sanders aide, and editor of The Lever, about the ways in which presidents from both parties — from Richard Nixon to Barack Obama — have worked to expand presidential power, and how Donald Trump and his enablers took advantage of those previous attempts to engineer a government unaccountable to the people. We also talked about why executive branch supremacy led to the Iran war, the media’s complicity in creating the fantasy of an all-powerful leader (and its refusal to call out real overreach), why Republicans are more comfortable pulling obscure levers of the law to wield power while Democrats hesitate, and how Congress can take power back and rein in the president — if it follows the money.
If you’re concerned about executive power (and who isn’t), you’ll want to check out the whole conversation. Just click on the video player above to listen now.
And if you want a deeper dive into the issues, listen to “The Kingmakers” — Season 2 of The Lever’s Master Plan podcast. The new season, which premieres today, examines in detail how unitary executive theory — the idea of turning the American presidency into a monarchy — has evolved since the Nixon administration, how Donald Trump’s assumption of royal power is the latest step in a long and bipartisan project of expanding executive power — and how Congress can push back.
You can listen at The Lever or on the podcast platform of your choice, and if you want to catch up with Season 1, which looked at how a 1971 memo by soon-to-be Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. laid the groundwork for money to become speech, you can check out old episodes or read the book Master Plan: The Hidden Plot to Legalize Corruption in America.
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Join us for more Live conversation this week!
This Friday, March 20, 12:30 p.m. Eastern, join The Ink Book Club for a special conversation with Laura Beers, author of Orwell’s Ghosts — and our Orwellian times.
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