Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
A tale of two hypothetical presidents
A tale of two hypothetical presidents
Jul 1, 2025 12:19 AM

Imagine a president who regularly steps on his own shoelaces and seems to waste power. This president inspires an especially venomous reaction from the press. They actually have contempt for him. He repeatedly harms his own agenda by violating established norms with little regard for the negative impact of doing so. The institution of the presidency relies significantly on a reserve of social and cultural capital built up over the two plus centuries of its existence. My hypothetical president shows little concern for the consequences of depleting that capital. The result is likely to be, at a minimum, that he will have difficulty pushing his agenda forward.

Despite this situation, such a presidency can be a boon to the nation. Readers may need to stop and wipe the coffee off of their screens. Let me repeat: such a presidency can be a boon.

Let us now imagine an alternate scenario. Conjure up the image of a leader who is urbane and an intellectual. This person understands how to manipulate the levers of power to achieve the results he/she may desire. Further, this person has an ambitious dream of shaping policy to bring about a more just and verdant world and believes that an enlightened will is all that is necessary to bring it about. One might recall a significant candidate of the past who famously claimed that “political will is a renewable resource,” thus implying that we need only to want something to happen badly enough in order to bring it about.

This alternative leader, cultured and intellectual in nature, presents a substantial threat to the well-being of American enterprise. While the first president will likely continue to make headlines with tweets and push little actual policy, the alternative president would inspire admiration by many for good temperament and theoretical sophistication and would successfully make big changes. The problem with this alternative president is that he/she would likely privilege moral satisfaction over the actual flourishing of the American people and the economy upon which they depend.

Consider an issue such as the corporate tax. Our alternative president would likely view an increase in the corporate tax (which is already petitive) as a successful blow for social justice which would produce greater redistribution of wealth. Certainly, there would be academics to say so. In addition, our alternative chief would believe that many regulations dictating conditions to functioning businesses would all produce greater justice at little cost. The social planners would likely provide promises that it is so. While elites have largely abandoned the idea of government owning and operating most types of enterprises, they have found it much simpler to dictate conditions with little accountability on the state’s end.

Counter to many expectations, when our uncouth es into office, the stock market roars and even sophisticated Wall Streeters cautiously admit that he may be good for business. Is it his extremely fine economic mind? Is it his ability to set people at ease with his perfect manners and smooth rhetoric? No. These things are missing. But he has one quality they find highly reassuring.

He does not seem to agree with the highly refined geniuses who look upon businesses as a giant lemon which can be squeezed this way and that so as to bring about a quasi-paradise. This galoot does not believe that wages can simply be dictated and the payroll departments can be told to radically re-organize the way they’ve done business for years. He has been in business and knows that the regulatory hit could be even more damaging than high taxes. He is a schlub, but a practical one in many ways. Let’s say he has a street-level intuition about the limits of bureaucracy.

This first president, the one who doesn’t cut a fine figure in suits and resembles eccentric characters from the world of fiction, isn’t going to get much done. That’s okay. Some of his ideas are probably not great and are better left on a campaign website. For some, that is a bad thing. But it also happens that many think he won’t achieve political goals…and THAT is a good thing.

President number one is not very good at making the engine of government hum, but we may discover that such a quality is a feature and not a bug. When es to growing the state, Americans may find that they prefer an amateur to a pro.

Photo: Public Domain, tpsdave

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Law signed protecting filtering industry
President Bush signed a bill into law yesterday that panies such as ClearPlay from litigation for copyright infringement. ClearPlay, for example, offers a DVD player that will filter out “objectionable” content. Consumers are free to purchase this item or not, depending on the sensitivity of their tastes and the ability of the ClearPlay device to cater to their demands. My initial reaction is that this is a positive move from the government, protecting a potentially prosperous and burgeoning industry. It...
Blog market
In traversing the World Wide Web, I’ve happened across BlogShares, “a fantasy stock market for weblogs. Players get to invest a fictional $500, and blogs are valued by ing links.” As the Acton Institute PowerBlog heads toward its one month anniversary, check out it’s BlogShare value. Buy now! ...
Over the edge with the religious left
Over the course of the past few months, many leaders on the left have been ramping up their rhetoric against the influence of the much-maligned “religious right” in American politics. The most recent high-profile example came from Democratic Senator Ken Salazar of Colorado, who described James Dobson and his Focus on the Family organization as “…the Antichrist of the world” in response to their strong advocacy against the filibustering of judicial nominees. Salazar later retracted his statement in the face...
Verse of the day
Via Job 19:25 (New International Version) I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. ...
2005 Samaritan award applications open
The Center for Effective Compassion has opened its 2005 Samaritan Award applications. The survey and instructions are available from May 2 through June 30. First prize is $10,000; nine runners up will receive grant writing assistance, information technology support, Web site support, and much more from nationally-acclaimed consultants. All Samaritan Award applicants will be listed in the new Web based Guide to Effective Compassion, the first online information resource to provide transparency and accountability data for privately funded U. S....
Immigration confusion
There’s been a lot of talk in recent days about the question of immigration, both legal and illegal. A number of issues are involved, including questions about national security, economic concerns, and cultural values. Most recently the Minutemen have begun border patrols and are looking to extend their efforts to the northern U.S. border. You may also remember a scuffle when President Bush put forth the proposal for a guest worker program. The Acton Institute has published two pieces that...
Remembering Leo XIII
On May 2, 1810, the future Pope Leo XIII, 257th Roman Catholic pope (1878-1903), is born. For a survey of the legacy of Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum and the initiation of Catholic Social Teaching, as well as his confluence with the thought of Abraham Kuyper, read this article by Mark A. Noll, “A Century of Christian Social Teaching: The Legacy of Leo XIII and Abraham Kuyper.” ...
Henry Institute to study civic responsibility
The Paul Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity and Politics at Calvin College has received a $100,000 grant from the Milwaukee-based Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation to study the role of religion in shaping civic responsibility in American life. Henry Institute director Corwin Smidt says, “A study of civic responsibility broadens the analysis to assess both attitudinal, mitments and behavioral responses – as well as the interplay between the two. Since civic responsibility entails moral as well as behavioral...
Acton PowerBlog’s first month
The end of April marks the conclusion to the first month of operation for the Acton Institute’s PowerBlog. Thanks to all menters and readers who have made this outreach effective. ...
Challenging the Micah Challenge
There’s a big, fairly new, global effort by Christians to cut worldwide poverty in half by 2015. Just what is this effort? A new giving initiative? A new network connecting churches in the first world with churches in the third world? A new global faith-based NGO? Sadly, no. The new effort is called the “Micah Challenge,” which turns out really to be a challenge to get Christians to call for government action. The Micah Challenge is described as “a global...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved