Letters to the Editor
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What has happened to us??
What depresses me about the debates is this: under Bush, the presidency has become an issue of what the president believes, what he wants, what he insists on. It’s a cult of personality. What the presidency was intended to be was one of three branches of government, namely the executive. That is to say, the branch that carries out the people’s wishes as expressed through its representatives in a democratic (small "d") congress and overseen by the judiciary. All those questions about what the candidates’ convictions were about this and that played right into the idea that somehow the president is a ruler, a monarch who sets the tone and agenda for government rather than acting on an agenda set by the people. What I was dying to hear a candidate say tonight, when asked a question like, “If you are elected president, what would you do about (fill in the blank),” was a response that said, in effect, “It doesn’t matter what my personal feelings are about (fill in the blank). As chief executive of government, my job is to see to it that the will of the people is put into concrete form, not to stand on my principles, to do what I feel like doing, whether my inclinations conform to the popular will or not.” Sadly, this statement was completely absent from the responses of all the candidates.