The President: The Power Of A Hierarchial President

Within the media one of the stories that is told is the president holding too much power. The president has the power to do things that past presidents would never dream of. Making calls, and going about their agenda right under congress, and the judiciary branch. In this paper, we will examine some of the ways that the president has become more of a monarchial president, and look at some examples of the power the president has slowly gained.
One of the first times the President went above his power was during World War II. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt went above congress, and above the judiciary branch, and ordered the detainment of 117,000 Japanese citizens. While this action went above the other branches, and resulted in the unjust …show more content…
Within the United States, there are clear laws against torture. Throughout the years leading up to September 11, 2001, the United States had been on of the champions against torture. The United States throughout peace time had never used torture to gain information. There were also two international laws that prohibited torture the Laws of War, and the International Human Rights Treaties. America happily adopted these policies, and made sure that they became the binding law of the United States. The world soon joined the United Sates, and the end of World War II saw the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and in the 1980’s the United Nations adopted a detailed treaty on torture in peacetime. This left for a long standing terms of absolutely no torturing of any individual. However all of the decades of laws, and all of the championing of the United States against torture came crashing down in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. Following the September 11 terrorist attacks within the year the United States executive branch was using torture to gain information. This was against every single law because the United States and never officially declared war. Once again following the September 11 attacks the United States went to war without a formal declaration of war. This was possible because the people were outraged at the attacks, and wanted someone to pay for what had happened. President Bush also justified going to war with Iraq, and Afghanistan convinced that there were nuclear weapons. While there were no nuclear weapons what so ever in either Iraq or Afghanistan this was one way of going above and beyond the Presidential powers. With the people wanting vengeance, and many people willing to do whatever it takes to takes to get the job done the President now could have free reign over fighting the war, and over how to wage the