Originally Posted By: J.B.
Originally Posted By: Houstondon
Now, the executive branch makes marginal adjustments to wide sweeping policies and purposefully allows them to be interpreted however need be, that trend largely starting with FDR as you say.


Or, maybe earlier. Like with Washington, Hamilton, the Necessary and Proper clause, and the First Bank of the United States. This stuff, and the attendant argument, have been with us since the beginning. It ebbs and it flows. Getting all Pepperidge Farm remembering a simpler time before FDR is an exercise in amnesia.


That's where my original comment comes in, his distinction between the more modern methods of expanding executive power and the need, at the beginning of this experiment in governing at least, to establish the ground rules could be looked at somewhat differently. Ultimately, people drawn to power don't like limits and tend to seek ways to expand their influence one way or another.

And it is always interesting how those vilified in life get treated in death, Lincoln truly popularized long after he shuffled off this mortal coil.