ALLIED EVENT: Book Tour of "The Cult of the Presidency"

This is a book talk by author Gene Healy of the Cato Institute on his new book "The Cult of the Presidency: America's Dangerous Devotion to Executive Power." Please RSVP by calling 312-222-7871. The Museum requests reservations as space is limited. Event is free of charge-- complimetary reception.

Gene is a front-line warrior against the growth of government. Be sure to come see what his book is all about, and what he has to say about the fight for liberty. What Gene has to say about the book is posted below:

Dear Friends:

Listening to the current presidential candidates, it's become impossible for me not to wonder: what office are these people running for?

With one contender declaring that the president needs to "be ready on day one to be commander in chief of the US economy," and another stating we can "create a Kingdom here on Earth," while a third tells us that a great president "liberally interprets the constitutional authority of the office" and "nourishes the soul of a great nation," it seems to me something has gone terribly wrong.

The frustration I have been feeling for several years with the decaying state of presidential politics, and the seemingly endless growth of an Imperial Presidency, drove me to take action. It energized and inspired me to write my new book, The Cult of the Presidency: America's Dangerous Devotion to Executive Power.
Today's vision of the president's role couldn't be further from what our Constitution's Framers intended. Their president wasn't an all-powerful soul-nourishing giant. Instead, the president was a limited constitutional officer with clearly defined powers charged with the faithful execution of the laws.

Contrast that intention with what we hear from today's candidates, who sound as though they are seeking a position that's a combination of guardian angel, shaman, and supreme warlord of the earth. How has this happened?

As I demonstrate in The Cult of the Presidency, presidential contenders talk that way for a reason: Americans have come to see the president as a figure responsible for solving all our problems and fulfilling all our hopes and dreams. Is it any wonder then that the presidency has burst its constitutional bonds and grown powerful enough to threaten American liberty?

Using historical scholarship, legal analysis, and cultural commentary, my book traces the growth of the Imperial Presidency over the course of the 20th century, showing how the Imperial Presidency has been a regularly recurring feature of American life for nearly a century. George W. Bush has, in short, followed a path marked out by history's "great" presidents.