SUSAN GOLDBERG: ‘Hamilton’ Star’s Plea to Pence Highlights Liberals’ Screwy Notion of Presidency.
If our founding fathers, so lovingly portrayed in the Broadway musical, were to hear such a plea spoken to a newly elected member of the executive branch, they’d most likely do a double-take and wonder if they were still in America. The presidency was never supposed to be an absolute monarchy ruled by a leader from which the people beg benevolence. In fact, precisely because of our ugly relationship to England’s monarch, the founders established a government that would grant the least amount of power possible to one single person.
I guess the presidential oath isn’t in the script. Here’s a little refresher: The incoming president swears to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” (Emphasis mine.) The entire cast and audience of Friday night’s performance conveniently forgot that fact when pleading for mercy. Perhaps that is because Democrat administrations starting with F.D.R. and culminating with Barack Obama have manipulated the media and the law to give the presidency the regal image and legal authority the founders, most notably President George Washington, despised and rejected.
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