In an online Coursera course on the Constitution, the staff asked this:

The various presidential candidates each say, “If elected, I will …. ” build a wall, make college education free, whatever.

Is that really the way the Executive branch works today? Is that what the framers intended? Which way do you think it should work?

My reply:

When a candidate today says, “I will …” I read it as “I will use my bully pulpit and support from my Congressional caucuses to pass and enforce laws that will …”.
I’m not so sure that is different from the beginning, since those early Presidents were strong-minded men with attitudes about how best to proceed. I think in particular about Jefferson and Madison (and Hamilton had he survived), those strong leaders, who had differing views of how the country should progress and surely wished to use the Presidency as a tool for achieving that. The notion that the job stops with “enforce the laws” is and always has been naive.

When Trump says he will build a wall and is criticized for believing he can do that unilaterally, that is a wrong way to blast him – he (or his more informed staff) is aware that he would have to get approval and funding from Congress (and no, I don’t believe even he believes that Mexico would, in any sense, pay for it!). When Sanders and Clinton speak of free or affordable college tuition, they are fully aware that Congressional action could block them with no recourse.

Political promises at all levels need to be taken with a grain of salt, for sure, but also need to be translated into terms that the candidates are unwilling to state but which they know are the more accurate terms.  We, the voters, are as responsible for interpreting their speeches as are they for clarifying them.  If we believe “the wall” or “free tuition” are beyond both the power of the Presidency and the willingness of Congress to provide funding or other support, we can simply discard the promise as typical campaign hyperbole and look to other issues to make our choices.

“There’s No Free Lunch”
“Political Speech Has Its Own Language”
“First Pay Attention, then Vote.”

I’m Redcat, and I approved this message 🙂