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Dana Perino captures the reality of life in a constitutional dictatorship

By Jack M. Balkin

I suspect that some of you find me tiresome on the point that we should analyze at least aspects of our current system through the analytic lens of "constitutional dictatorship." But consider the following exchange yesterday between the White House Press Secretary, Dana Perino, and Helen Thomas:

Thomas: "The American people are being asked to die and pay for this. And you're saying they have no say in this war?"

Perino: "No, I didn't say that Helen. But Helen, this president was elected --"

Thomas: "Well, what it amounts to is you saying we have no input at all."

Perino: "You had input. The American people have input every four years, and that's the way our system is set up. . . . "

This captures exactly the theory of constitutional dictatorship. That is, there are indeed elections, and one can plausibly argue (save, perhaps for 2000), that the President has won a popular election. So far, so good. But it turns out, according to Ms. Perino and her White House masters, that that's the last moment of participation by We the People until the next election. Rousseau famously commented that the English were free only once every five years, when they voted for parliament. I am no . . . .

adherent of Athenian "direct democracy," which requires, at the very least, a relatively small polity. That being said, there is no reason in the world to adopt a theory of representative democracy instantiated in Ms. Perino's blithe response. It offers only the opportunity, in this country every four years, to select our dictator. Quite frankly, her comment is a far more shocking damnation of American politics than anything said by Pastor Wright (bit I digress). Will John McCain immediately denounce Ms. Perino and the political theology (see Carl Schmitt) that she is faithfully explicating as a presumptive disciple of Bush and Chaney?

Full post as published by Balkinization on March 21, 2008 (boomark / email).