Moe Power, Moe Problems

Reason TV has posted video of my recent Soho forum debate on presidential power, facing off with Stanford University’s Terry Moe. The overarching question was “Is More Presidential Power Necessary in the Modern World?”, but the debate resolution itself focused on a specific proposal advanced by Professor Moe: Moe and his coauthor, the University of Chicago’s William G. Howell, have showcased the idea in two books so far: 2016’s Relic and last year’s Presidents, Populism, and the Crisis of Democracy . It’s supposed to work like this: under “universal fast-track authority,” the president gets to write his preferred legislation and submit it for a quick, up-or-down vote (no filibustering allowed) without congressmen getting their grubby little thumbprints all over it. For the formerly “First Branch,” the only choice would be to rubber-stamp the president’s bill or “veto” it. We might need to amend the Constitution (and rewrite the lyrics to “Schoolhouse Rock”) to get there, but arming the president with this new, agenda-setting power would pay off mightily, Moe and Howell argue. It would deliver scads of “effective government” and the sort of “coherent, problem-solving leadership that presidents can offer.” They alone can fix it! I don’t think much of this idea, and said so in my opening remarks. In the worst case—say, the early days of a genuine national crisis—this new presidential power could be quite dangerous. Even in the best case, their proposal rests on assumptions about presidential motivation that don’t track with reality. Moreover, if implemented, the fast-track amendment would likely make the very problems Moe and Howell want it to solve—polarization and populist authoritarianism— even worse . In his rebuttal, Professor Moe huffed that “Gene just took a giant plate of linguine and threw it against the wall to see what would stick… There wasn’t any coherent, logically linear kind of argument, just a bunch of points that weren’t entirely connected to one another. Dealing with that kind of melange is not so easy.” Er, sorry about that. Still, I flatter myself that what I served up had more meat than carbs. Go here to get a flavor and judge for yourself. And in case you’re not up for the full hour and a half video, I’ll crib from my notes and lay out the TL;DW version below.