The GOP's God Primary vs. the Actual Presidency
Since the presidential race is well underway, it is perhaps timely to ask a question that almost no one ever seems to actually address in campaign coverage:
What, exactly, do presidents do?
You’d think the president’s job description would be front and center in any campaign coverage, as well as in any voter’s thoughts. After all, we are choosing someone to do a job, and in most interview procedures, hiring agents take the time to assess whether a given job candidate is right for a particular job. It’s hiring 101.
Unfortunately, far too many people believe that they know what it is presidents actually do. Or, put another way, lots of people have wrong ideas about what it is presidents actually do … which amounts to the same thing.
In popular imagination—especially in campaigns—we are beset by the notion that presidents are heroic figures leading their besotted nations to their promised lands. The marble men of history seem to teach us that strong, committed leaders who make speeches and direct armies can dictate policies that, in the end, will make the world a better place. If only we can pick the right person—insert your favorite inspirational president here—we can have the America we want and deserve: the shining city set on a hill.
(And yes: I keep saying “he,” and for at least two reasons: so far all US Presidents have been male, and the hero image is a profoundly gendered one, infinitely complicating women’s electoral chances for the office. I don’t endorse this. I just say it’s true.)
The thing is, this isn’t really what presidents do. The actual range of actions a president can take on any given day are severely constrained. Congress has power; interest groups have power; courts have power; established bureaucracies have power; established programs have power; economic and international conditions have power … and even the ultimate power of using nuclear weapons to blow up the world can only be used once, if at all. For all their speechifying and celebrity rock star status, presidents are, as Richard Neustadt long ago showed, relatively weak actors in the American political system.
So what is it that presidents really do? I think the job really comes to two things: setting a general policy tone for an administration, and then choosing people to administer agencies and programs on the president’s behalf.
Put another way, presidents delegate power to others who, they hope, will enact some piece of the president’s political agenda—preferably with some skill and to some effect. Then, if the president is smart, he (or she! someday!) reviews the officials to whom the president has delegated power, keeping high performing officials and removing poor ones.
That’s really about it.
You know what presidents don’t do? They don’t decide if evolution is real or not. They don’t decide whether America is a “godly” nation or not. They most definitely do not get to decide if a child says the Pledge of Allegiance before class or not.
But that’s what the Republicans seem to be focusing on today: who can be the most “religious” — within a very narrow understanding of “religious.”
Does faithful religiosity translate into a managerial skill set? Perhaps. But I wouldn’t count on it. At the end of this campaign season we may indeed find out which candidate God prefers. But will we find out whether or not the candidate can actually govern?
Not so much.
