Executive office powers is debated by UA panel

Steven Schier, a political science professor at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn., discusses the presidency of George W. Bush on Friday inside Giffels Auditorium on the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville campus.
Steven Schier, a political science professor at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn., discusses the presidency of George W. Bush on Friday inside Giffels Auditorium on the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville campus.

— The U.S. presidency is growing more powerful and polarizing politics to such an extent that it could damage the political system, a group of political scholars said Friday.

“You have a problem - your system is polarizing more every year,” said Alexander Moens, professor of political science at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia. “Unless you rediscover this art of compromise, your republic is in danger of collapsing.”

The Canadian was one of eight professors and political experts to participate in a panel discussion at the University of Arkansas on former President George W. Bush and his impact on the presidency. The panel was part of a twoday conference sponsored by the Fulbright Institute of International Relations and the Blair Center of Southern Politics and Society.

About 100 people listened to speakers at Giffels Auditorium on the Fayetteville campus talk about issues, including how Bush made decisions, what perceived mistakes he made and how his attempt to expand executive power influenced the next president.

“Bush may have come in as a conciliator, but he was consumed by toxic partisan politics,” said Bert Rockman, professor and department head of political science at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. “The big story here is the political polarization.”

That polarization is part of a historical trend going back decades, said Sunshine Hillygus, associate professor of political sciences at Duke University in Durham, N.C. Increasingly, the two parties are becoming “ideological war machines,” bickering among themselves withoutnegotiating or compromising, Moens said.

Part of the problem stems from new campaign strategies that personalize issues to the point voters are told what they want to hear, Hillygus said. Researchers can determine what interests certain people have and develop campaigns specifically for them, but that tactic eliminates public discussion on a broad scale and increases polarization, she said.

It also makes governing and legislating more difficult because the president and other politicians will have made multiple promises instead of holding on to one theme during their campaigns, Hillygus said.

At the same time, Bush succeeded in efforts to broaden the executive powers of the president, said Mitchel A. Sollenberger, assistant professor of political science at the University of Michigan at Dearborn. He fired multiple U.S. attorneys, replaced them and claimed his aides were immune from testifying or participating in a Congressional investigation, Sollenberger said. He also succeeded in claiming executive power to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from instituting regulations until his term expired, Sollenberger said.

The use of executive power did not stop with Bush, Sollenberger said. President Barack Obama announced his presidency would be transparent but has refused to cooperate inan investigation into the Nov. 5, 2009, mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, and failed to notify Congress when he joined a month ago with European nations to intervene militarily in Libya, he said.

Presidents claim more power every term, creating a cycle of polarization and loss of political influence, so that they eventually use executive power to compensate forthe lack of political influence, said Steven Schier, Congdon professor of political science at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn. He said the Bush presidency is much more than just about Bush; it is the latest evolution of the presidency.

At the end of the discussion, several students asked questions, ranging from the “Road Map” to peace in the Middle East to the economicrecession that began in 2007. Dressed in a suit and tie, Housseine Mheimid, a UA senior in international relations, said he came to the forum to hear experts talk about policy and current issues.

“I think it’s important because we need to understand the decisions of politicians,” Mheimid said.

Christian Lehmberg, a senior political science major,said he came to hear about Bush, who was a major polarizing influence in his life when he was younger.

“I was in high school when we went to war in Iraq. I was in middle school when I watched 9/11,” Lehmberg said. “The Iraq war got me into politics.”

Lehmberg was adamantly against Bush when he was younger, and he voted for Obama in 2008. But he is more moderate now, believing Bush had successes and missteps. The political experts presented a fair picture of Bush and his legacy, he said.

“As for now, [Bush] will be remembered as making more mistakes than successes,” Lehmberg said. “He made a lot of mistakes that we are still dealing with today.”

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 8 on 04/23/2011

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