The American Kings: Growth in Presidential Power from George Washington to Barack Obama

An inevitable feature of democratic governments is the tendency of their chief executives to pursue domestic policies and foreign wars without the consent of the people. America's own presidents have studiously ignored Congress and the states and have begun to act like all-powerful kings. U. S. presidents make wild promises to get elected, use temporary crises to expand personal power, publish propaganda to divert attention away from their actions, pass out benefits to favored sections of the population in order to get re-elected, and suppress segments of the population who disagree with them. This book chronicles the story of America's lapse into tyranny at the hands of some of its best-known presidents.