Monday, October 2, 2017

DOOMED TO FAIL

Jeremi Suri, The Impossible Presidency: The Rise and Fall of America's Highest Office (New York: Basic Books, 2017) ("Even the most capable modern presidents are doomed to fail. Limiting the failure and achieving some good along the way--that is the best we can expect. Disciplining the office to focus power on the issues that matter most to the nation as a whole--that is the key lesson from the slow historical rise of the presidency, before its recent precipitous fall. Wee cannot go back, but we can gain wisdom and modesty from the past, especially in an age when both are so lacking in our chosen leaders." Id. at xxiii.).