De Tocqueville on Presidential Power

I have finished a long journey through Alexis de Tocqueville’s “Democracy in America,” Volume I, Dover’s paperback edition (2017) being a daunting 559 pages (1835 publication originally); it is followed by 499 pages of volume II (1840). This column introduced you to the book in a preceding article, and spoke to its being too comprehensive for but one column. Out of necessity, the columnist began writing as he read, as cogent points popped their heads out of de Tocqueville’s incredibly perceptive, but maybe dated, theses. The present short commentary materialized from one of those pop-ups. Only 159 pages into volume I and de Tocqueville observes about the Presidency: “The laws allow him to be strong, but circumstances keep him weak.” That is lead-in to the next section, entitled…