Forget about the president

Although all presidents since the beginning of 20th century bear a lot of the blame, the nation has built the presidency up into something it was never intended to be. At some point, this new style monarchy has to be put in its proper place, along with the rest of government. As people watch the oil flow 24 hours a day on cable news, they slowly realize the limitations of government, even when government is trying to expand its power. Government and king-like presidents are not our answers. Presidents come and go and they're good for some things and useless for most things. A good president can inspire the country to become self-sufficient, but we haven't had a good president in a long, long time.

A good president can help keep government under control by protecting the Constitution, and a president can be a good executive, making sure the administative duties of government are carried out with competence and efficiency. But a president in America is not a king, and a president should not pretend to be a king. The absolute worst think our nation can do is give more power to government and presidents -- so, hopefully this oil spill will be a learning moment for those who lean toward statism.

The founders limited government for good reasons, and abuse of power is the chief reason. Abuse of power is running rampant in Washington D.C. -- we've created a monster that has a voracious appetite. But another reason for limiting government is that it can't be all things to all people -- it has natural limits. Government is not competent to handle crises like the gulf oil leak. Government can't even regulate the industry competently. Ask yourself how we got to this point where oil companies are drilling in deep water with no plan for such a serious catastrophe. The oil companies have been regulated for decades, and yet there was no plan for a deep water leak like they have in the gulf. What have we been paying the regulatory departments to do?

The media yammers about the president getting tough with BP, but the president is powerless, and BP wants to stop the leak as much as anyone. It would probably be better if the president would get out of the way, shut up and seriously think about how we got into this mess. We should all be thinking about how we got into this mess.