Government moving away from Founding Fathers' model (Utah)

[struggle4progress]

... Under the guise of protecting us from terror, we find the executive branch consolidating and centralizing government power at a rate unprecedented since the days of the Civil War. From undeclared, unending military actions around the world to expansion of government police powers at the expense of civil liberties regarding unreasonable search and seizure, to the select use of kidnapping (rendition, if you prefer) and torture, "the times they are a changing" and limited government appears to be on the way out.
Doomsday scenarios notwithstanding, there is as much real danger in allowing conservatives to excuse "implied powers" on the part of a war president as there is in liberals excusing judicial activism as it twists the plain meaning of the Constitution. When it comes to slipping the restraints of constitutional government, there are no good guys on either side of the aisle, because in either case, they are setting at naught the division of powers that has kept our government a servant of the people rather than their master.

Such is all the more likely in times of war, as James Madison warned in 1795, "War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts, and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. ... No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people."

Please note that this would be true under any president, not just the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Once precedent is established, the next chief executive is only too happy to continue exercising such powers, confident that since others have done it, it must be legal and proper ...

http://www.thespectrum.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060116/OPINION02/601160313/1014