ating it. The apparatus required continuous feeding byrn”trained specialists” in the new science of “national security,”rnand the G.I. Bill made certain that the personnel the apparatusrndemanded would be available and that universities thenrscK’csrnwould be reconstructed to meet the needs of the new class.rnFor all the lachrymose quacking of the Watergate era aboutrnthe “imperial presidency” and all the quick-response scholarshiprnof the Beltway right in the 19S0’s about the “imperialrnCongress,” the managerial monarchy that Roosevelt built remainsrnwith us. The reaction against it under Richard Nixonrnwas merely a partisan ploy, and the coinage of the phrase “ImperialrnPresidency” by Arthur Schlesingcr, Jr., was no less a piecernof political propaganda than e’erything else he has ever written.rnThe Old Right, whether libertarian or traditionalist, was thernreal enem- of the imperial presidenc from its origins, and it isrna tribute to the shallowness of the post-Reagan conservativesrnthat no sooner was their own candidate the ostensible captainrnof the presidential flagship, and they and their buddies were letrnin on a share of the swag, than they promptly forgot every wordrnthat John T. Flynn, Robert Taft, Willmoorc Kendall, FrankrnMeyer, James Burnham, and Russell Kirk had e’er written orrnsaid in resistance to the new monarch)-. By its ery nature, Caesar’srncolumn crushes those who resist it and simply swallowsrnthose who support it, and republican politics becomes merelyrna gladiatorial duel among those who seek to commandrnthe state.rnBecause the managerial monarchy has emasculated seriousrncongressional resistance, it is doubtful that Congress canrnaccomplish nruch to dismantle or cheek the executive branchrnregardless of who runs either one. Tip O’Neill’s law that all politicsrnis local needs to be amended today, when all polities isrnreally presidential. But of course the presidency, like the staternitself, is merely an instrument for the perpetuation of thernpower of the elite that stands behind the state. As Burnhamrnunderstood, Caesar “is a m’th and symbol as vyell as a personrnand a fact.” “Politically he is more creature than creator, and behindrnhis back rise the serried ranks of the managerial bureaucracv.”rnIt is that bureaucracy and its allies in the managerialrneconomy and dominant culture, and not the presidency or thernstate itself, that is the real enemy of Niiddle Americans and thernfragmented Old Republican legacy they sustain, and it isrnagainst that enemy that their own political efforts need to berndirected. To dismantle the imperial presidenev’ and send Caesar’srnlegions home to their farms would merely be to knock thernweapon from the hands of the foe, but it would not neecssariKrnmean the destruction of the foe himself. To accomplish thatrnultimate end, et another new elite must displace the one thatrnhas used the presidency to put itself in power, and it is likcKthatrnany new elite that does so will forge its own spearhead ofrnrevolution from the same vcapon of presidential power. >-‘rnA House Wrenrnby Harold McCurdyrnGreen, green, are all the trees, and a house wren trills,rnTrills, warbles, chortles, close to my front door;rnA little rustic birdbox invites him to buildrnA nest there too, and prove what singing’s for.rnGrateful I am for green, and for the lightrnCon’ersation of lea’es, and for a wrenrnThe size of a man’s thumb, rarely in sight,rnWho dares to haunt about the houses of men.rnBrief brown appearances on hurring wingrnRe eal an atom too small for such loud song.rnRich, full, and pas,sionate. So would I singrnWere I as tensely strung, and brown, and strong.rnI need him near my door to sing for mcrnThe wonder of existence better than IrnWho, after eightv-cight ears of trymg to bernUseful and just, just manage to scrape by.rn26/CHRONICLESrnrnrn