In explaining the underlying design of the new republic, the United Stated, Publius touches on topics and offers thoughts that are no less relevant today than when pen was first put to paper. One point brought by those opposed to a republican form of national government was the power vested in the chief executive, the President. On the contrary Publius argued that a strong executive, answerable only to the people, was necessary to a properly functioning government.
The administration of government, in its largest sense, comprehends all the operations of the body politic, whether legislative, executive, or judiciary; but in its most usual, and perhaps its most precise signification it is limited to executive details, and falls peculiarly within the province of the executive department. The actual conduct of foreign negotiations, the preparatory plans of finance, the application and disbursement of the public moneys in conformity to the general appropriations of the legislature, the arrangement of the army and navy, the directions of the operations of war, these, and other matters of a like nature, constitute what seems to be most properly understood by the administration of government. The persons, therefore, to whose immediate management these different matters are committed, ought to be considered as the assistants or deputies of the chief magistrate, and on this account, they ought to derive their offices from his appointment, at least from his nomination, and ought to be subject to his superintendence.
And therein lies the problem with Dunwoody and all the other poisoned-mushroom cities springing up around us. Rather than follow Publius' sound advice, Dunwoody founding fathers chose to deny a representative form of government, operated by those elected to do so, and in such a manner that it serves the needs of the citizenry but instead to empower un-elected bureaucrats more beholden to others than to the citizenry. In effect, they sold the elected offices before the first election was ever held and in so doing installed corruption as a structural, foundational cornerstone of that government.
Dunwoody has proven, by eviscerating the offices held by our elected representatives, that Publius was indeed correct. There is no need to continue proving it.
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