The Mises Institute monthly, free with membership Volume 14,
Number 8 In a truly free society, it wouldn't matter who the
president was. We wouldn't have to vote or pay attention to
debates. We could ignore campaign commercials. There would be no
high stakes for ourselves, our families, or the country. Liberty
and property would be so secure that we could curse him, love
him, or forget This was the system the framers set up, or people
believed they were getting, with the U.S. Constitution. The
president would never concern himself with the welfare of the
American people. The federal government had no say over it. That
was left to the people's political communities of choice; here
we were to govern ourselves and plan our own future. The
president was mostly a figurehead, a symbol. He had no public
wealth at his disposal. He administered no regulatory
departments. He could not tax us, send our children into wars,
pass out welfare to the rich and poor, appoint judges to take
away our rights, keep dossiers on the