Great Insights by Garry Wills About the "Commander-In-Chief"

Garry Wills's recent column in the New York Times makes an intriguing and useful point about citizens' excessive deference to the President in his role as "OUR commander-in-chief." Wills simply but profoundly reminds us that a president is commander-in-chief of no citizen, but is rather the official civilian leader of the armed forces. In fact, the chief executive is responsive to us, the electorate.

Wills writes: "The glorification of the president as a war leader is registered in numerous and substantial executive aggrandizements; but it is symbolized in other ways that, while small in themselves, dispose the citizenry to accept those aggrandizements.

We are reminded, for instance, of the expanded commander in chief status every time a modern president gets off the White House helicopter and returns the salute of marines. That is an innovation that was begun by Ronald Reagan. Dwight Eisenhower, a real general, knew that the salute is for the uniform, and as president he was not wearing one. An exchange of salutes was out of order."

We should not allow the powerful and sentimental allure of military trappings, especially during a time of war, to limit both our perception of what the Presidency is and our own role in expecting accountability from that institution.