The presidency, in all its grandeur and symbolic weight, often serves as the crown jewel of a system that feeds on hierarchy, spectacle, and obedience. We’re taught to look up to presidents, to CEOs, to gods of the free market. But real power should flow horizontally, not vertically.
Still, within a capitalist nation-state, presidents remain a functional necessity: someone to sign laws, to direct agencies, to act as a figurehead for national policy. But this necessity is not noble. It’s a byproduct of a broke structure, a structure that props up inequality, rewards charisma over justice, and reduces collective agency to a once-every-four-years ritual.
Libertarian socialism doesn’t just critique the office of the president, it critiques the entire system that makes such concentrated power seem normal. The goal isn’t to replace one “better” president with another. It’s to build a world where we no longer need one.
Sisyphus Shrugged 