We were taught in high school, and the U.S. Constitution suggests, that America is different, that our government is built on a balance of powers — that the age of kings was past. And for most of our 217 years of history that has been true. But not lately. Lately the executive branch, meaning the White House, has run amok. The Constitution be damned. The president, essentially, has done whatever he wants. And although George W. Bush did not invent that approach to presidential power, he has certainly refined it and expanded it.