Brett Marston has some interesting essays (here and here) on current battles between the major political parties over the separation of powers and the intent of the Framers. I’m a little sleepy for an extended analysis, let alone to look up “thumos,” but his arguments strike me as reasonable.

One of the things I always emphasized to my students in the old days when I was teaching American politics was that the guys who wrote the Constitution were /gasp/ politicians and that, indeed, politics didn’t begin with (insert name of current President) and (insert name of current opposition party leader). Brett’s posts make a similar, if more elaborate, point.