Although I’ve been pleased by all of the recent drone-related media coverage driven by the leaked DoJ memo and the CIA director confirmation hearing for John Brennan, I’ve also been concerned that the larger issue has been absent from the discussion.

Like indefinite detention (2012 NDAA), limitless industrial-scale surveillance (PATRIOT Act, FISA Amendments Act), and illegal undeclared wars (Libya/ODYSSEY DAWN), assassination-by-drone is just a symptom of a larger disease: the cancer that is the imperial presidency.

Unless these policies are overturned during Obama’s final term, we face the prospect of having them in place for 16 consecutive years (counting the Bush years). That’s nearly a generation of norming the unconstitutional…and at that point, the “new normal” might be in “bipartisan” political concrete.