Don't get us wrong, we like the splendid Jefferson Memorial as well as anyone and we don't mind Mount Rushmore. Yet in so honoring presidents at the expense of Congress, the courts and others, what message are we sending? Does the public begin to expect that only a president can be our primary protector and benefactor? Does this image accurately reflect the political world presidents occupy?

Do we "think" the president is more powerful than is in fact true? By ignoring the separation of powers and the other roadblocks faced by presidents, do we give a false impression of both the power of the office and the systemic realities of the separation of power? Are we building the presidential image up beyond what can realistically be accomplished?

We ask these questions around Presidents Day because we are concerned for the political health of the republic.

A strong constitutional democracy requires strong institutions, strong citizens, strong laws, a vital constitution and, in our case, a strong entrepreneurial sector. Yet our fixation on presidents and the presidency might erroneously leave the impression that the president is the government, and that Congress, the courts and citizens - even the rule of law - are all merely subordinates or minor annoyances to the powerful "I am the decider," "I won" Leviathan in the White House.

A ubiquitous obsession

* Large, imposing, impressive buildings line the streets of our nations' capital; the city oozes power. Sprinkled there one finds the Washington Monument, the Jefferson Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Kennedy Center, the Reagan Airport, the FDR Memorial . . . grand tributes to presidential icons. Other parts of the country reinforce this iconography as well, from Mount Rushmore to the naming of cities, highways and schools - and presidential libraries and Disney Exhibitions.

* On a hill overlooking the Simi Valley in suburban Los Angeles, a lovely Spanish-style hacienda serves as home to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. It is one of nearly a dozen opulent palaces devoted to promoting the memory and enhancing the reputation of former presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, William J. Clinton, Richard Nixon and others.

* Harrison Ford in Air Force One (1997) is a presidential macho superhero. He uses brains, brawn and courage to defeat the terrorist thugs who try to hijack his plane with his family on board. Another film hero president in Independence Day (1996) uses his combat pilot experience to save not only his plane but his planet from an invasion of aliens!

* Of the seven denominations of banknotes currently in circulation, five have the pictures of presidents on them. And now, the U.S. Mint is issuing new dollar coins (four new ones will be issued every year) with - you guessed it - the likeness of every deceased president of the United States.

Why build massive, taxpayer operated libraries to honor occupants of one branch of government? Why do presidents so often appear as stars in film and on television? Why do we devote monuments as well as so much money to exalt former presidents? And why have a Presidents Day weekend less than a month after the most lavish and largest president inauguration week in history? We don't do the same for Congress - the people's branch - or the courts, the stalwart defenders of our rights and liberties. Why not "the people"? What makes the presidency so special?

Not what Founders intended

Devoting a day to presidents began when Congress in 1968 passed the Monday Holiday Act and established the third Monday in February to honor President George Washington's birthday.

A department store, according to one reliable report, sensing a grand opportunity for a sales promotion, pushed for a more generic Presidents Day as an excuse to sell merchandise, and this has led to the unofficial celebration of a day devoted to presidents.

In 1971, President Nixon proclaimed the holiday to be Presidents Day, to honor all past presidents, and while not part of the original intent of Congress, the Nixon proclamation caught on.

But a presidential democracy or presidential republic is not what our Founders intended. Some part of us, to be sure, wants a larger-than-life, two-gun, charismatic, Mount Rushmore leader.

Part of the problem we now have with executive branch abuses of power stems from our idolatry and hagiography of past presidents. If we are hypnotized by the glittering paraphernalia of the presidency, are we blinded to the dark side of leadership?

We have had some splendid presidents who understood the dynamics of history and had a deep connection with the needs and aspirations of the American people. But we have also had many presidents who have been barely adequate, many mediocre, and several failures.

Consequences

There are consequences of this needless veneration of the presidency. In elevating the presidency, we may inadvertently be diminishing both our people and our vast network of nongovernmental leaders.

Honor the accomplishments of Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson and FDR for their handiwork and contributions to the greatness that is the United States. But do not turn a blind eye to the failures of Buchanan, Grant, and Harding, the corruption of Nixon, or the abuses of power by others.

Celebrate the great and good achievements of our presidential icons, yet do not paint, with one glorious brushstroke, all our presidents into hero status.

The late Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. persuasively suggests the views of the American people should have equal weight with any president. "I would argue that what the country needs today is a little serious disrespect for the office . . . a refusal to give any more weight to a president's words than the intelligence of the utterance, if spoken by anyone else, would command . . . "

A strong constitutional democracy requires a strong presidency and a strong Congress, strong court system, strong rule of law, and strong citizens. When we venerate the presidency we diminish the others and open the door for one-person, arbitrary rule - precisely the thing we fought a Revolutionary War to overthrow.

Michael A. Genovese holds the Loyola Chair of Leadership at Loyola Marymount University. Thomas E. Cronin is the McHugh Professor of American Institutions at Colorado College and is president emeritus at Whitman College.