The Presidency Analyzed

At the center of American political life is a series of fundamental laws and defining creeds written with the country's formation in the 1770s and 1780s. Among these documents is the Constitution of the United States. Tucked within its contents is a detailed description of the three mechanisms driving the federal government's activities. Congress is ordained with the power to produce legislation; the president is ordained with the power to approve or reject legislation; the Supreme Court is ordained with the power to enforce legislation. Basic qualifications to hold public office were also set up, as were the procedures for elections and impeachments. The Constitution and its value are givens within US society. People from both sides of the political spectrum are determined to demonstrate how their proposals mesh with the Constitution and would be permitted by the text. However, the Constitution was not always the beloved pillar of civil government that it is today. It was a su...

The Watergate Scandal had a profound impact on American history that ruptured much of the United States' original composition. The entire political and social map of the US was torn apart and taped back together, producing a brand-new image. Jimmy Carter , whose important reforms include support for the Chinese government in Beijing over Taipei, two new cabinet departments (education and energy), the transfer of the Panama Canal from America to Panama, and an end to redlining, is a Democrat who capitalized off the country's anger at Republican Richard Nixon over the scandal. Carter's status as a Democrat who presided over the worst of the 1970s stagflation crisis enabled the election of Ronald Reagan , who began dismantling the New Deal. Watergate arguably contributed to that loss. The Watergate Scandal breathed life into a carnivorous parasite that ate through the American people's trust in their government. It was such a shocking event that it's now custom to use...

Following the tragic losses and shocking pain endured by the United States on September 11, 2001, a series of major events took place fundamentally redefining the country and its relationship to the federal government. George W. Bush dramatically expanded the scope of federal authority, sometimes abridging the strength of the Constitution in the process. Bush signed the PATRIOT Act (or "Providing Appropriate Tools Required for Intercepting and Obstructing Terrorism" Act), which allowed federal law enforcement to monitor the communications of private citizens in the name of curbing terroristic activity, even if no warrant existed, a blatant violation of the Fourth Amendment protecting Americans from unwarranted searches and seizures. Bush also increased the use of the prison at Guantanamo Bay and founded the Department of Homeland Security. Barack Obama dismantled many of these policies, but significant portions of these laws and institutions still exist. Another important s...

Many of our most cherished freedoms in modern America stemmed from the wise rulings of the Supreme Court. The stability of the federal government's regulatory powers, many claim, lay in the court's decision in Gibbons v. Ogden . In Brown v. Board of Education , the Supreme Court ensured that no public school operating in the United States would separate or segregate students because of their race. The 1950s, 1960s, and, to a lesser extent, 1970s saw a plurality of the judicial branch's most celebrated and significant actions: Mapp v. Ohio  ensured that illegally-obtained evidence could not be used at trials. Gideon v. Wainwright provided a free lawyer to any suspect otherwise unable to afford an attorney. Miranda v. Arizona  established the precedent of the Miranda rights, requiring all police to inform suspects of their legal rights during arrest. Loving v. Virginia  required all 16 states with a ban on interracial marriage to dismantle those anachronistic, tyrannical ru...

Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency marks one of the most significant transitions in American history. On the eve of his inauguration, the federal government, though expanded during the civil war and Progressive Era, was still a rather small institution. When he died, it very obviously held precedence over the states. Such an increase in federal power is rivaled only by the replacement of the Articles of Confederation with the Constitution back in 1788 and 1789. Economic legislation shifted from mostly lassies-faire  to predominantly Keynesian, favoring governmental intervention on behalf of the working class. Geopolitically, the US realized it was unable to maintain the isolationist policies of Calvin Coolidge  and became an active member of the international community. Even the date of presidential inaugurations changed. FDR was the last president inaugurated on March 4 and began his second term not on March 4, 1937, but on January 20, 1937. These reforms took place during th...

Many presidents have had great careers outside of the White House, such as Herbert Hoover and his humanitarian works during WW1 or Dwight D. Eisenhower and his role in liberating France from Axis rule in the D-Day invasion. This is especially true of the Founding Fathers who went on to work in the executive branch. John Adams brokered the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Revolutionary War and secured British recognition of the United States as an independent nation. Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence - a role given to him by the aforementioned Adams - and drafted the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, granting residents of his home state the ability to follow whatever religion they desired. James Madison convinced the Constitutional Convention to abandon the Articles of Confederation and to adopt a whole new charter of government, helped persuade the states to approve the new Constitution, and assembled the Bill of Rights. Of these presidents, however, Geor...

In American history, the year 1860 is synonymous with decades-old tensions sitting at their boiling point. In 1860, the divide between northern and southern Americans regarding the future of slavery had become so intense and so wide that at any point, the final straw was going to arrive and spark a civil war. Just about everyone knew that and this fact was universal knowledge among all those immune to folly and blissful ignorance. The territorial gains made by James K. Polk during the Mexican-American War provoked an angry debate about whether or not slavery would be allowed in the new lands. In a failed attempt to quell this argument, Millard Fillmore approved the Compromise of 1850. This legislation, among other things, required Americans to report any escaped slave they witnessed, upsetting abolitionists even more. Franklin Pierce allowed large swathes of the country to vote on their local laws regarding slavery at the same time that the Supreme Court declared black people incapa...