Chapter 1: the Changing Presidency

CHAPTER The Changing 1 Presidency distribute or Mark Skrobola (MCS@flickr) Photo 1.1 The White House—nerve centerpost, of the executive branch and home of its chief. or most Americans, the president is the focal point of public life. Almost Fevery day, we see and hear from the president on media platforms old and new, meeting with foreign dignitaries, proposing policies, or grap- pling with national problems. We like to think of the president as being in charge: an engaged leader who can get things done. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald J. Trump portrayed himself as precisely that type of leader,copy, one poised to “Make America Great Again.” But the reality of the presidency rests on a very different truth: Presidents are seldom in com- mand and usually must negotiate with others to achieve their goals. It is only by exercising adroit political skill in winning public and elite support notand knowing how to use it that a president can succeed in office. The Scope of Presidential Power Do In some respects, modern presidents are stronger than ever before. At the beginning of the twentieth century, presidents embraced new, expansive 1 Copyright ©2021 by SAGE Publications, Inc. This work may not be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means without express written permission of the publisher. views of presidential power that by midcentury were accepted as normal. They used the power of the “bully pulpit” to shape public opinion. With the advent of radio and television, they became the leading voice in government (under Mr. Trump we have learned how Twitter can expand even further the president’s rhetorical arsenal). In 1921, Congress added to the power of presidents by requiring them to submit annual federal budgets for congressional approval—an action that made presidents policy leaders in a way they never had been before. Staff support for presidents multiplied as the century progressed. And by leading the United States to victory in two world wars and playing for high stakes in the Cold War, presidents took center stage on the world scene. Yet for some fifty years after World War II, there were a string of “failed” or otherwise abbreviated presidencies. Of the ten presidents serv- ing from 1945 through the end of the twentieth century, only three— Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton—served out two full terms of office. Despite strong public support upon being thrust into the presidency, Harry S. Truman and Lyndon B. Johnson left office repudiateddistribute by their party after they involved the country in controversial military con- flicts abroad. Both were eligible to run for another term, but neither chose to do so. John F. Kennedy was assassinated before completingor his first term. Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace less than two years after his landslide reelection. Nixon’s vice president, Gerald R. Ford, failed to win the presidency in his own right after completing Nixon’s term. Jimmy Carter lost his reelection bid after his public approval ratings plummeted to a record low of 21 percent because of the Iranian hostage crisis and runaway inflation. George H. W. Bush, whose approval rating skyrocketed to 89 percent during the Persian Gulf War, confrontedpost, an economic recession and criticism of his domestic agenda and was not reelected. Even Reagan and Clinton were distracted by scandal in their second terms. Reagan faced congressional investigations and an independent counsel probe into the Iran-contra affair. Clinton also was subjected to an independent counsel probe and became the first president since Andrew Johnson in 1868 to be impeached by the House of Representatives (though, like Johnson, Clinton was acquitted by the Senate.) Moreover,copy, both Reagan and Clinton were constrained in their second terms by a Congress controlled by the opposition party. In the twenty-first century, all three presidents—George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Trump—faced at least a period of divided government in their first term, with both Bush and Obama ever more limited in their secondnot terms by a Congress in which both chambers were controlled by the opposition. And even though Trump took office in 2017 with fellow Repub- licans solidly in control of Congress, the president’s low public approval ratings, divisions among Republicans, united opposition from Democrats, and an inexperienced White House stymied even the initial effort to repeal Do and replace the “Obamacare” health law (which the Republican-controlled 2 Part I | The President and the Public Copyright ©2021 by SAGE Publications, Inc. This work may not be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means without express written permission of the publisher. Courtesy of the Library Congress, Prints and Photographs Division Photo 1.2 This is James Hoban’s original architectural drawing of the White House from 1792. Like the building itself, the office of the presidency has changed over time. distribute House of Representatives had voted over 50 times to repeal while Obama was president). All of this reminds us that presidentialor power is not a fixed commodity. Formal powers mean little if presidents cannot convince others to follow their lead. As Richard Neustadt so succinctly put it, “presidential power is the power to persuade.”1 Dramatic changes in presidential fortunes are not new to American politics, nor are failed presidencies. Only fourteen of the forty-four indi- viduals who have served as president—less than a third—have served two full terms in office.2 Through bothpost, success and failure, however, one might think that constitutional provisions would serve as a steady source of presidential power. But as the following sections demonstrate, those provisions not only were the subject of great debate at the Constitutional Convention but also have been interpreted differently by presidents and others ever since. Quite simply, the scope of presidential power and the conceptions of the officecopy, have changed dramatically over the years. Inventing the Presidency Those who invented the presidency in 1787 did not expect the office to become the nation’s central political institution. In fact, Article 2 of the notConstitution, which deals with the executive branch, is known for its brev- ity and lack of clarity, particularly in comparison with the carefully detailed description of the legislative branch in Article 1. But within the presidency’s vague constitutional description lay the seeds of a far more powerful position, one that has grown through elaboration of its explicit, enumer‑ Do ated powers as well as interpretation of its implied and inherent powers. Chapter 1 | The Changing Presidency 3 Copyright ©2021 by SAGE Publications, Inc. This work may not be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means without express written permission of the publisher. Recent presidents of both parties have sought to expand those powers. Moreover, through the years, Congress and the public have caused the range of responsibilities associated with the presidency to expand, particularly in response to changes in society and America’s position in the world. What has developed since 1789 is the office that now stands at the center of American government and American politics. As Stephen Skowronek puts it, the president has become “the lightning rod of national politics.”3 The office of the presidency gained stature and a set of precedents from its initial occupant, George Washington. During the nineteenth century, however, the office languished, so much so that Lord Bryce, the British chronicler of American government, felt compelled to explain in 1890 that because of the institution’s weaknesses, great men do not become president. Government during this period centered on Congress and political parties, an American invention the founders did not anticipate. A few presidents— most notably Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, and Abraham Lincoln— seemed to foreshadow strong presidents of the future, but most receded quickly from history. How, then, did the presidency come to assumedistribute its exalted position? The answer is complex and involves a variety of factors. At one level, the original design of the office—its structure, mode of selec- tion, and powers—continues to exercise important influenceor on its opera- tion today. But the office has changed over time in response to the influence of its occupants, changing expectations in Congress and by the public, and the internal dynamics of institutional development. Constitutional Design The events leading to the Americanpost, Revolution led the colonists to disparage anything resembling a monarch. Thomas Paine’s enormously influential pamphlet, Common Sense, published in January 1776, sharply dismissed the institution of monarchy, calling it “the most prosperous invention the Devil ever set on foot for the promotion of idolatry.”4 Paine called for a new government that had no executive. Some 120,000 copies of Common Sense were sold in just the three months following its publica- tion.5 The pamphlet’scopy, rallying cry against monarchy and executive power had hit a nerve. In the weeks leading to the Declaration of Independence, the Conti- nental Congress urged the colonies to adopt new constitutions in anticipa- tion of statehood. The resulting state constitutions drafted in 1776 and 1777not “systematically emasculated the power of the governors.”6 Pennsyl- vania’s constitution, drafted by Benjamin Franklin, provided for a unicam- eral legislature but no chief executive at all. Those states that did create chief executives made them subordinate to the legislature. Most governors served one-year terms, were elected by the legislature, and had little or no Do appointment or veto powers.7 Even where governors were not chosen by 4 Part I | The President and the Public Copyright ©2021 by SAGE Publications, Inc. This work may not be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means without express written permission of the publisher.

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