The Present's Problematic Predicament for Past Presidents

Professor Pitney mentioned a while ago that Woodrow Wilson would not get away with referencing Darwin in today's political culture. When you come to think of it, many past presidents would probably perish politically in the present.

This is an interesting article about Ken Burns's documentary about the Roosevelts. Of particular relevance is the description of how TR and FDR would fare in today's political-media culture. 

"We are in a media culture where we are buried in information but we know nothing," said Burns. "Because of that superficiality, we expect heroes to be perfect, but they're not. They are a strange combination of strengths and weaknesses." He points to two of his main characters as examples. "Franklin and Theodore couldn't get out of the Iowa caucuses [today]. Franklin is too infirm. CNN and Fox would be vying for the worst images of him unlocking the braces, the sweat pouring off his brow, the obvious pain and that kind of pity that it would engender would be political poison. And Theodore is just too hot for the new medium of television. There would be 10 'Howard Dean' moments a day."

And it also touches on their role in expanding presidential powers:

Bold, persistent experimentation is what FDR called it. Both Roosevelts were always on the move, clashing with the prevailing order, whether it was the party bosses or members of Congress. They often won. FDR had the Depression to create the sense of crisis that gave him free rein, but Teddy Roosevelt had no such calamity. He worried about that, saying that Lincoln would have been a forgettable president without the Civil War. Teddy had no such war, and yet we still talk about his bully pulpit and quote his aphorism about carrying a big stick when talking about presidential power. He took on the monopolies, threatened to send federal troops to operate the coal mines, and battled for the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Federal Meat Inspection Act.

Definitely worth a read-through.


Apologies for missing the past two classes -- I'll see you all on Monday!


NUF said

Ike Through Jimmy

Just before Eisenhower became president, his son John went to Korea to serve in an infantry unit. In the New York Times, the younger Eisenhower recalls a conversation that you probably never had with your dad.

As the time for my deployment approached, I discussed my intentions with my father. We met at the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago, just after the Republican convention, and I explained my position. My father, as a professional officer himself, understood and accepted it. However, he had a firm condition: under no circumstances must I ever be captured. He would accept the risk of my being killed or wounded, but if the Chinese Communists or North Koreans ever took me prisoner, and threatened blackmail, he could be forced to resign the presidency. I agreed to that condition wholeheartedly. I would take my life before being captured.

Ponder that last line. A president needs a pint or two of very cold blood.

In early 1961, Ike gave his Farewell Address, famously warning of the military-industrial complex. Days later, the torch passed to JFK, who took a distinctly militant tone in the Cold War. Kennedy took full advantage of new technology, starting the practice of holding press conferences on live TV. His successor, Lyndon Johnson, had an earthy way of expressing himself.

In future weeks, we shall discuss Nixon in greater detail. But this brief clip gives a glimpse of what he termed a "cold-blooded" view of international politics. President Nixon sought to rally the "silent majority" for his Vietnam policies.  Also note a small chapter of actual drunk history.

• Ford was a healer.
• Carter wore a sweater and gave the "malaise" speech.

Yeah, I'd Be Pretty Ticked Off, Too...

In 2011, a man used a semiautomatic rifle to fire at least seven shots at the White House.  It took the Secret Service four days to figure out what had happened.  The Washington Post reports on the rather understandable reaction of President and Mrs. Obama:

The first lady was still upset when her husband arrived home five days later from Australia. The president was fuming, too, former aides said. Not only had their aides failed to immediately alert the first lady, but the Secret Service had stumbled in its response.

“When the president came back . . . then the s--- really hit the fan,” said one former aide.

Tensions were high when [Secret Service Director Mark] Sullivan was called to the White House for a meeting about the incident. Michelle Obama addressed him in such a sharp and raised voice that she could be heard through a closed door, according to people familiar with the exchange. Among her many questions: How did they miss bullets from an assault rifle lodged in the walls of her home?

Sullivan disputed this account of the meeting but declined to characterize the encounter, saying he does not discuss conversations with the first lady

FDR through Ike

FDR Inaugural:

Yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts. ... Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men. 

True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.

The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.
....
In the field of world policy I would dedicate this Nation to the policy of the good neighbor—the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others—the neighbor who respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his agreements in and with a world of neighbors. 

.... This I propose to offer, pledging that the larger purposes will bind upon us all as a sacred obligation with a unity of duty hitherto evoked only in time of armed strife.
With this pledge taken, I assume unhesitatingly the leadership of this great army of our people dedicated to a disciplined attack upon our common problems.

Action in this image and to this end is feasible under the form of government which we have inherited from our ancestors. Our Constitution is so simple and practical that it is possible always to meet extraordinary needs by changes in emphasis and arrangement without loss of essential form. That is why our constitutional system has proved itself the most superbly enduring political mechanism the modern world has produced. It has met every stress of vast expansion of territory, of foreign wars, of bitter internal strife, of world relations. 

It is to be hoped that the normal balance of executive and legislative authority may be wholly adequate to meet the unprecedented task before us. But it may be that an unprecedented demand and need for undelayed action may call for temporary departure from that normal balance of public procedure. 

I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures that a stricken nation in the midst of a stricken world may require. These measures, or such other measures as the Congress may build out of its experience and wisdom, I shall seek, within my constitutional authority, to bring to speedy adoption. 

But in the event that the Congress shall fail to take one of these two courses, and in the event that the national emergency is still critical, I shall not evade the clear course of duty that will then confront me. I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis—broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.

Gene Healy on Gabriel Over the White House from Cato Institute on Vimeo.

(Sorry, offensive word in the credits for the clip below.)

Mrs. Roosevelt for JFK

A fun picture related to Monday's class

The Presidency in the Early 20th Century

Federalist 8:  "It is of the nature of war to increase the executive at the expense of the legislative authority."

Tocqueville, Democracy in America: "If the Union’s existence were constantly menaced, and if its great interests were continually interwoven with those of other powerful nations, one would see the prestige of the executive growing, because of what was expected from it and of what it did."

Darth Sidious: "We stand on the threshold of a new beginning. In order to ensure our security and continuing stability, the Republic will be reorganized into the first Galactic Empire, for a safe and secure society which I assure you, will last for ten thousand years. An empire that will continue to be ruled by this august body, and a sovereign ruler chosen for life... an empire ruled by the majority... ruled by a new constitution..."

THREE VIEWS OF PRESIDENTIAL POWER

Wilson and presidential power in wartime (Milkis 254-255);

• American Protective League
• Committee on Public Information
• Espionage Act of 1917
• Sedition Act of 1918
• The Palmer Raids

Woodrow Wilson's stroke.

From Wilson's History of the American People, vol. 3.

Intertitles from The Birth of a Nation

The Harding letters and a recent news story about them

The underrated Calvin Coolidge made the first presidential speech on sound film:



Do you think Hoover was a great media president?

To and From the Civil War

Civil War timeline

• Lincoln letter to Albert Hodges on presidential prerogative
• Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and second inaugural

Between 1876 and 1892, no president won a majority of the popular vote:

1876 Hayes.......... 48.0*
1880 Garfield........48.3
1884 Cleveland.....48.5
1888 Harrison.......47.8*
1892 Cleveland.....46.1

*Won fewer popular votes than his main opponent.