By Edwin Cooney
As of today, it must be observed that the sitting President of the United States is not a popular man. President Biden's lack of popularity isn't due to rudeness or crudeness as was largely the case with his predecessor, but is largely due to his seeming indecisiveness as an executive and even as a man.
During the 1960 presidential campaign, Senator Jack Kennedy used to insist that the main task of the presidency was to set before the American people the unfinished agenda of our nation. Others said that the president by virtue of his office was our political teacher and our moral leader!
Beginning with the assassination of JFK, we as a people were stripped of our innocence and were forced to face realities, especially when they were uncomfortable and contradictory of one another.
Sitting in his rocking chair before a national audience in December of 1962 following the near catastrophic Cuban missile crisis, President Kennedy told Bill Lawrence of ABC News that a sitting president faces few easy decisions. He went on to say that all easy decisions would have been made elsewhere. President Kennedy's assessment certainly jived with President Harry Truman's famous desk sign: “The buck stops here!”
.
Of course, crises plague every president, but the nature of crises invariably change in their origin.
Thomas Jefferson inherited the crisis of the Alien and Sedition Acts brought on in the John Adams presidency. Abraham Lincoln's crises began as far back as James Monroe's administration when the Missouri Compromise required the admission of one free state for every slave state admitted to the Union. FDR faced the government paralysis Herbert Hoover felt he shouldn't alleviate even if working men and women were starving to death.
Beginning with Lyndon Johnson, presidents began offering federal solutions to problems millions of Americans didn't want the federal government to fool with — specifically, their differing visions of their personal and legitimate civil rights. Next came the credibility question regarding the the necessity for the Vietnam War followed by the Watergate scandal.
When President Nixon resigned on Friday, August 9th, 1974, the common consensus was that Americans had established that we are a government of laws and not of people. Recent presidential attitudes and behaviors have, I insist, brought that national consensus into serious question. More often than not, the nation has been troubled by the attitudes and outlooks of individual presidents more than they have been about the institution itself. The behaviors of and the people’s attitude toward individual presidents haven't been as much about law as about personal presidential motives and intentions.
In 1977, there were questions concerning both presidential wisdom and even patriotism when Jimmy Carter pardoned Vietnam War draft dodgers. Then came the controversy as to whether President Reagan's ignoring of the National Security Act constituted presidential violation of the law. Then Bill Clinton's character and behavior both in and out of office was questioned followed by the problem of “hanging chads” and complicity of the Supreme Court during the 2000 presidential election. Next, President Obama was considered “too black” and possessed a Muslim name that for too many went to the core of his legitimacy through birth and national loyalty. Finally, there came President Trump's insistence that only he could fix America and that any electoral result that contradicted him and his aims was naturally "a steal.”
Hence, this 52nd Presidents Day that ought to be easy to celebrate brings with it serious questions about the value and effectiveness of the President of the United States. Remember that the American president is the only officeholder who is both head of government and head of state. Each of these crises has left its residue of doubt as to the power and even the usefulness of George Washington's great office!
Might the presidency be too powerful? Perhaps the presidency is even obsolete? Certainly, the adoption of political parties has tied the presidential office to politics!
If, as most of us as school children were taught, Washington, Hamilton, Franklin, Jefferson and Madison created the "freest government on earth,” they also created the hardest government to amend or alter since it takes 38 or three quarters of the states to ratify a single amendment to the Constitution. Can you imagine what it would take even if we all agreed (and in many instances we do agree) that the document badly needs fixing and that a Constitutional Convention could be most beneficial? Keep in mind that back in 1787, the proceedings that created the Constitution were strictly secret. Every night, General Washington, as presiding officer of the convention, collected all notes and kept them for redistribution the following morning. (I’m sure that that kind of supervision would be regarded as a violation of personal freedom today!) Ah! But here comes a potentially deadly crisis!
It's just possible that on this 52nd President's Day, Vladimir Putin may invade Ukraine. The obvious question is compelling: will President Biden respond to Vladimir Putin with your support or disapproval?
It ought to be with your approval! After all, this crisis is much bigger than the one in Iraq in either 1991 or 2003, Afghanistan and Iran in 1979, or even Crimea in 2014.
It may not be only a presidential decision; it may be personal beyond our imagination!
Hence, you and I ought to wonder what degree of support President Joseph R. Biden deserves. Eternity may be the judge as to the value of the benefit he actually receives!
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
No comments:
Post a Comment