U.S. Presidency and the Ideal Government

            After the Revolutionary War and the ideas of a new government, ideas of the founders started arising of who should be running the government. “Many of the Founders believed that a new government required and autonomous and energetic presidential office, as opposed to the weak executive that labored under the Articles” (Katznelson, 2011, 175). Although this did not necessarily happen within the government, Hamilton decided that a strong executive branch was needed. When different presidents are elected from the different branches of government, like democrats or republicans, it seems to cause a bit of an uprising for particular tasks to be completed. For example, “When the Democrats gained control of the Senate in 2004 and the House of Representatives in 2006, pushback began” (Katznelson, 2011, 185). The constant battle of who has more power of the house comes with the President’s election.

            The people that have the power to choose their president are the members of the American society. People are allowed to vote for who they feel will be a better president. Now if the voting is skewed, nobody knows although rumors have spread. After the president is elected into position, he has the power to listen to or ignore the people and what they want and feel will make a better economy for them to live in. Aside from this, President’s still have a lot on their plate. “Presidents must contend with countervailing pressures from citizens, business firms, interest groups, and social movements” (Katznelson, 2011, 206). This means that the president looks at all of these groups and their opinions and then bases his decision off of the majority. However, is this true? Presidents are supposed to look at all of these opinions and what is going on, but we won’t actually know if they do until one of us becomes president. The idea of a perfect society is like the idea of Big Brother from the book 1985 by George Orwell. Big Brother was seen to be so perfect that he watched every move you made and made things better when he saw discontentment. Then, when one person tries to break away from this perfect society, all hell breaks loose. With so much on the presidents hands, he may not necessarily mean to create flaws, but by overlooking the minorities opinions, he might be doing just that.

Katznelson, Ira, Kesselman, Mark, Draper, Alex. (2011). The Politics of Power, Capitalism and           Democracy. pgs 175, 185, 206. Norton & Company, New York.


1985. George Orwell