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Chapter 13 Essay

Commander in Chief, POTUS, the leader of the free world. Our President is all of those and more. When the Framers of our Constitution were creating the three branches of the government, they decided that the Executive branch would be represented by one individual, the President. They felt it would be more impactful in dealing with foreign countries (text, p507). The President also has expressed and implied powers, which include making treaties, granting pardons, nominating and appointing officials, the power to veto, and command of our military (text, p509).

Through the years the Office has evolved, in the 1830’s it gained the national convention system for nominating new presidents (text, p508), and in 1926 the Supreme Court strengthened The Office by confirming it’s implied powers, for example, the removal of officials (text, p509). In 1939 the Executive Office of the President was created, this is a large staff of highly trained individuals who work directly under the President (text, p523). Additionally, in these 200 plus years our nation and the world has changed dramatically. I don’t think George Washington was even thinking about trans-gender rights, but Barack Obama dealt with this issue during his term. Sadly, presidential security was not a major concern when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by a citizen, and what happened to JFK was very much the unthinkable. These days the security of the President is taken very seriously, and it would not be far-fetched to say our President might be the most well protected individual on the planet. And although we do have terrorism to deal with these days, let’s not forget about the American civil war in which our nation led by Lincoln at the time had to endure gruesome bloodshed amongst our citizens.

I think the Executive office is much more bureaucratic these days, but also has a mountain more of issues to deal with. Technology has changed a lot for us, and I feel that technology is the answer to allowing our President to be more responsive to the people. Through the possibly of apps for our phones to directly bring issues to POTUS, and harnessing the power of social media, I feel is the future of addressing concerns and issues.

References

Ginsberg, Benjamin. Lowi, Theodore J. Weir, Margaret. Tolbert, Caroline J. We The People: 11th Core Edition. New York, London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2017.