Dwain Northey (Gen X)

We have talked about the two sides of the Legislative Branch now let’s talk about the Executive i.e., the President.

First a little history that many may not know. Everyone is taught that George Washington was our 1^st, President. This is what we are all told, ‘George Washington was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797.’ My query for all of you, would be historians, is what happened between our declaring our Independence in 1776 and the Inauguration of George Washington in 1789. Did we just flail around rudderless for 13 years? How did we manage those years without a government? Technically George Washington was the first President of the United States when we finally became a Constitutional Democratic Republic after the ratification of the Constitution in 1789 but before that there several Presidents of Congress which was a very weak role. The men that  held the position: John Hanson (Nov 5 1781 – Nov 3 1782), Elias Boudinot (Nov 4 1782 – Nov 2 1783), Thomas Mifflin (Nov 3 1783 – Nov 29 1784), Richard Henry Lee (Nov 30 1784 – Nov 22 1785), John Hancock (Nov 23 1785 – Jun 5 1786), Nathaniel Gorham (Jun 6 1786 – Feb 1 1787), Arthur St. Clair (Feb 2 1787 – Jan 21 1788), Cyrus Griffin (Jan 22 1788 – Apr 30 1789), and Samuel Huntington (Sept 28 1779 – July 10 1781). The office only had a one-year term because initially the colonies were steadfast against a strong central government but the loosely held colonies acted more like 13 different countries with their own currency which incumbered commerce. This fragile ‘confederacy’ of states nearly ended in a war with several border conflicts happening between states in the 1780’s.

Now that we have had our brief history lesson let’s talk about what the constitution has defined as the powers of the executive. The Constitution explicitly assigns the president the power to sign or veto legislation, command the armed forces, ask for the written opinion of their Cabinet, convene or adjourn Congress, grant reprieves and pardons, and receive ambassadors. Under Article II of the Constitution, the President is responsible for the execution and enforcement of the laws created by Congress. Fifteen executive departments — each led by an appointed member of the President’s Cabinet — carry out the day-to-day administration of the federal government.

So, for all you that think the President has unlimited power he does not he is responsible for enforcing laws and enacting them. The Executive does submit a budget to the Legislative Branch that outlines his (hopefully soon her) vision for the country but it isn’t in the office holders’ powers to unilaterally enact their agenda. We have a republic, ‘a form of government in which a state is ruled by representatives of the citizen body. Modern republics are founded on the idea that sovereignty rests with the people, though who is included and excluded from the category of the people has varied across history’, not a dictatorship.

Knowing this it begs the question of why we continue to both praise and denigrate Presidents for accomplishments. As we have seen time and time again they can’t do it alone and even if their agenda is positive to the citizens, the economy, or both one party in our 2 party system can derail even the best intentions.

How our President is elected is one of the points of controversy because our President is the only office that is not elected by a simple majority. (Wait, What?) No, the Presidency is elected via an arcane rule that the founders were literally forced to put in place so that rural and slave states had more say with far fewer voters. The Electoral College is how we refer to the process by which the United States elects the President, even though that term does not appear in the U.S. Constitution. In this process, the States (which includes the District of Columbia just for this process) elect the President and Vice President. Every four years, voters elect a group of electors whose only purpose is to elect the president and vice president. This group of electors is known as the Electoral College. This process gives states, based on their population, a defined number of electors, most states are winner take all meaning the candidate with the most vote even if it is only one takes the pot some split electors. This is why states like Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida, Ohio, get more attention than other areas because the number of electors they have can and often does swing the election. This system is why the only Republican President in 30 years to win the popular vote was George W. Bush who won 50.7% of the popular vote in the 2004 presidential election, according to the Federal Election Commission, the agency responsible for enforcing campaign finance regulations. This was his reelection bid he did not win the popular vote in 2000 against Al Gore in fact the Supreme Court stopped the count of ballots in Florida giving those electors to Bush securing his victory. (History has corrected the count and Gore rightfully won.)

As with other things in our governmental system I have talked about this a profoundly undemocratic and in 2016 Trump was able to take office with only 46.1% of the popular vote and attempted to exploit that same system in 2020 but the overwhelming turn out over came the electoral count and favored the Democrat Joe Biden.

Next time we will talk about the Supreme Court ;(