The Executive Branch
Yes, presidents have become more powerful over time. When you win the presidential set, the power rush becomes huge because the United States president is the most influential person in the world. The most exciting thing is that the constitution’s drafters did not expect this case to happen. The principal architect of constitution James Madison is worried that the “balance of powers” has been tilted towards the house of representatives. He believes that its control over taxes and spending and its ability to make laws that narrow the judiciary, and the executive has ensured that legislative has become a real center of national power. Hence this has become a threat to the presidential seat, which has become more powerful, therefore formal qualifications must be increased to run for it to ensure those who run for the presidency have the experience to handle this challenge.
From the beginning, presidents used to protect and expand their turf, and this made them successful. A good example is George Washington, who refused to provide the Congress with the controversial Jay treaty when they asked for the document; he introduced the doctrine of executive privilege. He made a point about the autonomy of the executive branch. The other presidents that followed him in the 19th century added new weapons to the office’s arsenal powers. For instance, the likes of Andrew Jackson, who was the first to make extensive utilization of veto and Abraham Lincoln, firmly lead during war times as commander-in-chief. Therefore the increase of formal qualification will bring candidates who are more advanced on bond because times have changed compared to the times of Washington, Jackson, Lincoln, and other presidents that followed.
Yes, because in the U.S., more than 12.8 million naturalized citizens, including 250,000 foreign adoptees but unfortunately second class citizens in the United States, cannot hold the highest office in the land. This happens because of the natural-born citizen clause that violates the principle of democracy in America that states; all citizens are supposed to have equal rights. In writing, the constitution embraces this principle, but it fails to protect women’s rights and racial and ethnic minorities. The protection of these groups has been added in the 19th, 15th, and 14th amendments. The remaining step is to remove the clause of natural-born-citizen so that immigrants can run for office.
The founding fathers of the United States included the clause of the natural-born citizen so that nobody from the foreign countries can find his/her way to the presidency. Currently, this concern is not relevant anymore. Some people argue that this clause is still needed to make sure that the President of the nation is loyal, but the naturalized citizens are very faithful to the government. However, the constitution contradicts itself such that it allows natural-born citizens, loyal or not, to vie for presidential seats, and the decision depends on the rights of voting and judgment of the American citizens to keep off the disloyal candidate from being the President. All these protections will also work well for the naturalized citizens if they are given a chance to run for the presidency.
For instance, Washington has become hard to govern because of its organic growth from the scope of the federal government’s responsibilities’ which is an undeniable fact; this is where explanations are supposed to start. During the eve of World War II, the F.D.R. consisted of six high-level aides who were known as President’s administrative assistant; then, after the war, it increased to 12 they used to meet every morning in a semicircle around the President’s desk. Currently, the numbers have risen to 100 people with various responsibilities, and they are referred to as the assistant of the President. The number of duties keeps on increasing on the executive branch such that time required to think about any of them continues to shrink, and this is not about the management issue, it’s about the stakeholder issue who have a particular interest of the country to keep what it has worked or to improve it to become better. All these things have become too much such that one person as a president cannot handle them alone, but he/she needs assistance.
The large size of the government has made misrepresentation a fact of life, and to some extent, an impossibility such that ball is dropping all the time. But more deliberation is being done to what size gives rises to reach the government, which touches every cranny of national life. Those in the holes can also get back and contact the government through preferment and seeking favors. The federal register is usually published in working days, and it has the text of presidential decrees, administrative orders, new government regulations, public notices, and proposed rules. In most cases, this publication is done in dense pages because it has a lot of information, and for its visibility, it is of the dark type. Therefore this shows how the President cannot work alone; he/she depends on other platforms like media and publications.
Yes, this because the constitution states that Congress has the mandate of impeaching the President for misdemeanors and high crimes. Misdemeanor original means not petty crimes, but abuse of your office’s power, then misconduct, in this case, is considered an illegal act. High crimes currently are referred to as felonies. Therefore all these atrocities are considered impeachable offenses. Since Congress is the watchdog of the government, they are supposed to have the flexibility of impeaching any president who commits these atrocities.
For instance, in the case of President Donald Trump, who committed these actions before he assumed office, he can be impeached. They have been allegations that he is not mentally or morally fit for the office. But his impeachment depends on the house of Representatives, which is controlled by the Republican Party that has the majority of representation, which means that Congress with its current members will not have the ability to impeach the President. Although Congress should have the flexibility to impeach the President, it supposed to follow the guidelines of the constitution on impeachment like the 25th amendment that provides conditions for replacing the President, which is either temporary or permanent if he is unable to discharge the power and duties of his office. But this condition requires either the President to declare himself incapacitated or certification of his incapacitation from both the vice president and the majority of the cabinet members.
Not getting to the scheme of the electoral system, that is the reason why the founding fathers chose it, method of selecting electors or restriction on their votes; the system now has become old-fashioned, and it is no longer working. Therefore it is supposed to be dealt away with, and presidents are supposed to be elected by popular vote. The electoral college which was started by article II, section 1 of the United States constitution has its description on Record administration and National Archives; it was therefore established by founding fathers in the law so that it can compromise between election of the President by a popular vote of citizens that are qualified and the election of the President by a majority in Congress. This meant that the average citizen could be unqualified in making the critical decision of the presidential election. The main reason for favoring election by popular vote is that every voter’s importance would be equal.
Currently, a single electoral vote in California represents far more voters than a single electoral election in Alaska. To make it simple, any candidate needs to win far more votes in California to get an electoral vote than the one required in Alaska. This example can be replicated many times between states with small and more significant populations, and this does not consider the actual number that turned for voting. Under the current system, 270 electoral votes are needed to win the presidency, therefore states east of Mississippi have electoral votes to that are enough to win the presidential seat. Hence this system is supposed to be shut down because of its biasness.
In the United States, media has been long valued with freedom of the press as an additional check on the government’s power and the way of raising public awareness of national importance issues. Although media has enjoyed it’s right to free and independent expression; it always creates tension for government leaders and presidents who intend to influence the public and shape political messages. Through the use of modern technology, presidents have always communicated directly to the public. They have also been relying on traditional Media like the white house press corps and news conferences to share policy and answer questions from the media. Therefore the press has made governing both more comfortable and, at the same time, hard. And the government relies on the media so much to deliver their messages.
However, in the current regime of President Donald Trump, his relationship with the media has been exceptional, whereby, on several occasions, he criticized the news media. He also went further to ban some channels of media from coming to the white house during the news conference. Therefore, in this regime, governing has been difficult. In some instances, they accuse the President of collaborating with Russia so that he can win his elections, and they accuse him of being a racist. All this information from the media has made it difficult for the President such that some citizens do not trust him anymore. Hence media can make governance easier and also make it difficult, like in Trump’s era.