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presidential history

  • SOURCE: WBUR
    8/31/2021

    How Previous Presidents have Ended American Wars

    With the U.S.'s longest war coming to an end, Here & Now's Scott Tong speaks with Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, to look back at how other U.S. presidents have handled ending conflicts.

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    8/25/2021

    End the Imperial Presidency

    by Stephen Wertheim

    Congress has not issued a declaration of war since Pearl Harbor. President Biden should force Congress to shoulder its constitutional duty by withdrawing troops from any conflict in six months unless Congress debates and formally declares war. 

  • SOURCE: Washington Post
    8/3/2021

    Is Kamala Harris Really the Least Popular VP in a Half-Century?

    The right has seized on the argument, which is based on shoddy interpretation of polls and ignores the fact that net favorability ratings for current officials are much more affected by partisan polarization than for their predecessors decades ago. 

  • 6/6/2021

    America's First Peaceful (Just Barely!) Transfer of Power

    by Akhil Reed Amar

    While the selection of Thomas Jefferson as the third president in 1801 (after an electoral college deadlock) is touted as a crucial peaceful transfer of presidential power from one party to another, the transition was far more fraught with peril than most realize. 

  • SOURCE: The New Yorker
    5/24/2021

    Are We Entering a New Political Era?

    A group of younger progressive activists is seeking to push the Democratic Party to see a new political alignment where active government and public programs are no longer considered impossible. Some members of the group of historians and scholars who met with President Biden in March also relayed that message.

  • SOURCE: The Nation
    4/22/2021

    Fritz Mondale and Decency

    by Kai Bird

    Jimmy Carter thought the vice presidency was "a wasted national asset." He gave Walter Mondale the charge and the freedom to redefine the role. 

  • SOURCE: The Hill
    4/23/2021

    100 Days is a Ridiculous Way to Judge a Presidency

    by Lindsay M. Chervinsky

    FDR's 100 Days was a historical aberration; not least because of the lack of partisan opposition that is delaying the seating of Joe Biden's cabinet and the staffing of his administration. 

  • SOURCE: Wall Street Journal
    4/22/2021

    Walter Mondale Remade the Vice Presidency

    by Stuart E. Eizenstat

    "Walter Mondale created the modern vice presidency out of a position that was an afterthought at the Constitutional Convention. Mondale was a great public servant and a decent man, and his death comes at a time when his progressive politics have gotten a second breath in the Democratic Party."

  • 4/11/2021

    Political Precedent for the Trump Cult of Personality

    by Donne Levy

    Their differences in character and personality should not obscure similarities between Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump. Both men's ability to flout the truth and survive serious scandals, plus their dalliances with white racism, make their political careers resemble cults of personality.

  • SOURCE: Wall Street Journal
    3/26/2021

    Lindsay Chervinsky's Five Best Books on Presidential Cabinets

    The author of an acclaimed book about George Washington's creation of the cabinet recommends five books about presidential cabinets, including those of Lincoln, Eisenhower and JFK, the unofficial team of African American advisors to FDR, and the consequential relationship between George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.