The Paradoxes of the American Presidency - Essay Example

Paradox #1. This paradox was handled by President Richard Nixon from different approaches. Nixon was said to be an intelligent man who shocked not only America but the world at large by most of this moves in restoring limits and setting leadership limits (Edwards, 2017). Additionally, he did this by desegregating public schools in the south. This created a limit of leadership to the presidents after him who would no longer separate the public schools in the south. History marks this as a significant approach that would be commemorated even in the incoming future. This is because in 1968, 68% of African-American children were able to attend all black school and by 1972 there was an 8% increment of students in this school. This move was a significant limit of the presidents power, whereby no president would allow school segregation to take place.

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What is more is that Nixon set other limits by ensuring the government revenue could not be abused by any other president and its officials. He did this by coming up with revenue sharing policy (Edwards, 2017). Through the policy, he was able to develop a program where the government revenue would be shared among the nations states. This rule limited the presidential powers over the citizens equity in money allocation.

Richard Nixon also played a significant limit on the presidents power whereby he abused the rule of law via the watergate scandal. From this, he suffered a huge price which led him to his resignation. The results of his actions served as an example to what would happen to any leader who would attempt such a scandal (Wright, 2016). This helped set the presidents limit by clearly illustrating that despite being the most powerful leader in a nation one is always considered to be under the laws and not above the law.

Paradox #2. It is clear that we Americans yearn for the common person as well as a leader who is uncommon, compelling, courageous, and visionary. These traits were handled by Richard Nixon one of Americans president in different ways. Nixon can be referred to as both common and uncommon president to the American citizens. He was conjoint from the fact that he was re-elected twice as both the president and vice president. His way of communication was considered influential that he was able to capture his opponent's supporters during most of his governmental elections. What is more is that most of his approaches were considered vibrant by Americans as well as the rest of the world. This is seen during his role in the cold war whereby he was able to reduce tension between U.S and the Soviet Union. In addition, his tendency to sign a mutual treaty with china made him be more common to people (Mitchell, 2017).

Simultaneously, he was uncommon and worried less about his enemies He was uncommon to opponents on the left side because of how he ran his leadership and elections. This is illustrated further when there is a leakage that he owned a book with names of his antagonists. His character of always appearing insecure, unattractive and restless made him uncommon to people. Nixon lacked charisma hence being considered uncharismatic making him less likable to some of the people.

However his character was fascinating, spirited and visionary, he was visionary by how he handled the cold war, the American relationship with the Soviet Union and China. His visionaries enabled him to foretell that the two nations would agree to his ideas and treaty which is considered a compelling move (Mitchell, 2017). Nonetheless, he handled being courageous all through his lifetime as well as in politics. He was dauntless enough to resign over the watergate scandal. Nonetheless, he was also courageous to run twice for the presidency. His idea for the American political revolution proved his courageousness after he attempted to have all his government officials resign. Despite the fact that this idea failed America stands to see this effort in wanting the best leadership for the people of America.

Paradox #9. The presidency is a political position that is considered powerful, especially that of the America which is referred to as one of the supreme positions in the world. However, this is not the case because sometimes the position can be too weak. This fact was handled by President Richard Nixon in a significant way (Edwards, 2017). The strength in his presidency was manifested when he was able to convince the Soviet Union to sign a peace treaty with him. This was not a job for any man but the fact that he was the current president approaching the Union became a quite influential issue that led to its success.

What is more is that he was able to influence America and the rest of the world during his ruling. He influenced America to cool down after the Vietnam War. His strength is also seen via how he was able to exercise his power on the American revenue. He influenced the financial approach of the American funds by convincing the countys economist to get rid of the excise tax. This would definitely cause a huge impact in America but he guided them through (Wright, 2016).Handling his strength is also elaborated by how he was able to convince the water gate scandal to take place. This scandal manifested power in him because he was able to convince a large number of people in and out of the white house to take place in life sentencing activities.

Nevertheless, the presidency can be too weak; which Nixon justifies in various ways. An example is Nixons presidential power was too weak to control the Watergate scandal internally. This is because the issue leaked and became a national matter that spread globally. The presidency weakness was illustrated since he was not able to speak for up and make himself untouchable by the law. Him being the president of one of the absolute powers in the world we expected that he would have it either dismissed or have it handled in a more fragile manner. Instead, he was sent down and commanded to release some of the tapes he recorded during the Watergate scandal.

References

Edwards, B. (2017). Does the Presidency Moderate the President? Presidential Studies Quarterly, 47(1), 5-26.

Mitchell, N. (2017). A Superpower Transformed: The Remaking of American Foreign Relations in the 1970s: Daniel J. Sargent, A Superpower Transformed: The Remaking of American Foreign Relations in the 1970s (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), xv+ 432 pp.

Wright, M. (2016). Mrs. Nixons pleasantness aside, Block criticized the man for years, even before Nixon became president and on through the Watergate scandal. With his cartoons appearing in the same paper as the stories that exposed the presidents wrong-doing, he earned a share of the Posts Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of the scandal that forced the president to resign. Covering American Politics in the 21st Century: An Encyclopedia of News Media Titans, Trends, and Controversies [2 volumes], 64.