Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) PDF

enforcement. By prioritizing his duty to the rule of law, Esper’s comments angered the White House at the risk of his losing his job. The President’s demand of loyalty appeared absolute, even in the face of “power grabs that threaten[ed] the constitutional guardrails of his office”. 291 Anoth...

enforcement. By prioritizing his duty to the rule of law, Esper’s comments angered the White House at the risk of his losing his job. The President’s demand of loyalty appeared absolute, even in the face of “power grabs that threaten[ed] the constitutional guardrails of his office”. 291 Another strong illustration of loyalty that comes to mind, beyond the Covid-19 crisis or the George Floyd protests, may be found in the hiring of a college senior (from George Washington University), James Bacon, as director of operations of the Presidential Personnel Office, headed by John McEntee (whose main purpose appears to be planting loyalists throughout the government ). A former White House official told Politico that Bacon’s 292 loyalty outweighed his relative lack of experience, saying: “He will do a great job because he has trust with POTUS”. Those who work for the President are subject to his loyalty code. In 293 the Covid-19 crisis, members of the White House were expected to prioritize loyalty to the President above age, experience, and science. B. Woodrow Wilson (1856 – 1924) Scholar (professor) of history and politics + appointed President of the University in the early 1920s. He had a quick rise in politics because he became president in 1923 (to 1921). Elected by a landslide. He was in favor of international relations. He was a mixture of pragmatic politics and visionary idealism. Easy speech (many conferences), no necessity for obedience, very open to speak with the media. He directly reached out the people. Cabinet government (delegated executive authority) and attacked the lobbyists (the invisible government) ≠ kitchen cabinet. Wanted to clean up the government and attacked the lobbyist. In terms of policies, Wilson undertook reforms (had enough authority to do so) and laid the foundations of the modern American banking system: Federal Reserve Act 1913. Established the FTC - Federal Trade Commission that had as aim to liberalize trade, open the world into an international trading system. Initial isolationism: he was elected on the principle that the US wouldn’t go to war "The USA will not get involved in the WWI" (1913) but change of mind in 1917. → He sowed the seeds of the League of Nations → his vision of peace in the 14 points Fast-forward to President Obama: also an intellectual, an idealist. He was good enough to be re-elected like Wilson (but lost seats in Congress). They both left the USA in a bad mood, in a populist mood. Both the 28 and 44 Presidents left office with Americans in very bad moods: th th concerning this last point, important to emphasize that at the time of Obama’s election in 2008, there was an optimistic narrative of the civil rights movement that consisted in believing in incremental progress and expanding opportunity in an increasingly multiracial 291 Ibid. 292 McEntee, himself a young man (aged 29), held a meeting in a conference room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on February 20, 2020 with White House liaisons of Cabinet departments where he asked officials to find Trump appointees who may be anti-Trump, according to an administration official familiar with the meeting. McEntee also told them that PPO was going to take a look at all appointees at some point and re-vet them to see if they’ve been disloyal in any way. 293 Daniel Lippman and Meredith McGraw, “A new senior leader at the White House personnel office: a college senior”, Politico, February 25, 2020, Internet available at https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/25/college-senior-white-house-personnel-office-117493 (accessed April 26, 2020). 109 society. Barack Obama helped to popularize Martin Luther King Jr.’s quote, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice”. Optimism surged to such an extent in 2008 that the saying was: “Rosa sat so Martin could walk so Obama could run so we can all fly”. In the years that followed, there was much disappointment and many activists turned back to earlier history for explanations: an outpouring of works on slavery and Jim Crow ensued: §2. Current U.S. Politics We never witnessed such a polarization between the political camps. Playing "Queensbury Rules" in reverse. No respect for the adversaries in politics A. Basics of Government Relationship between the USA and the UK explains a lot of things in the current US politics. Certain degree of continuity: they both share the common platform in terms of building on the past, faith in pragmatism and experience. Two main topics: a). The U.S. Constitution The following developments are devoted to the historical background of the U.S. Constitution and several constitutional principles. 1. Historical Background The U.S. Constitution (limited – for the present developments – to its seven articles and first ten amendments, known as the “Bill of Rights”) unfolded – or gestated – over a period of fifteen years (1775-1790), with considerable difficulty, much debate, and the British withholding their claims to the government and territorial rights for as long as possible. In the midst of the events that crafted the American War of Independence (see above), the colonies proclaimed themselves to be “Free and Independent States”, via the Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776. Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) was the chief author of the Declaration. Besides counting as the most important document in the political history of the United States, this document was also a fine work of literature. Although it was written in war, the Declaration is surprisingly free from emotional appeals. It is a clear and logical statement of why the colonies wanted their independence. Jefferson made no attempt to be original. Rather, he built upon the ideas of such philosophers as John Locke. The Declaration was revised eighty-six times before it was finally signed on July 4, 1776, its full title being “The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America”. The following excerpt takes up the beginning of the Declaration. “When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands, which have connected them with one another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and 110