david priess how to get rid of a president

Consensus in the separate states gelled around the idea that any strong central government would open the door to future oppression. Fears of planting the seeds for another monarchy, which the Americans had just thrown off, loomed large. Victory had delivered both a new country and a new sense of political order. From that point on, the War of Independence stood for not only the protest against taxation without representation but also the inherent righteousness of republicanism over kingly rule. T HOMAS P AINE IN early 1776 had sparked a tidal wave of anti-monarchical sentiment with Common Sense, his pamphlet that took the colonies by storm. They needed to improve what they had, or their fragile experiment would break up.Īmong the most significant problems with the existing government the Constitutional Convention would address was the lack of an effective chief executive.

The stakes could hardly be higher: the structure for national governance they had crafted during their long and costly war had clearly begun to fail them in time of peace. The distinguished men who had assembled there to revise the new country’s inadequate Articles of Confederation struggled through their discomfort. S TIFLING AIR FILLED Philadelphia’s crowded Pennsylvania State House, now Independence Hall, during the summer of 1787. Read ExcerptĪ regular and orderly change of rulers the strongest guarantee against the approach of tyranny. This briskly paced, darkly humorous voyage proves that while the pomp and circumstance of presidential elections might draw more attention, the way that presidents are removed teaches us much more about our political order. How to Get Rid of a President showcases the political dark arts in action: a stew of election dramas, national tragedies, and presidential departures mixed with party intrigue, personal betrayal, and backroom shenanigans.

The American presidency has seen it all, from rejecting a sitting president’s renomination bid and undermining their authority in office to the more drastic methods of impeachment, and, most brutal of all, assassination. Even so, Americans have often resorted to more dramatic paths to disempower the chief executive. To limit executive power, the founding fathers created fixed presidential terms of four years, giving voters regular opportunities to remove their leaders.

A vivid political history of the schemes, plots, maneuvers, and conspiracies that have attempted - successfully and not - to remove unwanted presidents

David priess how to get rid of a president