Monday, May 10, 2010

The Great Controversy Of America - The Growth of the Presidential Powers

First page of Constitution of the United StatesImage via Wikipedia
This was a paper I wrote for American Government. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out for the amount of time I put into it (less then 10 minutes).

Throughout our years as a nation, we have had a couple constants. The Constitution, a Congress, and a President. The Constitution never changes, but how people view it does. So with that comes changes in the congress, the judicial branch, and the Presidency. One of the biggest inconstant constant is the Presidency.
The Presidency has no doubt changed over the years of America being a country. At times, it was a very powerful position, and at others, a position of power, but with a lot of checks and balances. The shift of the Presidential powers from strong to weak beg the question of "What were the framer's intent for the power of the President?" Some believe it was their intent to create a powerful head so it can act quickly in times of need. Others believe that it was the intent to create a semi-powerful leader where it was checked and balanced, but could still perform swiftly in times of need. And others believe it the intent to create a leader as only another check in the system of checks and balances.

Why is there such a great controversy over the Presidential power? If the President becomes too powerful, it could become a dictator. If the President is too weak, it can't act quickly in times of need. But what is the right balance of power and balance? That's what people are trying to figure out.
If you have a group of people, there will no doubt be differing views. And that's why the Presidential power is so controversial. Some people think it should be strong, some people think it should be weak, and some people think it should be strong in times of need. Finding a point where everyone is happy will never happen. That's why it's a controversy from the beginning of our nation, and that's why it will be so until the end.
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