Was Obama An Imperial President?. . . . . Emma Hopkins.

For many years, American Presidents were viewed as being white and powerful leaders. Why were they only white? Is it because Americans felt Blacks were not smart enough to run a country on their own? African Americans were viewed as less dominate people and have been discriminated because of the color of their skin. In 2008, Barack Obama was elected President of the United States making him the first black president ever. In this paper, I will discuss how Barack makes a change and if America can accept him as our first black president.

In November, American voters will be between a rock and a hard place, or you may say between the devil and the deep blue sea, when they come to elect the 44th president. After the worst president in all of American history, the best choice Americans will have for president is either a 72-year-old authoritarian maverick or a black man whose middle name is Hussein. What’s wrong with America? This is the greatest nation in the world, and it became so because of its dedicated founding fathers and its distinguished popular presidents.

The Jacksonian Era was often described as a time of “democratization of politics” in the United States. However, democracy, at this time, was only defined as equality and justice for white males. There were improvements that benefited the common people, such as universal male suffrage, but these excluded women, Africans, Indians, and the rest of the population in the country. In addition, Andrew Jackson was not very democratic as he violated the Constitution and used the authority of the government for his personal issues. Meanwhile, today’s American society is a true democracy because every citizen, despite sex and race, is protected and given equal rights and opportunities. Back then, the United States did not achieve true democratization because there was not equality among all the people and Andrew Jackson abused his power as president.

To a fairly large extent, the Obama presidency is more ‘imperiled than imperial’ seems largely true, with Obama suffering from major constraints such as Congress. The theory of the imperiled Presidency suggests that rather than being too powerful, the President does not have enough power to be effective. In contrast, imperial presidency is characterised as when a president has greater power than the constitution allows. One can argue that his pursuit of major domestic policy goals has been much more aggressive than his predecessor, Bush, suggesting Obama’s presidency as imperial. Obama once quipped, “I’m the President of the United States, not the emperor of the

This inaugural speech marked the beginning of the second term of Barack Obama as president of the United States of America. It was delivered at United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. on January 21, 2013. The event followed the presidential election in the United States and it was very important all over the world, about a million of people gathered outside the Capitol to witness the president's words and millions more from around the world watched him on television (Staff). For first time, a president talked about same sex marriage and gay rights, he also talked about divisive issues such as reform of immigration policies, stopping climate change and preserving a social welfare safety net. Obama showed a progressive and liberal agenda, focused on equal rights and possibilities for all the citizens. The theme of the speech was “Faith in America's Future,” (Caldwell) and he successfully used various rhetorical techniques and resources to influence the audience.

Andrew Jackson was such a popular president in the history of the United States that he was still getting votes for the presidency fifteen year after he died! Though born to be a soldier, Jackson was elected President of the United States in 1828 and again in 1832 after the electoral system and Henry Clay had cost him the presidency in 1824. His mantra was that the voice of the People must be heard. Historians connect Jackson to a new spirit of democracy that swept over the United States during the early 1800s and this era of “common man” marked a new stage for American democracy where average people began to have a say in the workings of their government. The term democratic is defined as “of, relating to, or supporting democracy or its principles”

America, a nation with an Electoral College that so far appointed forty-five men, each one of them possessing a unique background, to the most respectable and highest occupation. Said College consists of representatives from all fifty states who voted these men into the most prestigious position in the country: President of the United States. Throughout the centuries in the United States a variety of men from different political parties and upbringings lead the country in its darkest days and glorious times. Andrew Jackson the first Democratic President of the United States did not act in the same manner or share many similar qualities as the latest President of the same political party, Barack Obama. Which makes sense, due to the enormous gap between the duration of their Presidency and the time each man happened to live through. The lives before the switch of citizen to President and legislation signed as President of the two previously mentioned men above are minimally alike and more so differ.

forces around the world. The grayness of this area comes from the fact that what

President Obama, like all Presidents before him, delivered a farewell address to the United States on January 20, 2017. As he stepped down as President he was eloquent and it was as clear as ever that he is a master of oration. Obama will go down in history as the first Black President as well as a strong orator who had the ability to captivate an audience through his use of ethos, pathos and logos amongst other rhetorical devices. His farewell address is a perfect example of Obama’s mastery of discourse as it is chock full of oratorical devices. Obama’s message to the American people and to the rest of the world is that it is essential that we maintain a sense of what it means to have a democracy and that in order to maintain peace and

American politics has proved to be flawed in structure over, and over again. Although our founding fathers had the best intentions when they implemented democracy, they like most modern day politicians, failed to actually make things better. Yes we gained our Independence, but with the ability to make our own choices we tend to make childish and impulsive decisions. The election of Donald Trump stands to be the most recent of those mistakes, and the politicians who work for him are either blinded or full of regret. Poets Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Robert Lowell paint vivid pictures of these very mistakes that seem to recur with the thought of democracy.

Schaeffer states, “President Obama has been lied about, attacked, vilified, and disrespected since Day One” (“Slow Lynching”). This could not be truer. No other presidential candidate has been demanded by the public to produce a birth certificate. Some schools even distributed opt-out forms to students so that parents could prohibit their children from watching the President’s “Back-to- School Speech”, a speech that is not political in nature but rather encourages children to work hard and pay attention in school. Obama was unfairly criticized before he even took office, let alone actually pass and

During his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, Barack Obama observed that there was not a red America or a blue America, but a United States of America. Such sentiment implied that every citizen, hailing from all fifty states, shares a common set of principles and rights that distinctly marks him or her as a member of this nation. Although unmentioned during that landmark speech, one may assume that universal suffrage is one such right that all Americans share, binding our diverse nation together. However, although voter intimidation and violence is much less prevalent within America as it was in the past, disenfranchisement remains a reality as a result of partisan manipulation of election-administration laws. As

The election of President Obama marks the most noteworthy political accomplishment for African Americans in the United States during the post-civil rights revolution, thus bringing about a change in the country’s social and political landscape that was steeped in racial discrimination since the founding of this great nation. Because social and political conditions are subject to constant change, President Obama’s

Every four years in America there are elections, campaigns, disputes, word battles, rallies, press conferences, and a person who becomes the new president elect or maintains his position of power. In the previous years, 2016, these exact things happen between Donald Trump and a women, the first one to run for presidency, Hilary Clinton. In November 8, 2016 Trump became the president elect and became the official US President in the beginning months of the year 2017. President Trump has his own plan in order to run the country and make it as he says, “Great Again”. However, the only problem with his plan is that it affects the citizens, the voices of the country, and definitely violates their rights.

Democracy in the United States became prominent in the early to mid 19th century. Andrew Jackson, the 7th president of the United States, was inaugurated in 1829 and was best known as the person who mainstreamed democracy in America. Because he came from a humble background, he was the “genuine common man.” (Foner, pg. 303) He claimed he recognized the needs of the people and spoke on behalf of the majority [farmers, laborers]. However, critics of Jackson and democracy called him “King Andrew I” because of his apparent abuse of presidential power [vetoing]. These critics believed he favored the majority so much that it violated the U.S. constitution, and they stated he was straying too far away from the plan originally set for the