My reaction to president Andrew Jackson is rather controversial and uncertain. He is considered to be emblematic of the “common man” and the reason for him to rise to the top of the United States’ political power system. A “common man” is an ordinary person from the working class, a politician, or an unwealthy landowner. Since Jackson himself was a self-made and non-educated man from humble beginnings who succeeded in becoming a president, he personifies and represents this concept.
To ride the wave of the “common man” to political office, such politicians typically exploit some regional, class, racial, and ethnic issues. For instance, Donald Trump, who is also a representative of a “common man” politician, attacks the norms of American politics, singles out several groups for derision based on religion and race, and attacks the political process’s legitimacy. Moreover, such politicians tend to ignore common decency, employ casual vulgarity, and even rain personal humiliation on critics in the media and political opponents. All similar actions performed by “common man” politicians make less-educated white people support them.
As for Jackson, his policies were beneficial to poor whites in the U.S. in this period. He expanded suffrage to most white men, gave them land and slaves, and removed Native Americans. During his presidency, Jackson clashed with Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun. He proved that he was unafraid of opposing them and defeated both of them by making Calhoun resign as Vice-President and Clay – lose the Presidential election of 1832. He also had a clash with the banking and court systems. Jackson killed the National Bank and entirely changed the system, as well as criticized Chief Justice John Marshall’s decision regarding the Cherokee Indians.
Jackson has shaped his legacy as a devoted representative of the “common man” and a political rebel. Nowadays, his legacy is seen as a source of controversy since some consider Jackson a hero, while others see him as the destroyer of American values. Such controversies mean that U.S. society and politics are diverse and have too many differences, while both need to be a united mechanism.