Modern-day politics in America revolves around the presidential republic whereby the President of the United States has most of the power as the head of state, government as well as the electoral system and the legislative parties. American politics have 2 major parties which are the Democratic party and the Republican party. Currently, the United States is the only country practicing democracy without third-party interference. The American political culture ensures that the government should be answerable to its citizens, the government should have limited powers on matters of freedom of religion and freedom of expression as well as that all citizens should be equal before the law. The Americans also believe in expressing their opinions on any matter with full freedom.
Dan F Hahn, suggests that the people should analyze the political situation in the country based on what they think is logical. He encourages especially political students or law students to analyze the political rhetoric based on what are the facts given to them and what they observe over the political period. For example, the charisma of a politician could be felt even after they have completed their political careers. Thus, it is important for the student to learn how to efficiently and effectively analyze the rhetoric of political issues that happens on a daily basis. This is when it is important to compare famous political leaders and to identify their strengths and weaknesses as part of the analysis. He goes around to main factors, which are the amount of freedom given to the people against the amount of power being used. This also highlights the leadership styles in each leader, in which he suggests there should be an addition of 2 or more qualities in order to be a good leader.
President Richard M. Nixon was the firsts to go towards reconciliation. He ended the war against Vietnam and worked hard to improve relationships with countries like Russia and China. He proposed the Nixon Doctrine, whereby he replaced the American troops with the Vietnamese troops. It was also known as the ‘Vietnamization’. He steadily declined the American involvement in the war until all the troops were gone away from Vietnam in the year 1973. In 1972, Nixon went directly to Beijing and Russia to mend ties with them. During this period, he also met with the Russian leader, Leonid I Brezhnev to produce a treaty to limit strategic nuclear weapons. Apart from that, in 1973, Nixon also created a bond with North Vietnam in order to end America’s involvement in Indochina. In the following year, his secretary, Henry Kissinger worked as a negotiator to engage agreements between Israel and its opponents, Egypt and Syria. Thus, since he became the President, his approach was more of an idealist whereby trying to achieve world stability. He also brought in the new concepts of revenue sharing among the people. In addition, during Nixon’s first year, the American astronauts made their first landing on the moon which made his 1st year quite a dramatic turn of events. Moreover, in 1972, Nixon approved the development of NASA’s Space Shuttle program which has allowed Americans to explore space and produce many useful facts based on their research which not only helped Americans to develop space program’s for the future but also allowed the developing countries to proceed into the space program based on the American’s expertise.
Besides that, Nixon also appointed Justice of conservative philosophy to the Supreme court just as he had earlier promised during his elections. He also introduced revenue sharing, ended the draft as well as created new anticrime laws for the safety of the common people. He also developed environmental programs to ensure that the perseverance of the environment starts early. Unfortunately, Nixon was forced to resign after the ‘Watergate’ scandal emerged during his 70’s campaigning. In 1983, Nixon summarized his political views in his book titled ‘Real Peace’, “Short of changing human nature, therefore the only way to approach a practical, livable peace in a world of competing nations is to take the profit out of war.” When Nixon was re-elected in 1972, he created a US political history as one of the biggest landslide election victories. Using Hahn’s analyzing approach, Nixon is domestically viewed as a conservative centrist and as a conservative-liberal through his domestic policies. One of Nixon’s biggest contributions would be creating the ‘Imperial Presidency’, whereby the President has a high level of control over the government’s policy and decisions. This is still being practiced in modern-day politics.
In a more recent note, President Bill Clinton has been described as a centrist. He has made history by being one of the longest presidents to keep economic expansion at a very peaceful pace. Not long after Clinton stepped in as the President of the United States, he signed the Family of Medical and Leave Act of 1993 to allow more employers to give unpaid leave to their employees especially during pregnancy or a serious medical condition. Apart from that, Clinton also approved the ‘Don’t Tell, Don’t Ask’ policy for homosexual men and women to work in the military without having to reveal their sexuality and keeping their sexuality a secret. There were talks that Clinton should have followed President Truman’s approach to integrating the military by executive order, thus ending any form of segregation. In addition to the above controversy, President Clinton also had another controversial issue around the same time to deal with. He had supported the North American Free Trade Agreement which was strongly opposed by the anti-trade Republicans, protectionist Democrats as well as Ross Perot’s supporters. Clinton signed the agreement after the Senate had ratified it in 1994.
In the following years, Clinton also signed a few more agreements for the benefit of his people. He signed the Earned Income Tax Credit, as a subsidy to lower-income workers, as well as the Brady Bill which imposed a 5 day waiting period on handgun purchases to discourage blind selling of weapons to citizens underage and so on. Clinton’s administration also faced its first major legislative defeat when their effort to create a national health care system failed under public pressure. Another one of Clinton’s popular decisions is when he signed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 whereby it helped cut taxes for 15million low-income families as well as for about 90% of the smaller businesses. This allowed the smaller business to grow and pay higher taxes as they grew. Clinton also launched Operation Desert Fox, a campaign to bomb around Iraq in an effort to loosen Saddam Hussein’s grip over Iraq. He also became the first American President to visit Vietnam after the Vietnam war in 2000. The US economy also saw an economic boom and a federal budget surplus ever since the year 1969 under Clinton’s leadership. Even after the Monica Lewinsky scandal, he is still one of the most popular US Presidents among his people. He is also known as a very charismatic and people-oriented leader.
After President Clinton stepped down, President George W Bush took over as the 43rd President of the United States. Perhaps his most famous attempt would be the War against Terrorism which he launched right after the 9/11 attacks on America. He ordered that Afghanistan be invaded and the Taliban be overthrown as they were unfair to the Afghanistan people. He also ordered that Osama bin Laden be captured. Bush also ordered the invasion of Iraq as he claimed that Iraq could be a threat and that the war against them is necessary to protect the United States. Bush also gained popularity by cutting down USD 1.35trillion dollars on taxes, one of the largest tax cuts in US history. He suggested that the unused money should be returned to the taxpayers. This measure, he said would help create more jobs in the country and stimulate the economy.
Bush also faced some major challenges during his presidency. The employment rate rose from 4.2% in January 2001 to 6.3% in June 2003 which also increased the poverty level in the United States. Apart from that, the national debt also increased to USD3.25trillion dollars since Bush entered administration. However, Bush made up for all this by signing the No Child Left Behind Act whereby more federal funding was targeted for the lower-income schools, thus encouraging the lower-income group kids to pursue their studies in these government schools. The aim was to narrow the gap between the rich and poor kids. He also allowed more than 12million illegal immigrants to obtain legal status. His reason was to allow everyone to get the same protection of US laws from unfair employers, exploitation, and poverty. One of the major controversial issues was that the government failed to respond immediately to the emergency situation in Louisiana during Hurricane Katrina to which Bush admitted and apologized later.
One of the greatest world controversies during the Bush administration was during the 9/11 attacks on the United States. Bush immediately launched the preventive war against Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the immediate order to capture Osama bin Laden. Amidst all this chaos, there was an attempted assignation on Bush 2 years back, in 2005 at Georgia. Bush is viewed as a liberal republican in a more domestic view. Bush is internationally condemned for his war decisions and targeted mostly by anti-war organizations worldwide. Internationally, he has been nicknamed as the second largest threat to world peace by a poll in Britain. Many people prefer Clinton’s approach to a much peaceful way of resolving a situation rather than thru war.
In a conclusion, communication skills among the three featured leaders above are different as they form different leadership impressions such as conservatives, liberalists, and so on. President Nixon was considered to be more of a conservative leader whereas President Clinton and Bush were more liberal leaders and became popular public figures among their people throughout their political careers. Though, both Bush and Clinton are famous public figures, both of them are famous for some very different reasons. Bush is being more of negative side publicity whereas Clinton is being more of a positive public figure. The important keyword here is probably the likeability of a leader and the power that they try to enforce, especially by being one of the most important political figures. As Hahn suggests, it’s a continuous battle among the conservatives and the liberals.