1. I expect a president to be decisive, tough, and not afraid of disappointing the people of the United States. I also expect a president to be assertive, and able to think for himself while taking constructive input from others. The president must also be confident, innovative, and, when need be, manipulative and ruthless. I want a president like Abraham Lincoln, who took substantial control of the federal government in order to effectively lead the Civil War. Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus and allocated military spending without congressional authorization. Lincoln was willing to do anything he thought was right to win the war. Lincoln’s friend described how he favored “the most vigorous and active measures to bring the war to a speedy close, and totally opposed … any compromise of any kind or character”. Lincoln acted with certainty. Lincoln’s desire to expand the limits of executive power also led him to issue the …show more content…
Paradox 4: We expect our presidents to provide bold, visionary, innovative, programmatic leadership and at the same time to pragmatically respond to the will of public opinion majorities; that is to say, we expect presidents to lead and to follow, to exercise “democratic leadership”.
i. Preference: I prefer a president to lead and provide bold and innovative leadership. The president should be an architect of the future, and should offer visions, plans, and goals. The president cannot act like a dog on the end of the leash; he needs to act like the dog owner holding the leash. However, the president cannot create outrageous goals such as all public universities being free for people to attend because the top one-percent will pay extremely high taxes will pay for it, like Bernie Sanders suggested. There is a fine line between an achievable goal and a dream.
e. Paradox 5: Americans want powerful, self-confident presidential leadership. Yet we are inherently suspicious of leaders who are arrogant, infallible, and above