Analysis Of An American Conspiracy By Alan C. Moore

Introduction

To encourage disciplined governance, the Founding Fathers designed the United States political system to put its various federal institutions in conflict. As such, these conflicts of US government frame and impact the political world of An American Conspiracy by Alan C. Moore. This paper proposes that this novel portrays an accurate representation of the conflictual relationship between the President and Congress, but it fails to realistically reflect Congress’s internal disagreements originating from polarization. After giving a brief summary of the novel’s plot, this essay explores several trends in American politics relevant to An American Conspiracy: the limited power of the President over Congress, the political leverage of

Regarding the former, a popular misconception is that the president “can achieve any political or policy objective if only he tries hard enough or uses the right tactics,” a belief known as the Green Lantern Theory of politics. By the Founding Fathers’ design, the “[p]resident has little formal power to make Congress do anything”—a “combination of public speeches and private wheedling” is not enough to force Congressional action. This is further complicated by elections’ incentives structures. “When the president takes a position on an issue[,] the opposing party becomes far more likely to take the opposite position” because “elections are zero-sum affairs.” Cooperating with the President’s platform translates into an appearance that the president is successful. For the other party, this undermines the opposing party’s reason for election. The United States’s polarized political environment also intensifies this phenomenon because most members of Congress represent safe districts. Cooperating with a President of the opposing party may motivate a more partisan primary challenger to run against them. Although An American Conspiracy’s Congress may be “close to the middle ideologically,” this does not negate legislators’ interest in their electoral viability for upcoming elections. Even if they do not feel strongly about the President’s proposal based on ideology, the opposing party traditionally has an incentive to see the President fail in the interest of their personal and their party’s electoral viability. Even amongst the President’s own party, Congressmembers have a reason to obstruct the plan because raising gas prices may anger their constituents or motivate a primary challenger to run against them. Put simply, this novel properly recognizes the agency of Congress and its members in relation to