American Government and The Confederation of Perpetual Union

5-6 pages paper containing;
A thesis statement in your introductory paragraph
A concluding paragraph
Refer to your book for any specifics you might need, research-wise. Outside research is optional (if used, please abide by APA guidelines for in-text citation)
Throughout our lessons and our writings this term we've been looking at the individual elements of the American government and the experience of being American that those elements allow. However, for the work due at the end of this term, we'll be combining these elements together.
To formulate your thesis, take any two of the lessons (and the subjects of those lessons) we've discussed and written about, and state/defend the connection between the two of them. Your belief in that connection, which you then claim is a vital part of American government, is your thesis. Write about and support that.
TWO LESSON DISCUSSED ARE 1&9
LESSON 1 -
Welcome to the class, American Government. This is a class focusing on the both the history and the social/political issues of how American politics grew and evolved (what we'll refer to as a "sociopolitical lens") into what it is today. While there will be a level of historical reading (timelines), we're also going to be discussing the nature of various specific elements of government and the desired effects vs. impacts of specific policies and events.
Ultimately, our goals will be;
To explain how enlightenment thinking about government and human rights impacted the formation of the American government
To outline in detail the mechanics and process of government.
To discuss the purposes of federalism.
To explain in depth the evolution of government from the Constitutional Convention of 1787 to contemporary politics.
To acquaint students with a sophisticated understanding of the main issues in American politics.
To understand the impact of status and wealth on politics and government in the U. S.
From here, what we're going to do is look briefly at our starting point, the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia PA, because it was here that the seeds of the American Constitution came to fruition.
Originally convened to basically "fix" the problems with the Articles of Confederation (the original document created to spell out how the new American government would work post-Revolution), the Convention was a meeting of various delegates, who were politicians and other political figures of the era from across the board (Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, etc) sent by the new states (note that of the 13 existing US states at the time, the state of Rhode Island decided not to send anyone).
It ultimately ended with the signing of the Constitution, which shifted the focus of the new government;
A) Away from the loose collection of states that worked together only on major common interests
B) Towards a centralized government that actively oversaw issues within each state/territory regularly
The fear that this new type of federal government (called so because of the idea that it turned the US into a federation of states, a permanent allyship/partnership) would exercise the same kind of authority that the American Revolution had literally just overthrown was the root of what we now know as the system of checks and balances, which, roughly speaking are;
A) The system of ensuring that out of all the various branches of government, no one has absolute authority over its area of domain
B) Laws need to go through various series of oversight from MULTIPLE branches of that government before going into effect.
The impact of the Convention is not a small one. It created the US Constitution, it laid the groundwork for about 90% of modern American government, and it even gave us (the US) our first President (George Washington, a war hero and politician at the time, was ultimately elected President of the United States after he was chosen by the delegates at the convention to oversee it).
Now, what we should be taking away from this lesson is the importance of the Constitutional Convention, and how it, for better or worse, laid out what America has become today. As you do your assignment for the week, consider this;
A meeting to fix something that was broken basically turned into a large-scale moment where people aired their grievances and basically rewrote a governmental blueprint from scratch, a blueprint we've been modifying and trying to fix to this day.
LESSON 9
What we'll be looking at today is one example, which is the creation of the Presidency as a popular figure. The idea of the President as a popular and electable "leader" is through two elements; The power and right of voting, and the power of the political party system.
In this particular case, we want to know how multiple elements (the single parts of government we've been discussing) work in tandem to support each other. Some of these combinations are of two different ones, and some can be three. For a Presidency to be what it is today, we need two;
VOTING - We've discussed the electoral college and the debate about keeping it VS the popular vote. Regardless, the idea of citizenship conveying an inalienable right, a power to select leadership, gives a lot of power to a populace. The power to elect, to pick, rather than be told what's ultimately good for us without even the illusion of choice, is a very powerful one (which brings us to the history of voter suppression in the US, another lesson for another week), so the way we use it must be with the full knowledge that the "product" (a leader) we're putting our money and trust into, metaphorically and literally, should deserve it.
This means that, since the inception of political parties that actively try to "sell" their stances and policies to voters versus the other party, leaders who can be elected are treated as products to sell, with implications and branding, with slogans and merchandise (promotional), all of it aimed at working to capture the power of that vote. A president who can't be seen as a slogan or an abstract concept, a "brand" as it were, ultimately doesn't get as much of the vote and therefore can't be seen as truly representing the US as that brand model/spokesperson.
Look through history as Presidents we've ultimately treated as such;
George Washington; War hero and natural leader
Donald Trump; Reactionary and also populist
Barack Obama; Young idealism and the promise of a "golden age"
Franklin Roosevelt; Recovery and reinvention of the US
George W. Bush; Homespun familiarity and comfort in troubling times.
Bill Clinton; Popular charisma and acceptance of youth culture
John Kennedy; The promise of an American "royal family".
Every single one of these particular presidencies is/has been one that has a large pop culture presence, creating arguably-clear "brands" that together with the power of the vote, create arguably-memorable presidencies (even if the first one is cheating because Washington was, technically, the first president).
The views we've been given of these presidents are one-half of the "formula," as it were, of creating and maintaining a president. Think about how many other elected officials are voted for regularly, and how many of them do their jobs daily, besides the US President. Can you name any off the top of your head? How many? However, to maintain the idea of the power of the vote and the populist concept behind democracy, we use the idea of "selling" a leader (more accurately leasing one) to the American public who then use their power to determine if it's a good investment. That's where political parties come in as the crafters of that brand and that message.
The charm and charisma of Barack Obama wasn't an organic thing, but the capturing of a movement that was fostered into something more. The same goes for Roosevelt, for Bill Clinton, for Donald Trump. It's the balance of the elements of a good sold to the voting public and the voting public deciding on the value of bill of goods.
What do you guys think? Are these accurate "billings" of presidents to the electing public, and does this combination make sense?