The Hardest Job in the World: The American Presidency

by John Dickerson

In 1950 the American Political Science Association published a report on the health of political parties as concern grew that presidents were dominating the political system. Their conclusion about trends halfway through the last century sound almost as prescient as Kennedy’s about television: “When the President’s program actually is the sole program…either his party becomes a flock of sheep or the party falls apart. In effect this concept of the presidency disposes of the party system by making the President reach directly for the support of a majority of the voters. It favors a president who exploits skillfully the arts of demagoguery, who uses the whole country as his political back yard, and who does not mind turning into the embodiment of personal government.”