Public Pressure in American Politics

John Heylin

May 2, 2007

HSTAA 201 Final

Topic A

Public Pressure in American Politics

Propaganda consists of the planned use of any form of communication designed to affect the minds, emotions, and action of a given group for a specific purpose. Presidents, dictators and emperors have used propaganda to turn the public view towards their favor. In a peacetime environment, public view is almost impossible to change; with nothing to act out against people will live their lives normally. Having a crisis, be it mass murder or an act of war against one’s country, and is the best possible way for people who are in power to pass the legislation they want. Presidents Wilson, FDR, and Johnson have used war and weaknesses to their advantages, capitalizing on the anger of people towards others. Gaining public favor is the best way for one to get the bills they want passed approved in Congress.

President Woodrow Wilson, when first elected, found it easy to pass bills due to his overwhelming favorability in the public eye and due to a Congress that had a Democratic majority. In 1913 he succeeded in passing the Underwood Act and the Federal Reserve Bill, establishing income tax, the twelve Federal Reserve banks, and creating a new currency. As hostilities in Europe continued to escalate, and German forces started to attack American merchant ships, the American public grew more and more agitated at America’s stance of neutrality. Wilson, not wanting to commit troops to the threat overseas, grew very unpopular among the citizens of the United States. News from British papers incited Americans to violence and anger; Wilson, running for presidency again in 1916, almost lost due to his stance on neutrality, and yet managed to win by only 23 electoral votes. Finally the attack on the Lusitania and the interception of the infamous “Zimmerman Note” (many believed fabricated by the British government to get the United States into the war) forced Wilson to ask Congress to declare war on Germany. Despite his unpopularity, Wilson managed to pass the Fourteen Points principles, a group of principles he believed he was fighting for into fourteen groups. This legislation won Wilson the Nobel Peace prize and he was heralded as the savior of peace in Europe. Without the backing of the American people, Wilson could have never had the approval of Congress. Without the news from overseas, Wilson never would have been forced into committing troops to the war.

During Franklin Roosevelt’s tenure as president, he was faced with a great hardship; the Great Depression. Passed over to him from the previous president, Hoover (who believed the best policy to combat the depression was to do nothing), FDR was handed a presidency that had politically “killed” Hoover. Yet FDR managed to turn the Great Depression to his benefit; he was able to include many of his ideas onto important bills. The New Deal passed quickly due to FDR’s popularity with the American public; many of the plans in the New Deal benefited the entire country, and so his popularity ...

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Lyndon Johnson used quite different tactics than Wilson and FDR to get bills passed. Johnson believed in working with opposing parties, instead of against them, this way both sides could benefit, even though their opinions might differ. This type of compromising allowed Johnson to pass important bills such as the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the 1957, 1960, and 1964 Civil Rights Acts. This method clearly worked to Johnson’s advantage, this is shown by the major accomplishments he achieved during his political tenure. He used compromising to get civil rights bills passed, funding for poverty programs, and funding for the Vietnam War.

The best possible way for a political figure to get something done is to have a majority in the House, Senate, White House, and the Supreme Court. This way, your party’s views and propositions can be passed speedily. When dealing with a Congress that is an opposite party, compromising is the only way to get what you want; if the two Houses war against each other, no legislation would ever get passed because then the president would veto all bills from Congress, and then Congress would veto any of the Presidents bills. The only way to speedily pass a bill is to have a majority in all three branches of the government, that way what you want can get passed.

http://wwics.si.edu/Wilson~1.htm

The Unfinished Nation, Alan Brinkley, 684 (McGraw-Hill, 2000)

http://www.learner.org/biographyofamerica/prog21/transcript/page02.html

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Lyndon_Baines_Johnson.htm