Sometimes removing a contentious topic from its current environment helps visitors see points from a more esoteric and distant perspective. The two assassination attempts against Donald Trump and the numerous inquiries into his do have raised questions about law enforcement and political succession, but the majority of Americans ‘ opinions on the same subject are heavily influenced by their opinions about Trump.
A new video on the sin administration, for example, offers a fresh view on the difficulties of British governance. Evidence from previous political dynasty decisions, including those made in the not-too-distant history, provides for guesswork on how bad conduct by elected officials may cause a protracted “lawfare” and a constitutional crisis.
Constitutional Modifications
The film, which premiered just before the vice presidential debate earlier this month, begins casually much. It examines the insufficient day the Constitution’s writers spent studying the vice president’s position at the Philadelphia Convention of 1787, how the contentious election of 1800 made it possible to elect a president and vice president on a group solution, and the reputation that John Tyler left when he succeeded William Henry Harrison as president after his death in 1841, setting up a precedent that the nation would have to rely on far too often.
Issues of presidential succession also took center stage as the United States gained more ground on the global stage in the middle of the 20th century. Dwight Eisenhower’s lengthy convalescence after a series of health scares in the mid-1950s prompted concerns about presidential incapacity, an issue nowhere addressed in law.  ,
Following John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, Lyndon B. Johnson’s first address to Congress raised a related issue. At the time of Johnson’s speech, the elderly individuals behind him on the dais — the 71-year-old Speaker John McCormack, D-Mass., and an 86-year-old Senate President Pro Tempore Carl Hayden, D-Ariz., — stood first and second in the presidential line of succession. With the Cuban Missile Crisis fresh in Americans ‘ minds, people realized that the vice presidency could no longer just stand vacant — as it had, according to the documentary, for more than 36 of the Constitution’s first 180 years — when its occupant succeeded to the presidency.  ,
The 25th Amendment, which became effective in 1967, was the result of those discussions surrounding presidential succession and incapacity. It codified the Tyler precedent of 1841, which forbids the vice president from automatically becoming president, permits the confirmation of a replacement vice president by both chambers of Congress, and allows the president to voluntarily relieve himself of his duties for a short period of time.
Traditionally, Section 4 of the 25th Amendment, which allows the vice president and cabinet members to declare the president unable to serve, has proved the most controversial. The provision has never been put into use or put to the test, despite claims that the cabinet uses it against Ronald Reagan and ( more recently ) Trump.  ,
Lawfare in the Executive?
However, the PBS documentary makes references to additional constitutionally illicit opportunities. Consider this quote from the film about events surrounding Watergate in the early 1970s:” ]President Richard ] Nixon’s Justice Department was actively pursuing forcing]Vice President Spiro] Agnew from office”.
Because Nixon “knew it was likely that he himself would be impeached or forced to resign, knew that it would be a disaster if Agnew were to succeed to the presidency,” the movie portrays this action as almost heroic and noble. On the other hand, the executive branch had taken it upon itself to look into and ultimately try to remove the only person the country had elected, aside from the president. Could a new president try to sabotage the Justice Department in opposition to his own No. 2?
Consider the reverse scenario, in which Nixon actively attempted to cover up Agnew’s deeds and imposed a stoppage in the Justice Department’s activities. One could see a Machiavellian logic in such a move: If I keep Agnew in office, Congress wo n’t be able to impeach me — they could n’t stand the thought of making Agnew president.
Ultimately, Agnew agreed to resign as part of a plea agreement, and Nixon nominated Rep. Gerald Ford, R-Mich., then the House minority leader, as vice president. After resigning in August 1974, Ford was able to win strong bipartisan support in both houses of Congress, succeeding him as president.
Conflicts and Character
But here too, events could have gone awry. In knowing that Congress would reject them, Nixon could have nominated unfavorable candidates for vice president. Would Republicans have dared to impeach and remove Nixon from office knowing that the next Democrat in the line of succession would be House Speaker Carl Albert of Oklahoma, if his maneuvers had kept the vice presidency afloat into 1974?
Later, Albert recalls that Agnew and his fellow congressional leaders had given the president” no choice but Ford” when they discussed the vice presidential nomination. As Rachel Maddow ( of all people ) points out in the documentary, Albert made a brilliant move by attempting to use the corruption charges against both Agnew and Nixon to wangle himself into the presidency, a fictitious ploy she rightly described as a potential “partisan coup.”
With Nixon’s resignation fifty years ago, the conflicts at Watergate came to an end peacefully. But the documentary alludes to, but does n’t fully explore, other scenarios that could have become far more prolonged, bitter, and even bloody.
Unfortunately, those possibilities seem inherent in any government formed by mortal, fallible men. As the film notes, the authors of the 25th Amendment “were trying to imagine everything, but truth is always stranger than fiction”.
No constitutional structure can anticipate or anticipate every scenario that could lead to anarchy and autocracy. At the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention, Ben Franklin reportedly told a passerby that the delegates had” created a republic, if you can keep it.” It falls on all of us — each successive generation of Americans — to rise to Franklin’s challenge.
” The American Vice President” is available on PBS stations ( check your local listings ) and can be streamed online and via the PBS app.