The History Of The U.S.'s Peaceful Transition Of Power

As long as there has been a government in the US, a peaceful transition of power has been fundamental to American democracy: without it, the whole thing crashes. This does not mean that the change of power from one party to another has always happened without any hindrance.

First peaceful transition of power in America.

It is no surprise that the initial transition of power from President Washington to President Adams took a while. Not only that, they were also just figuring out how to do it, there was no means of quick communication over a longer distance than your average ballroom. Weeks for Telegram with information about the transition to travel across the country and then more weeks for Adams and his people to actually travel to Washington. As a result, it took three months for Adams to officially become president and move to the White House after his election in December 1796. As the years passed, the technology moved the process forward, but that does not mean the transition became easier. .

Hoover and Roosevelt on Inauguration Day, 1933.

Risk of a longer infection

Today, it is customary for the outgoing president to briefly state the president-elect as to what position they are in, but after President Roosevelt's 1932 election, he refused to have a meeting with then-President Hoover Given so that the crisis of crisis can be discussed in the great depression or much more. It was not just that Roosevelt did not like Hoover, although he did not at all. Mostly, he did not want them to be tied to the previous president with their hands when they entered the White House.

This was not an easy task. At this point in the United States, the presidential inauguration still took place in March, so Roosevelt had to go out of his way to avoid his predecessor for months. Perhaps that is why, after Roosevelt moved around the White House, he carried forward all future presidential openings from March to January.

Inaugural address by John F. Kennedy

Eisenhower was not playing

One of the most controversial changes of the modern era, however, was from Eisenhower to Kennedy. In the final 10 months of Eisenhower's presidency, the outgoing leader did everything he could to bring about a regime change through last-minute policies regarding the Congo, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba. As if it wasn't bad enough, the Eisenhower administration ordered the US Army into Southeast Asia during its last days in office, forcing the Laotian army to negotiate with the Soviets and possibly overwhelming Kennedy on his first day at White. Handed over the crisis. House.

President George W. Bush and Mrs. Laura Bush and President-elect Barack Obama and Mrs. Michelle Obama paused for photos on Monday, November 10, 2008, after Obama's arrival at the White House's South Portico.

Modern changes of electricity

The transition from Reagan to Bush, Sr. should have been fairly easy, with Bush holding Reagan's V.P. For eight years, but the Bush administration was not sold on Gorbachev's love of Reagan, and it did not help that Bush announced the abolition of key government figures after being elected in the morning. Suffice it to say that life was stony in President Bush's early days of his time in office.

When Clinton took over the White House four years later, her transition was completely reversible. It took him too long to settle on his cabinet after his first choice for attorney general ended up in hot water after hiring unspecified immigrants.

Interestingly, the transition that is considered a model of a peaceful transition of power in the US is also one of the most recent. The transition from Bush, Jr. to Obama is still seen as the simplest possible transition to power.