hey Cypher here nowadays whoever holds the presidency of the United States or pus for short is not only the most powerful person in America but the entire world of course that hasn't always been the case as such there are many myths and misconceptions surrounding the office people want to tell stories about the president and the more they do the more they simplify alter and outright lie about it much of our political beliefs are entangled with who we admire or despise and that's how myths are born so let's dispel some of these before they corrupt our perceptions any further I'll even hit some inconsequential ones along the way and like always I've included a bibliography below for those who'd like to dig [Music] deeper before we get to the good stuff let's cover some of the more silly myths about American Presidents these are obligatory so I'll debunk them quickly then I'll reach the important stuff the story of a young George Washington cutting down a cherry tree and refusing to lie about it comes from a biography of him in 1806 its author weams clearly fabricated numerous stories about his subject and this is no different the charm of young George unable to lie has made the story spread but there isn't anything verifiable about such an event occurring the thing about Washington wearing wooden teeth is closer to the truth but it hides a dark reality as many older men did at the time he wore Dentures but not made of wood some were gold and silver but others were human teeth a popular counter myth is that these teeth came from slaves we don't know where his came from dentists would adverti and newspapers for donations to make dentures and those came from all sorts of places which sometimes did include slaves but the majority came from impoverished whites which is where most of Washington's Dentures probably came [Music] from Lincoln composed the Gettysburg address in a series of drafts all on normal paper Mary Raymond Andrews fabricated a story of him writing it at the spur of the moment while on a train from Washington hastily scribbling on the back of an envelope to make it seem like he was simply that good with words after all that speech is often regarded as the greatest oration in US history but Robert Todd Lincoln didn't find the original documents until 2 years after andrews's book now the Library of Congress does hold such an envelope that claims to be in Lincoln's hand but that is likely a false attribution because it does not match his handri [Music] writing this famous picture of Theodore Roosevelt writing a moose in the water is sadly doctored it comes from an article that altered photos to put all three of the presidents from the 1912 election on the back of an animal that represents their party you can see him grabbing some non-existent Reigns while good old Teddy was known for his hij Jinks with Wildlife most of that was from his long life hunting them William Howard Taft was possibly our most rotund president he was 6t tall and over 300 lb he even had to have a custom bathtub made for his comfort on voyages to the Panama Canal this led to the rumor that he'd gotten stuck in a regularized bathtub Taft himself took this jabbing at his obesity with a plum while he was governor of the Philippines he telegraphed went on a horse ride today feeling good the office was overseen by Secretary of War elu root who replied how's the [Music] horse when woodro Wilson suffered one of his many strokes in October of 1919 he was virtually comos for several months he had been campaigning for the ratification of the Treaty of Versailles and the USA to join the League League of Nations rather than dealing with the serious crisis during the first Red Scare or dismantling his tyrannical control after the war wison he wouldn't get out of bed for more than a day or two until March of 1920 at the time there was no procedure for presidents to relinquish power for health emergencies which that would not happen until the 25th amendment in 1967 nonetheless he did send out many dictates through his wife Edith since they had married while he was President many cabinet officers thought she was manipulating their correspondence especially since she was particularly suspicious of Secretary of State Robert laning who had to Tender his resignation during this time but that had been a long time coming since Lancing had undermined some of Wilson's foreign policies his replacement Bainbridge Colby never made such an accusation about Edith and often controlled the cabinet in Wilson's stad the rumor of Edith hijacking the presidency is simply malicious gossip from lansing's supporters not something to be taken seriously when John F Kennedy and Richard Nixon debated in 1960 that was broadcast on both radio and television many authors in recent years have asserted that listeners thought Nixon won and viewers thought Kennedy won proving that a difference in superficial Aesthetics was more important since JFK won the election none of that is backed up by any polls conducted at the time firstly there were four debates not just one second the actual polls at the time show a consistent siding with whichever party someone was predisposed to support presidents didn't hold debates again until 1976 not because of some viewer listener disparity but because the 1960 series was kind of useless for changing people's minds as most presidential debates are so let's get on to some more substantive myths to bust our first President George Washington is often regarded as our greatest the one who set the standard for all the r to come the unimpeachable conduct by which all others are measured but during his actual presidency many Americans considered him to have disgraced his heroic Legacy and indeed some called for his impeachment the first Scandal was the botched raid on the Northwest Indian Confederacy in 1791 led by St Clair which the various tribes easily defeated and massacred nearly to a man the entire Army had to reformulate because of this that was quite the embarrassment for a commander-in-chief who had previously commanded the army during the formative Revolutionary War as treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton tried to centralize power through the the banking system Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson took great issue with it and tried to argue against this Washington regularly took Hamilton's side to the point that Jefferson resigned in 1793 just before that Washington had broken the French Alliance by declaring neutrality in their war with Britain a year later came his handling of the Whiskey Rebellion imagine what going to happen when you try to tax our whiskey Dr Dr Dr Dr Dr Dr pennsylvanians opposed attacks on distillate and revolted against collectors Washington LED an Army in the field against them but luckily the Insurrection Aries dispersed before he arrived it's the only time in US history that a president LED an Army in the field 2 years later he sent Chief Justice John J to Britain to diffuse a worsening diplomatic situation the treaty he brought back opened trade and sent debts to arbitration eventually normalizing the relation ship between America's former Imperial overlords it also was supposed to stop the British from occupying Western forts in American territory and arming tribes against the USA But Britain failed to uphold their end of the treaty this was the ultimate Scandal because many Americans saw this as siding with Britain despite the Declaration of neutrality beforehand citizens burned effes of Jay vandalized Washington's residence and Veterans toasted saying saying a speedy death to General Washington this is when many Democratic Republicans called for his impeachment in the midst of this Scandal Washington declared that he wouldn't run for a third term and sent a letter that became known as his farewell address in it he denounced entangling alliances factionalism and sectionalism while the address is well remembered today at the time most Americans could see through the open hypocrisy of denouncing the very things he had fostered by citing so much with the Federalists and the British his presidency was anything but uncontroversial many Americans at the time considered him to have resigned in disgrace we often think of Abraham Lincoln as the great emancipator after all he proclaimed emancipation of all slaves in Rebel territory in 1863 and pushed for the 13th Amendment which abolished slavery though it wouldn't be ratified before an assassin killed him for having defeated the Confederacy after 4 years of them fighting for slavery's sake but he was simply anti-slavery not a full-on abolitionist meaning he was opposed to slavery and its expansion but did not want Federal legislation against its existence in the states he did not seek abolition until after it was politically expedient following Lincoln's election victory in 1860 seven states declared secession all of their declarations called for the protection of their so-called peculiar institution of slavery from Lincoln's [Laughter] Administration even though many contemporary Americans considered him to be aligned with the cause of abolishing slavery that was very much not his policy proposal the Republican platform stated that the normal condition of all of the territory of the United States is that of Freedom territory referring to territorial status not the states that as our Republican fathers when they had abolished slavery in all our national territory ordained that no person should be deprived of life liberty or property without due process of law it becomes our duty by legislation whenever such legislation is necessary to maintain this provision of the Constitution ution against all attempts to violate it and we deny the authority of Congress of a territorial legislature or of any individuals to give legal existence to slavery in any territory of the United States that was about the expansion of slavery into the territories States had the right to regulate themselves and Lincoln did not threaten that whatsoever the southern states wanted to push slavery Westward against state rights Lincoln also did not initially consider freemen to be equals or even capable of becoming citizens in 1862 as more and more slaves were freed by Crossing Union lines Lincoln asked for proposals to resettle them elsewhere some Americans wanted to send Freeman back to Africa where there was already the independent nation of Liberia composed of former colonies for that purpose one Congressional proposal was for a linconia in today's Panama Lincoln privately changed his position but never publicly espouse the equality of black [Music] people we often blame the president for the state of our economy after all they are the commander-in-chief this is an extremely poor understanding of Economics though for instance many people blamed the Great Depression on president Herbert Hoover because he signed a higher tariff in 1930 impoverished Americans jokingly called things like outturn to empty Pockets Hoover flags and Shanty Town's Hoover vills but the reality is the economy was already in shambles after the stock market crash of 1929 along with the intendent numerous amount of Bank closures unemployment was already skyrocketing before the smoo Holly tariff Hoover actually opposed the Tariff too but he signed it only because his party wanted him to so he wasn't the cause of its effects the Tariff did lower international trade and worse and the depression but it in no way caused the Great Depression there are very few things a president can do to change the economy to go over that Mr be is here to set the record straight take it away thanks Cypher yeah it's not that the president has no control over the economy it's just that they have little control over the economy Cipher brought up the example of the Smoot Holly tariff which I argue is one of the worst in American history because it arguably turned a recession into a depression however as Cypher mentioned Hoover only signed it after being pressured to and who pressured him to sign it Congress Congress passes laws and has more influence over the economy way more than the president does but that's kind of besides the point I mean just think about it just think about it if presidents actually did have control they would make everything cheap all the time make it easy to find a nice job job all the time make our incomes all go up and make it extremely easy to borrow money heck they'd probably just give everybody free money if they could get away with it why because they want to get reelected they generally just want to stay in power come on anyway uh yeah you can learn more about this in my video so check it out if you so dare be sure to check that out furthermore I should add that often presidents are blamed for an economic downturn when there's quite the opposite because the facts of the economy don't fit political ends all stuff you will learn from Mr beats episode so be sure to check that out in trying to understand the expansion of executive power over time a common narrative is that presidents were practically just bureaucrats without much Authority before some war that granted them too much power before World War II the United States stes didn't have a large standing military nuclear weaponry or extensive secret agencies World War I brought about the ability to create propaganda monopolize and nationalize Industries send detectives and prosecute Espionage and sedici speech after the Spanish American war there were not just American territories but official colonies or what is now termed unincorporated territories where the US Constitution does not apply the Civil War brought about Federal enforcement of individual rights though that largely ended for a century in 1877 so it is true that Wars often Grant president's new powers but the most important executive powers have been in place since the beginning it is the entire purpose of the office to execute legislation presidents have always been able to issue executive orders Washington proclaimed eight some of which were definitely beyond the scope of legislation they started with the ability to wield the military with even more impunity than they can today the posy katus Act of 1877 limited this power preventing the Army's usage for law enforcement without a declaration of insurrection or martial law which the president may do at will and international Affairs are entirely their domain yet Congress and the Supreme Court check and balance presidential Authority scotus can issue injunctions to stop or prevent any overreaches Congress defines the limits of what the executive branch is in charge of doing and what resources they have to do it with the Supreme Court rules and interprets legislation not the president and Congress approves treaties Declarations of war and officer appointments these limits are fundamental to our constitution though a recent scotus ruling is a bit worrisome in terms of unchecked executive power and there is plenty of executive overreach in our history n of it makes tyranny an established part of the office it depends entirely on what a president can get away with to be a republic we cannot be a dictatorship or a monarchy thus far our constitution has kept us from lapsing and our democracy as in the ability of citizens to vote for their leaders maintains the Republic despite that Supreme Court ruling there's still hope that no one will successfully overthrow that with the mainstreaming of conspiracy theories from the presidency there's been much talk of this not being normal in 2017 many news outlets put think pieces out about how the president had created a post-truth world with his constant conspiracism and lies including his counselor coining the nonsensical phrase alternative facts yet this barrage of coverage forgets that presidents have long pedal conspiracism for instance George W bush used the paranoid atmosphere following 9/11 to deny all the evidence to the contrary about iraqy weapons of mass destruction and ties to Al-Qaeda to bring the United States into war and perpetuate torturing Prisoners the decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq I mean of Ukraine plus this is nowhere close to something new in America history indeed we've had many presidents who fostered an atmosphere of Deceit through their ability to speak directly to the American people we've had two red scares both of which were helped Along by the President Truman issued executive order 9835 stating the presence within the government service of any disloyal or subversive person constitutes a threat to our Democratic processes this mandated loyalty tests which his successor Ike only strengthened Congress followed suit with red baiting rhetoric about communist subversion intended to purge their sociopolitical enemies regardless of actual sympathies and proving that Americans can lapse into long disproven hysteria the first Red Scare was worse President woodro Wilson used wartime acts to jail his opposition and his Department of Justice deported numerous people for their political opinions all while Mass racial violence reached its worst proportion in all of American History 1919 had more lynchings than any other year and the summer became known as red summer because of all the racial massacres conspiracism especially red baiting is often used to suppress the freedoms of others and we don't just have to look at the 20th century that kind of thing goes all the way back to the beginning John Adams made speaking ill of his regime illegal much like Wilson over a century later both signing into their own Sedition Acts he was trying to find all the sedici Jacobins or in reality give an excuse to persecute his political opposition Thomas Jefferson in turn tried to purge the executive branch of Illuminati influence yes he actually thought that a long- disbanded Bavarian organization by that name had infiltrated the American government and that lie has continued to fester for centuries he couldn't find any because there wasn't any to find you can learn more about that in my moral panics [Music] episode in 1996 Pat Buchanan in his speech conceding to George HW Bush said the presidency is also an office that Theodore Roosevelt called America's bully pulpit Harry Truman said it was preeminently a place of moral leadership George Bush is a defender of right to life and a champion of the judeo-christian values and beliefs upon which America was founded in a previous episode I already debunked this nonsense about judeo-christian values somehow being the basis of the United States but yes that too is Flatout false but there's a larger principle here this campaign is about philosophy and it is about character much of the culture War Buchanan declared in that speech has centered on the moral character of the president he said Bush would suppress feminists and gay people because they did not fulfill so-called judeo Christian values this is an oddly anti-democratic notion even slightly fascistic Molly Ians insightfully quipped about the speech it probably sounded better in the original German while I've refuted much of the hateful nonsense in Buchanan's speech elsewhere let's debunk his fundamental assumption that the president somehow defines the rest of American culture as though the commanderin-chief is simultaneously the head of state and the moral compass for all Americans the reason why Teddy called his position the bully pulpit was because the president May easily hold the attention of the nation through press releases and published speeches Truman claimed moral leadership for the sake of desegregation both of those quotes were about policy not culture ultimately presidents cannot change culture or morals simply by occupying the office they do hold a great deal of authority as the first citizen which many Americans admire but them simply being something such as a divorce or a Catholic or a drunkard does not mean that Americans as a whole will suddenly divorce convert or lose their sobriety many claim this without evidence but there is absolutely no statistical backing to their claims while presidents are often Role Models they are merely one of many and in no way the center of American culture or morality the New Deal defines Franklin Delano Roosevelt's response to the Great Depression it was a Titanic shift towards Progressive Economic Policy the first New Deal came with FDR's first 100 days and the second in 1935 many historians consider the Third New Deal to be World War II itself to paraphrase FDR old Dr New Deal didn't know enough so he got Dr wi the war to take care of this fella many teachers in Layman misinterpret this to mean that the New Deal concluded with do win the war it did not the core concept of the new deal was to shape an economic program around three key objectives known as the three Rs which were relief for the poor recovery of employment back to normal levels and reform of financial systems to prevent another depression now there's a lot of debate over whether the first and second New Deal helped enough but there's a general consensus that it did not hurt much of the legislation from the Second New Deal remains enforced today such as Social Security and the National Labor Relations Board we also have not had a depression ever since though there was stagflation in the 70s and the Great Recession of 2008 Plus the economic craziness that came with the recent pandemic but none of those resulted in Depression more importantly new dealer legislation didn't end until that stagflation brought about a new economic ideology called neoliberalism which was the undergirding philosophy of presidents from Carter to Obama and I've done an episode on that presidents from FDR to Nixon were new dealers each with their own version Truman had the Fair Deal in in 1948 very little of it passed though desegregation of the military and industries was retroactively applied Eisenhower had Modern Republicanism which included highways NASA and support for Education Kennedy had the New Frontier which included a whole bunch of stuff most notably Civil Rights Acts and Medicare his assassination cut that short but Johnson instituted his own form with the Great Society which brought much of Kennedy's ideals to fruition and instituted a war on poverty with more robust welfare finally Nixon had new federalism where he advocated Devolution of the welfare system to the states a negative income tax and coherent agencies for regulation the last part is the only thing he got done with organizations like the Environmental Protection Agency occupational safety and health administration and Drug Enforcement Administration the enactment of new dealer policy ended with Nixon not FDR political parties shift tremendously over time realigning as they come to represent new coalitions of various ideologies the two major American parties have switched in significant ways during Reconstruction Republican president Ulus Zas Grant was considered a radical even having some Republicans defect to form a liberal rendition of the the party in the hopes of keeping it from becoming too leftist Democrats were the party of conservatism trying to redeem an obsolete antibellum order by the 1980s Republicans were the party of conservatism and Democrats the party identified with social liberalism yet there has been a concerted effort to deny this history for the last decade in a weak effort to win political points when Theodore Roosevelt won the 1904 election it was considered a miracle that he managed to get Missouri to vote Republican California and New York were Republican strongholds now it is quite the opposite progressivism affected both parties in the early 20th century but eventually took hold in the Democratic party with the New Deal that in turn had them moving towards ending Jim Crow as part of their leftward shift there were conservative Republicans but they were more of a broad Coalition Hoover spent his post presidency fighting the New Deal and laying the foundation of conservatism to come through his Institute at Stanford in California both Eisenhower and Nixon were liberals though Nixon had conservative Tendencies Barry Goldwater was the first to employ a southern strategy by appealing to racial animosity through opposition to key Civil Rights and Welfare policies Nixon perfected that southern strategy by 1972 opposing what he called forced busing advocating the Devolution of federal Federal programs as a part of state's rights and declaring a War on Drugs since the 1950s a new right Coalition had Arisen but it was not until Ronald Reagan became president that the Republican Party could be said to have become conservative as part of that new [Music] right Regan's election was not a revolution as many Proclaim it to be Reagan's ascendancy did not result in a sudden and dramatic change in policy like the New Deal more of a steady shift towards conservatism calling it a revolution is a misnomer just one historians generally accept for sensationalized titles as historian Julian zelzer writes the argument that there was a rean Revolution was born out of an explicit political strategy the administration wanted to cement the impression that Regan's Victory had been a mandate for conservatism claims about a rean re Evolution exaggerated the strengths of conservatism and equally important the demise of liberalism as we saw with previous myths conservatism had been on the rise in the Republican party for a while and Carter's defeat merely instituted his key economic philosophy rean signed many bills that challenged his conservatism such as raising taxes in 1982 and ' 84 he cut taxes for the rich and raised them for the poor in ' 86 he never balanced the budget in instead adding more deficit spending year after year he also passed the only ban on guns that remains in effect today by eliminating new machine guns in 1986 finally he granted comprehensive amnesty to illegal immigrants in 1986 there's also the idea that Regan's foreign policy was revolutionary and eventually brought about the downfall of the Soviet Union in Buchanan's culture War speech he said you know it is said that every American president will be remembered in history with but a single sentence and Ronald Reagan won the Cold War it is just about time that my old colleagues the columnists and commentators looking down on us tonight from their Sky boxes and anchor Boos gave Ronald Reagan the full credit he deserves for leading America to victory in the Cold War people think Reagan escalation of the Cold War made the USSR spend itself into Oblivion but in reality their military spending actually went down throughout President Reagan's time and he even signed an arms reduction treaty this Viewpoint simply ignores Soviet history and then claims to know about Soviet history you can't have both changes in leadership and policy led to its own dissolution not an economic collapse rean had nothing to do with perista glasnov or Dem Raa but that would require thinking historically rather than seeing one man get elected during a time of change and pretending he somehow controls the entire world Regan represents the beginning of a new era but it was by no means as sudden and dramatic as pundits like to [Music] pretend Donald Trump denied the 2020 elections results leading to a massive assault on the capital during proceedings to certify it his false and inflammatory rhetoric produced the Insurrection on January 6th 2021 there is absolutely no evidence to back up his accusations of widespread voter fraud whatsoever let alone enough to have changed any election results many Republicans persist in this big lie despite having been proven wrong numerous times in fact such a conspiracy has never happened for a presidential election but it has happened on on State and local levels over a century ago instead calls of voter fraud today are almost entirely intended to disenfranchise people historian Carol Anderson writes because the Reconstruction Era 15th amendment bans using race to disenfranchise Americans the operatives and politicians camouflaged their discriminatory intent behind the charge of voter fraud to create the illusion that their primary concern was election integrity and democracy and by deploying the the pretense of Defending a significant State interest as in protecting the sanctity of free and fair elections rather than the more distasteful power grab based on pandering to racism and xenophobia lawmakers legitimized a number of policies to disenfranchise millions of American citizens during and just after reconstruction in the 1870s there was very real and widespread voter fraud throughout the South ballot stuffing intimidation and pole destruction were common place at the time white supremacists rode at night to violently suppress Republican voters especially black people counties returned more votes than were registered and black people's votes mysteriously disappeared many found after the ballot count was completed washed up on Riverbanks this is how Redeemer Democrats gained power in the South during and after reconstruction because they sought to redeem the south from what they called a scourge of black people and radicals ruling their states most southern whites were barred from voting following the Civil War until they took a loyalty oath which was unacceptable to redeemers they denounced Carpet Baggers as in Northerners who had moved South and scalawags Southern whites who voted Republican when redeemers couldn't fraud their way through Wilmington North Carolina's election they overthrow the fusion officers with a coup the only successful one in US history once in scon they passed laws to supposedly prevent all the fraud they' perpetrated by disenfranchising blacks scalawags and carpet baggers the South became solidly Democrat for decades until that party started moving left and abandoning its conservative Roots there was plenty of voter fraud elsewhere as well bleding Kansas was so bloody precisely because there was so much cheating in elections to decide whether the territory would be slave or free one of the earliest occurr es of what was already a famous phrase made it to print in a free soiler paper stating We Trust his constituents will remember the importance of one vote and the far greater importance of several votes we hope they will likewise vote early and vote often also vote frequently and urge their neighbors to do the same New York politicians in the 19th century frequently sent voters through polls multiple times in various disguises or printed in colors of their opposition to dupe voters most of this graft had been rooted out of the electoral process by the early 20th century as States cracked down on fraud none of this was significant enough to affect presidential election results when Redeemer fraud inaugurated the solid South Republican presidents got elected but not without trouble because of our Strange electoral college system electoral majorities are sometimes not achieved which the House of Representatives then have to decide this has happened Thrice 1800 1824 and 1876 1800 was because of trouble when the vice president used to be decided by being the runner up the 12th Amendment solved that issue proving we can modify the Electoral College to work better both other times have been labeled a corrupt bargain where political favor was curried for one faction over another first so that parts of the Democratic Republic party could band together against Andrew Jackson that failed when he got elected anyway 4 years later then 1876 foed Rutherford be Hayes to office supposedly with a back room deal to end military occupation in the South though we have no proof of such a compromise haes was often called Ruther fraud after signing the limitation that disallowed Army usage in domestic affairs sa for special circumstances the fact is reconstru ction had already failed by that point anyways making the 1870 voting rights amendment a dead letter the only thing preventing universal suffrage was disenfranchisement women gained the vote in 1920 American Indians in 1924 black Southerners in 1965 and 18-year-olds in 1971 the old fears of some minority group from foreign Communists to Immigrant Catholics voting out the majority and destroy drawing the Constitution has always been a moral Panic Plastering over an attempt to silence one's opposition with false accusations of conspiracy Republicans currently use an imaginary loss of electoral Integrity to work toward their own version of another solid South voting restrictions often Target minorities who are now most likely to vote Democrat so Democrats keep fighting to expand the franchise elsewhere Anderson notes this ironically when she states when 31 states are vying to develop new and more ruthless ways to disenfranchise their population and when others are searching desperately for ways to bring millions of citizens into the electorate we have created a nation where democracy is simultaneously atrophying and growing depending solely on where one lives this myth of voter fraud is not only a simple misconception it is a malignant lie used spefic specifically to disenfranchise people like most of this list we must liberate ourselves of the myth to become a better Nation [Music]