Michael Beschloss
Michael Beschloss
Michael Richard Beschlossis an American historian. A specialist in the United States presidency, he is the author of nine books...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionHistorian
Date of Birth30 November 1955
CountryUnited States of America
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Then you get to the last half of the 20th century, Americans are getting very skeptical about their leaders and their institutions, and another place that is affected is parties and conventions.
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The founders were very worried that if parties developed in America, you might have something like the modern Italian system, where you have 20 different parties that divide Congress and the country and can't govern.
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As parties began to develop around the turn of the 19th century, you had party nominees for President nominated in caucuses made up of party members in Congress.
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First of all, there's no mention of political parties in the Constitution, so you begin American history with not only no political conventions but also no parties.
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If James Madison were here today, Senator Byrd is exactly the kind of leader that he hoped the American Republic in the future would bring to power: someone of his stature and his learning and his understanding of history and philosophy. I think he would be very pleased.
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...We might never have had a civil rights bill in 1964. That was one of the most important and best moments of American history,
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This is not as clear as saying, 'We are going to turn back the invasion of Kuwait.' The objectives here are a little bit more complex, a little bit more difficult for a president to explain, especially in the middle of a campaign. Bill Clinton really has his job cut out for him.
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This a person who can change the life of all of us, really, in the snap of a finger, by writing one word. And it's something that Americans are not as aware of because we don't hear that much about these people. We don't see them interact.
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Oftentimes during the period in which conventions really did business, you had situations where the delegates were divided and you would have ballot after ballot before there was a final nominee.
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So the result was that in many cases the conventions really did represent the underlying electoral topography of the United States.
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In retrospect, I emotionally understand where Morgenthau is coming from, and I admire him for it. At the same time, Morgenthau's plan was too vindictive. In retrospect, if it had been instituted ... it would have left a vacuum for the Soviets.
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He's at the center of two big historical events.
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He felt that if he was able to build enormous support for fighting poverty, then that wouldn't seem something that was liberal and off on the left.
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Given the experiences he had, for him to reach adulthood and be pretty well adjusted and be thought of almost universally as a pretty nice and graceful guy, that is not a bad accomplishment,