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What if US President's resign as often as UK PMs?


vcczar

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This is inspired from this: https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/3549217-what-if-we-did-as-the-brits-do-and-expected-our-presidents-to-resign/

Here's who I think would have resigned or been compelled to resign:

  • John Tyler as he lost support from both parties. 
  • Franklin Pierce due to Kansas and the Ostend Manifesto (lost renomination in real life).
  • James Buchanan in the last months of his term, between SC seceding and Lincoln's taking office. 
  • A Johnson for losing total support
  • US Grant for various administrative scandals.
  • B Harrison around midterms for a total loss of public support during this time that saw the biggest midterm landslide ever, arguably.
  • W Wilson when he had his stroke
  • (Harding's scandals didn't come out until after his death, so he doesn't resign)
  • Hoover because of the Great Depression
  • Truman toward the end of his presidency when he massively loses public support
  • LBJ when his approval plummets because of Vietnam
  • Nixon for Watergate
  • Carter following his failure to rescue hostages in combination with the poor economy
  • Reagan for Iran-Contra
  • Clinton for lying under oath
  • Bush II for protracted wars and poor economic handling that saw his approval plummet. 
  • Trump for a variety of things--more than everyone else on this list combined. If we had a culture of resigning presidents, he'd be forced out before his 100 days were up. 

In addition to the above, there's be discussions for resignation for several presidents. I think Madison, JQ Adams, Jackson, Van Buren, Hayes, Ford, Obama, and Biden would be subject to these, but they wouldn't have done anything large enough to warrant a total lack of both public and party support. This isn't the same as being just unpopular. For instance, JQ Adams avoided major scandals once in office, but he was unpopular. Jackson was controversial, but he had full support of his party. This is different from Trump who has not only NeverTrump Republicans but politicians like McConnell and other GOPers who no-so-secretly want him out. In a resignation culture, Trump would likely have been out early and Pence would be in. 

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