Buffalo, NY (WBEN) On this President's Day, we're taking a look at the sanctity of the presidency, and whether people can separate the office from the person holding the office. One political science professor says that's tough to do.
"It's a big ask," says UB's Jacob Neiheisel. "In the last few years, and if you're taking even longer view, really since Watergate in the Vietnam War, I think that people have an inability to separate the Office of the President, from the President, him or herself," says Neiheisel. He says there's been a lot of spillover between what we feel toward the person in that position relative to the the position itself.
Neiheisel believes Americans like to paint with a fairly broad brush. "I think we naturally think that the things we see in close proximity to each other are, are similar in terms of how we evaluate them. And I think that there's been some distrust in the office, again, dating back to Watergate and the Vietnam War. And that really just has allowed us to make these distinctions and to paint with a fairly broad brush, and to allow our politics to take over," explains Neiheisel.
For someone holding the office, it's an obstacle when they first take office. "We are existing in a very polarized political environment. And there used to be something of a benefit of the doubt that was given to the president, particularly within we call the honeymoon period, the first 100 days of office," says Neiheisel. "We've seen that honeymoon basically dissolve where even people who didn't support you used to at least give you a chance, given that you had been elected to the office and out of deference to the office, you would allow that person some leeway. That leeway is basically gone now. And so I think that you campaigned very differently because of that, then you probably governed very differently because of that."
He says the judicial branch is more trusted by Americans than the executive branch. He adds people negative evaluations of Congress, and the president has been following that trend as well.