Sometimes removing a controversial issue from its current context allows viewers to see things from a better, and more detached, historical perspective. Two assassination attempts against Donald Trump, and myriad investigations into his conduct, have raised issues about lawfare and presidential succession — but most Americans’ views on the same have much to do with their views about Trump.
For this reason, a new documentary on the vice presidency gives a fresh perspective on the complications of American governance. Examination of prior events surrounding presidential succession — ones in the not-too-distant past — provides for speculation on how bad behavior by elected officials could lead to prolonged “lawfare” and a constitutional crisis.
Constitutional Amendments
The documentary, which premiered just before the vice presidential debate earlier this month, begins innocently enough. It examines the paucity of time the Constitution’s framers spent pondering the vice president’s role at the Philadelphia Convention of 1787, how the controversial election of 1800 led to the 12th Amendment, which allowed for the election of a president and vice president on a party ticket, and the legacy John Tyler established when he assumed the presidency from William Henry Harrison upon Harrison’s death in 1841, creating a succession precedent that the country would need to rely on far too frequently.
As the United States took a more prominent role on the world stage in the middle of the 20th century, issues of presidential succession likewise took center stage. Dwight Eisenhower’s lengthy convalescence after a series of health scares
