'The Crisis Of Profligacy' By Bacevich

Improved Essays
The Limits of Power

In chapter 1, “The Crisis of Profligacy,” Bacevich portrays Americans as wanting too much. We are depicted as a society that is bedazzled with a culture of “full of rights”. We as Americans expect others to accommodate to our lifestyle because we always want more. It describes our modern society, who ever has the most money wins, work and blow it on useless things and forgetting the meaning of life in possessions. It has allowed americans to consume without limitations. As a result we contribute to creating more problems. For example the high cost of foreign commitments put the U.S in increasingly high debt. By 1970 the crisis of profligacy was already causing distress in American households. Americans could either control their hunger for more or learn to live within their means. In 1979
…show more content…
Generally there is an expectation that the president is like a hero that can wield power to solve any problem economically and so on. Now when it comes to voting what people seem to think is important is who sounds better. Candidates are put through two years of non sense and all they want is to be in power , they want the money. In other words Washington has become a centralized government. Bacevich gives a great example of imperial presidency was the election of 2006 it was going on at the time of the Iraq war. The democratic party said to elect them and they would put an end to the war. Therefore Americans handed them the power they asked for . and the Democratic party did not put an end to the war on the other hand the Democratic party basically did was vote the money to the president Bush needed to continue the war. The U.S doesn't learn the lessons we should learn from our past wars. Congress should be a coequal branch and should respect the constitutional responsibilities. But instead congress has shoved so much authority at the

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    America is not a true democracy due to the electoral college system. The electoral college is the process that serves as a compromise between the vote of the people, and the vote of congress when electing a president. A true democracy is defined as “a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections.” The electoral directly contradicts this definition, meaning that the American presidential system is less of a democracy, and more of a republic. The difference is that true democracy implies that power is held with the people, but with a republic, power is held in representatives, like the electoral college.…

    • 1033 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Money means success to most Americans. A house in the suburbs for your family, a dog, and a nice car mean you’ve made it in life. Of course, if you have an even bigger house that your neighbor or a better car, you have made it to the top and should be proud of your accomplishments. However, we always want more. No matter the monetary situation, Americans make decisions based on how they can better themselves.…

    • 1780 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Due to today’s growing nation and technology, some may argue that a strong presidency is important. How else is a country with over 300 million people and spanning an area of almost four million square miles to be run? In addition, in the case of a president who abuses power (which may be the case these next four years), the people can rest assured in the fact that a new president will be elected in four years. Conversely however, some argue that the presidency is too strong and fear its strength, citing it as bad for democracy. Why should one individual carry so much weight and power?…

    • 966 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Dbq Electoral College

    • 977 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The United States of America was officially declared an independent nation on July fourth, seventeen seventy-six with the adoption of the Declaration of Independence signed by our forefathers. Since we were to become a democracy, we faced many problems in how this was to be. Many factors were put into place, however, one of the most important factors was how the president is to be elected. The birth of the Electoral College was soon to come. The idea of majority rule, or “popular vote” was ridiculed because there have been other forms of democratic governments that have fallen to tyranny due to popular vote.…

    • 977 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    It was named the Electoral college. The Electoral College was created for a few reasons. The first purpose was to create a buffer between population and the selection of a President. At the time, the founding fathers were worried of a tyrant like ruler who could manipulate public opinion in a direct election. They didn't trust citizens and wanted to leave it to a group of trusted politicians.…

    • 933 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Industrial Revolution Dbq

    • 1407 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Throughout time we humans as a civilization we always strive for a better existence. During the 20th century in America there was much conflict surrounding social, economic and political issue that enamored the country for a very long time indeed and still to this day affects us. This is why the industrial revolution in America was prosperous, but like anything else in the world what goes up must come down. During this time period many Americans were trying to find there way throughout life and live a long and healthy life this part of history is not often taught in schools. Many people such as Cashman often refer to this time period as heyday of the robber barons” (2).…

    • 1407 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Lord of the Flies, the “bigguns” always had control and a higher title than the “littluns”. The younger children were almost hypnotised into believing anything the older children on the island said. Gaining this control came from the older boys on the island giving the younger children a feeling of protection and ability to survive. In society, a similar event takes place in the form presidential election along with other government positions. For example, when an individual runs for President, they make specific and important promises involving health care, immigration, educational advantages, etc.…

    • 1304 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The shift in power is highlighted in the war making ability and eventually there were instances of president taking that ability to start a war into their own hands and jumped into war without the approval from congress (46). They ultimately justified their actions, either by agreeing with the Lockean doctrine of prerogative emergence or by insisting that the powers were already in their hands (49). After the cold war, the imperial presidency began to rise because there was long time of crisis and therefor asked for urgent calls of actions to make…

    • 1274 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Illegitimacy of The Electoral College According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of democracy is “government by the people; especially: rule of the majority.” Democracy has always been a substantial element of The United States policy. The U.S. support for democracy has aided in the creation of a dependable and a flourishing world economy (“Democracy”). The United States is a democratic nation, yet we have a system known as the Electoral College which hinders democracy.…

    • 1511 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In a presidential election, voters cast ballots for the candidate they prefer, though these votes only select their state’s electors. Electors, who are slated to vote for the popular-elected candidate, then vote in a second election to select the actual president. An electoral college system adds a layer of separation between the popular majority and the power of the federal government’s executive branch, while also giving the ability to misrepresent the popular vote. The electoral college is not democratic because the way of calculating the number of electors over represents the population in small states.…

    • 815 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Interest catcher: What would you do if one of the most powerful countries in the world, a country that was proud to be a democracy, a fair country, was actually not a democracy at all. That country is the USA. The president should be elected by the direct vote of the people, or the popular vote instead of the electoral college. The president is the leader of the USA, the election determines who is sit’s in the president’s office, the popular vote is the direct vote of the people and every vote is counted, and the electoral college is the current system of electing the president.…

    • 451 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Electoral College Process With the upcoming presidential election in November 2106, I believe that it is important to understand our government, and how the leader of our country will truly be selected, come election time. Most people think that their vote personally effects who wins the presidency, but what they do not realize, is that there is a system in place called the Electoral College. I am a firm believer in educated voting, and knowing how the system works plays hand in hand with being educated on the candidate that you are voting for. In my generation, it seems that most people get out to vote just to vote, without really doing their research, and I do not believe that this is what voting is all about.…

    • 1019 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Electoral College Benefits

    • 1728 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Inventors, states, and electors all have one thing in common and that is their rights. Whether they 're the rights to an invention or the inalienable rights of a human, they are all in place to protect the rightsholder. Protecting rights is a major idea that the founding fathers had in mind when declaring their independence. The electoral college is a rarely understood establishment, that provides rights to all voters in America, while protecting the states as well. Due to a low informed population, conflict has arisen between whether or not it still remains necessary after so many years.…

    • 1728 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He has many powers that trumps what the Congress can do. One may not have more powers than the other, but it boils down to the definition of that power and how much power that one thing can do. In conclusion, even though separation of powers has been put into place by the Constitution the powers its self are not equal. Both the legislative Branch and the Executive Branch have powers.…

    • 619 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In his article, “The Perils of Presidentialism” Juan Linz observe that there are few stable democracies that have presidential systems of government. On the contrary, there are many parliamentary democracies and historically, they have performed better. Three major problems of presidential systems can be deduced from his essay; 1) Dual legitimacy, 2) fixed term, and 3) winner-takes-all logic. After explaining all three problems, this paper argues that winner-takes-all logic is as much applicable to parliamentary systems as it is to presidential systems.…

    • 542 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays