Surviving Bad Presidents: What the Constitution asks of us.: a review of The Presidents and the People: Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought to Defend It by Corey Brettschneider (George Thomas, May 16, 2025, The Bulwark)
Corey Brettschneider’s The Presidents and the People illuminates how John Adams, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Woodrow Wilson, and Richard Nixon all acted in ways that overtly challenged core features of constitutional democracy: using the power of the state to silence and punish political critics, acting against the clear purpose of the Civil War amendments and their promise of equal citizenship with regard to race, and disregarding the rule of law by refusing to recognize any limits on executive power. While they did not all threaten constitutional democracy in the same manner, let alone to the same extent—a vast gulf separates John Adams and Andrew Johnson—Brettschneider’s argument is a timely reminder that America’s most powerful political office has not only been occupied by the unworthy before, but that more than once in our history the immense power of that office has been wielded in a manner that imperiled American democracy.
Yet this power was resisted. Not always by courts or Congress, but by citizens acting, speaking, writing, and organizing to defend the Constitution. Ordinary citizens—or, more aptly, extraordinary citizens who held no official or prominent office—helped build political coalitions that worked to secure constitutional government against presidential overreach. Brettschneider’s five case studies are compulsively readable, bringing vividly to life some of the lower moments of America’s history, while offering hope by spotlighting the citizens who fought for constitutional democracy.
Always bet on the Deep State.