The Twitter Presidency

Some pieces of Political Science literature have a long shelf-life. With the substitution of four key words, this passage from Ceaser et al's “The Rise of the Rhetorical Presidency” (1981) is surprisingly apt and timely:

In respect to policy…Presidents must recapture the capacity to address the nation’s enlightened self-interest no less than its sense of [grievance] and the related capacity to address Congress directly rather than through the people…

What the continued use of [reactionary] rhetoric fosters is not a simple credibility problem, but a deep tension between the publicly articulated understanding of the nature of our politics and the actual springs that move the system. No wonder, then, that some politicians, deceived by their own rhetoric, find it difficult to come to terms with the job of governing a nation of complex multiple interests… the [Twitter] presidency leads us to neglect our principles for our [grievances] and to ignore the benefits and needs of our institutions for a fleeting sense of oneness with our leaders.