Word: fulbright
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...make his point, the former senator tells of the time he was considered for the post of Secretary of State under President John F. Kennedy '40. If he were to head the State Department, Fulbright would have had to resign his Senate seat. After his four or eight years in office were up, he would be out the federal government. After considering the situation, Fulbright went to a presidential advisor and said that he would prefer not to be appointed...
While the parliamentary system Fulbright recommends has certain advantages, it also has many problems. If Congress were to elect the president/prime minister (as, Fulbright notes, James Madison suggested in the first draft of the Constitution), there would be none of the checks and balances that keep our system free from tyranny. A parliamentary system also might become a tool to keep the power in the hands of a small, self-perpetuating body removed from the people...
...Fulbright does not adequately address these difficulties in the text, but he correctly points out that there is not a proper dialogue about the Constitution's effectiveness, particularly in the realm of foreign policy. The primary reason for this is that most Americans have accepted the Constitution as holy writ, free from error and blasphemous to criticize...
...will probably not adopt a parliamentary system in our lifetime, but Fulbright's penchant for asking questions about the unquestionable is certainly useful. In the 1980s, the U.S. political leadership in both parties has become more and more concerned with image and less and less involved with policy innovation and change. The decline of substance in favor of appearance has turned political leadership into static "followership," where politicians use opinion polls and television rather than their consciences to determine what they think. This problem can be solved only by politicians who measure their success by how much they have educated...
...Fulbright sees the next few years as an excellent opportunity to improve relations with the Soviet Union, an opportunity that will become reality only if our leaders are open-minded enough to measure the Soviets by what they do, rather than what they can do Fulbright is heartened by the transformation of President Reagan from antagonist to cautious friend of the Soviets and hopes that President Bush can adopt Reagan's new manner of thinking about the Soviets...