Senior Academy’s popular speaker Bob Senkewicz will answer this intriguing question in his upcoming two-part course on Monday, October 7 and Wednesday, October 16. Judging from today’s headlines, one likely believes that the current cycle is not your typical American-as-apple-pie election. There was the violence and disorder that accompanied the 1968 election cycle, but with the inauguration of Richard Nixon on January 20, 1969, things appeared to settle back to normal.
Post 1969, cycles of rotating party dominance typical of the history of the American presidency took hold: Nixon/Reagan/Bush, Clinton, Bush II, and Obama. This type of cycle would have been familiar to earlier generations of Americans, who remembered the succession of Hoover, FDR, Ike, then JFK/LBJ.
But those seemingly stable sets of rotations can mask deeper issues that throw light on the present. That’s because participants at the 1787 Constitutional Convention expected George Washington to be the first president, so there was little concern about the method of choosing successors. Enter 1800, when an unforeseen development—the rise of organized political parties—created havoc as they tried to operate under a constitution that did not anticipate their existence.
Join Senior Academy for a look at that story through the experience of people as diverse as Aaron Burr, Abraham Lincoln, Victoria Woodhull, William Jennings Bryan, and many others. Bob Senkewicz is a Santa Clara University Professor of History Emeritus and a published author.
The fee for this two-session course, scheduled on October 7 from 2 to 4 p.m. in Vineyard Center and on October 16, from 1 to 3 p.m. in Foothill, is $10 for members and $20 for nonmembers.
Registration can be completed online by accessing VillagesSA.org or by calling Diane Taylor at 408-912-5594.
