Randall Everson: The Last Thing America Needs Is Another President

Background:

The following blog post appears on the website theonion.com on December 13, 2006. It concerns the topic of how presidency has not been working for the United States. Everson argues all negativisms that have occurred in this country have been under a president. If we demolished the position of president, we would demolish all of the country’s problems. We continue to repeat the mistake of electing presidents. He feels our current plan is not working. Therefore, it is time for a change.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/the-last-thing-america-needs-is-another-president,11278/

In the sixth paragraph of the argument Everson writes, “They say that doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. Sounds an awful lot like what we're doing choosing presidents to serve out terms of office, run the federal government, and act as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, over and over and over and over again.”

Formal summary of the article:

Premise (1) Think about the worst day of your life, and remember that at that time, a president was supposedly leading this country.

Premise (2) Take all the worst periods in American history—Vietnam, the Great Depression, Prohibition. In every case, without fail, we have had a president as the head of state.

Thus, (3) The truth is, you look at every major crisis, flu epidemic, and time of civil strife, and who has been sitting in the Oval Office? A damn president.

Therefore, (4-Conclusion) It's time to realize that the presidency itself is the real problem, and we need a change.

Analysis:

Everson’s argument commits a false cause fallacy of the non causa pro causa or “not the cause for the cause” variety. The issues specifically mentioned in premise (2) vary greatly. This makes them difficult to even compare, much less find a common root cause. It is true everyone has bad days. It is also true the United States has faced hardships throughout its history. However, having a person hold the title of president is not the cause of these issues.