Backlash Presidents

How most presidents avoid upsetting the racial status quoand why those who do pave the way for lawless, norm-violating successors When Barack Obama won the White House in 2008, becoming the nations first Black president, the stage was set for Donald Trumps eventual rise to power. Backlash Presidents shows how, throughout American history, administrations that challenge the countrys racial status quo are followed by presidents who deal in racially charged politics and presidential lawlessness, culminating in impeachment crises. In this incisive book, Julia Azari traces the connections between racially transformative presidents and their successors, examining the presidencies of Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, and Obama and Trump. When he signed long-awaited civil rights legislation in 1964, Lyndon Johnson unleashed a perfect political storm that swept Nixon into the White House. Azari demonstrates how Nixons rhetoric, relationship to Congress, and attitudes about executive power exhibit striking parallels with Andrew Johnson and Trump. She discusses how their actions are linked to race and racialized institutionsthe Department of War during Reconstruction, the FBI during the Nixon years, and elections todayand looks at what happens after impeachment, describing how the rush to establish a new order perpetuates many of the same problems as the old. Challenging the conventional wisdom of about the role of norms in American democracy, Backlash Presidents reveals how normal presidential politics upholds unsustainable racial hierarchy that in turn gives rise to intense periods of instability.