I believe we have a president in the United States due to the necessary role the presidency plays in having an effective government. As the title of my post states, a chicken only has one head. In any social construct there needs to be an established leader. The president is supposed to be an embodiment of the peoples’ values and goals. We have a president in the United States of America, a democratic republic, because there needs to be an established individual to enact the will of the voters. 

The United States separated from British Rule due to the tyranny that a monarch provided. The people of the colonies lacked representation and a way to accrue wealth and power. Because of this, it was essential to the newly established United States that there were designated guidelines that prevented too much power from forming. At first, the Articles of Confederation was what was looked at as law, which did not place much power in the centralized government and placed this power in the hands of the states. Despite it being noted that the colonists seemed to benefit from a lack of centralized government, this prevented a cohesive and unified country, and it was obvious that a stronger central government was needed which led to the proposition of the Constitution. Within the Constitution, the responsibilities of the president are clearly established along with checks and balances for executive power. This is linked to learning from history by observing what happened to fallen republics when one individual/institution had far too much accumulated and unchecked power. 

A bicameral government was adapted, term limits established, and clearly confined duties were created to mitigate and prevent said power from going unchecked. With these regulations on executive power created, the positives of an executive power need to be highlighted. The presidency provides strength and unity for the American people. Not only is the president a symbol for the health of the country, but is essential for decisions to be made. It is necessary to have an ultimate yes or no person. If there was not then lots of issues would remain to be addressed or opportunities missed. 

I learned the importance of this as a high schooler living in Germany. The day after President Trump gave orders to kill Qasem Soleimani, we discussed it in the government class I was taking at the time. Through much debate it was concluded that although big decisions can cause lots of conflict and be cause for concern, it was a decision that needed to be made by one individual. It accomplished a several year goal of finding this individual that had caused a tremendous amount of harm to innocent people. 

There needs to be an established person to make necessary decisions with the pretense of there being a distinct guideline to regulate power. In America this role is fulfilled by the executive power where a president is elected to enact the choices of those who voted them into office. This individual unifies America and establishes a face and clear representative of the United States to interact with the world. These are reasons that contribute to my thoughts on why the United States of America has a president.