The American Public is the ultimate kingmaker

The argument

The argument proceeds in two steps, and the first is a claim about an office rather than about any particular person. The President of the United States governs the world's largest economy with the world's largest and most advanced military. Those two facts together mean that whoever holds the office has more capacity to affect outcomes, at home and abroad, than anyone else alive at the time. At any time in the last century, on this reasoning, the President of the United States must be considered the most powerful person on earth. The second step asks where that power comes from and finds that it is held conditionally. The American president is beholden to those that put him in office, the American voter. The office is not possessed but lent: it is granted by an electorate for a fixed term, it can be withdrawn by the same electorate, and the knowledge that it can be withdrawn shapes how it is used throughout. A president who disregards the voters loses the office, which means the voters' preferences operate on the presidency continuously rather than only on election day. Putting the two together produces the conclusion. If the president is the most powerful person on earth, and the president holds that position at the discretion of the American voter, then the voter is the party that disposes of the power rather than merely the party that exercises it. The American electorate becomes the most powerful kingmaker on earth and, by proxy, the most powerful political force in history, since it has determined who occupied that office throughout the period in which the office has been pre-eminent. Because the American public is the ultimate kingmaker, the American citizen is the most powerful person of all time.

Context

The President of the United States was in any given year of the last century, the most powerful person on earth.

Premises

Counter-arguments

The American public are not a single person and are therefore disqualified from the debate. Also, the American public is easily influenced by powerful individuals and groups. They are influenced by media, which is influenced by corporations and media moguls. They are also influenced by social media, making those that control social media networks far more powerful than individual voters.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P2] The American public is influenced by social media and traditional media. Therefore, the heads of these organisations hold the most power. [Rejecting P3] The American people are not a single person and are therefore disqualified from the debate.

Framing

Political power is distributed by the electorate. Therefore, the electorate is the ultimate source of political power. As the largest economy with the most advanced military, the US is the most powerful political force on earth, and by proxy, the US electorate hold the most power on earth.