{"id":23840,"date":"2021-01-19T01:46:55","date_gmt":"2021-01-19T01:46:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=23840"},"modified":"2021-01-20T03:57:43","modified_gmt":"2021-01-20T03:57:43","slug":"what-does-the-vice-president-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/what-does-the-vice-president-do\/","title":{"rendered":"What does the vice president do?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joshua Holzer, Westminster College<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

On Jan. 20, Kamala Harris<\/a> will become vice president of the United States \u2013 the first woman, the first person of South Asian descent, and the first African American<\/a> to do so. Harris will also become the first<\/a> vice president to have graduated from a historically black college or university<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Each of these achievements is significant in its own right. However, the vice presidency itself has traditionally been a relatively insignificant position, though the office has become more influential in recent years.<\/p>\n

\"John<\/a>
John Adams, the nation\u2019s first vice president, called the job \u2018the most insignificant Office.\u2019<\/span>
\nGilbert Stuart, National Gallery of Art via Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The \u2018most insignificant\u2019 office?<\/h2>\n

The role of vice president is only mentioned in the U.S. Constitution<\/a> a handful of times. Article I, Section 3 says that the vice president \u201cshall be President of the Senate but shall have no Vote<\/a>\u201d except in the event of a tie. Normally, ties are rare, but the vice president\u2019s power to break them will likely become relevant to Harris as Democrats, and independents who caucus with Democrats, are expected to control only 50 of the 100 Senate seats.<\/p>\n

The beginning of Article II, Section 1 explains how vice presidents are elected, which was later revised by the 12th Amendment<\/a>. The end of that section states that presidential power \u201cshall devolve on the Vice President<\/a>\u201d in the event of the president\u2019s \u201cDeath, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office.\u201d Finally, Article II, Section 4 states that vice presidents \u2013 like presidents \u2013 can be \u201cremoved from Office<\/a> on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, other than staying out of trouble<\/a> to avoid impeachment and waiting around for the president to need a replacement<\/a>, vice presidents are really obligated only to occasionally cast a tie-breaking vote<\/a>. This means that the great majority of the time, vice presidents have no real job to do.<\/p>\n

John Adams, the first U.S. vice president, once complained to his wife that the vice presidency was \u201cthe most insignificant Office<\/a> that ever the Invention of Man contrived or his Imagination conceived.\u201d However, not all have been upset about such inactivity. Woodrow Wilson\u2019s vice president, Thomas Marshall, quipped after he retired<\/a>: \u201cI don\u2019t want to work \u2026 [but] I wouldn\u2019t mind being Vice President again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Will<\/a>
Warren Harding, center, wanted his vice president, Calvin Coolidge, at right, to play an active role in governing.<\/span>
\nFPG\/Keystone View Company\/Archive Photos\/Getty Images<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The evolution of the vice presidency<\/h2>\n

Wilson\u2019s successor as president, Warren Harding, had unconventional views about the importance of the role of the vice president. He thought that \u201cthe vice president should be more than a mere substitute in waiting<\/a>,\u201d and he wished for his vice president, Calvin Coolidge, \u201cto be a helpful part\u201d of his administration. Coolidge later became the first vice president<\/a> in history to attend Cabinet meetings on a regular basis.<\/p>\n

In 1923, Harding died of a likely heart attack<\/a>, and Coolidge succeeded him as president. \u201cMy experience in the Cabinet,\u201d Coolidge later recalled<\/a>, \u201cwas of supreme value to me when I became President.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Harding and Coolidge, many later presidents reverted back to the tradition of keeping vice presidents an arm\u2019s length away, even on key matters. Franklin D. Roosevelt, for instance, kept the atomic bomb<\/a> a secret from Vice President Harry S. Truman, who didn\u2019t find out<\/a> about it until Roosevelt\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

For the 1960 presidential election, two-term Vice President Richard Nixon faced off against John F. Kennedy. At one point during the campaign, reporters asked then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower: \u201cCan you think of a major contribution that Nixon has made to your administration?\u201d Eisenhower replied: \u201cWell, if you give me a week I might think of one<\/a>.\u201d Nixon lost that election.<\/p>\n

\"Jimmy<\/a>
Vice President Walter Mondale, right, was an active part of President Jimmy Carter\u2019s administration.<\/span>
\nAP Photo\/Harvey Georges<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1976, Jimmy Carter picked Walter Mondale as his running mate. In a memo sent to Carter after winning the election, Mondale argued that \u201c[t]he biggest single problem of our recent administrations<\/a> has been the failure of the President to be exposed to independent analysis not conditioned by what it is thought he wants to hear or often what others want him to hear.\u201d Mondale\u2019s vision for the role of vice president was \u201cto offer impartial advice\u201d so that Carter wouldn\u2019t be \u201cshielded from points of view that [he] should hear.\u201d Carter agreed<\/a> and subsequently made Mondale an integral part of his inner circle.<\/p>\n

Many vice presidents since Mondale have often offered points of view that didn\u2019t align with that of the president. Bill Clinton and Al Gore, for instance, disagreed<\/a> over the amount of power and influence entrusted to first lady Hillary Clinton; they also disagreed<\/a> over the handling of the Monica Lewinsky scandal. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney disagreed<\/a>, at times, over Iraq, as well as the use and nonuse of presidential pardons<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In contrast, Mike Pence has proved to be a loyal ally<\/a> to a president who has a track record<\/a> of being unwilling to listen to dissent.<\/p>\n

In the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection<\/a>, Democrats and even a few Republicans<\/a> called on Pence to remove Trump from office<\/a> by invoking the 25th Amendment<\/a>. Pence ultimately avoided<\/a> taking such action<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Vice<\/a>
One key job of the vice president involves presiding over the process of counting Electoral College votes.<\/span>
\nSaul Loeb\/Pool\/AFP via Getty Images<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The \u2018last voice in the room\u2019<\/h2>\n

Following Mondale\u2019s model, when Joe Biden agreed to be Barack Obama\u2019s running mate, he said that he wanted to be the \u201clast man in the room<\/a>\u201d whenever important decisions where being made so he could give Obama his unfiltered opinion.<\/p>\n

When Biden picked Harris as his running mate, he said he \u201casked Kamala to be the last voice in the room<\/a>,\u201d to \u201c[c]hallenge [his] assumptions if she disagrees,\u201d and to \u201c[a]sk the hard questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

[Deep knowledge, daily.<\/em> Sign up for The Conversation\u2019s newsletter<\/a>.]<\/p>\n

As Harris begins her trailblazing term as a vice president of many firsts, she has an opportunity to either follow the past as a vice president who is largely ignored, to follow Pence as a deferential foot soldier, or to pick up Mondale\u2019s mantle by making sure that the president isn\u2019t shielded from points of view that he should hear.\"The<\/p>\n

Joshua Holzer<\/a>, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Westminster College<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joshua Holzer, Westminster College On Jan. 20, Kamala Harris will become vice president of the United States \u2013 the first woman, the first person of South Asian descent, and the first African American to do so. Harris will also become the first vice president to have graduated from a historically black college or university. Each […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":23841,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[7011,710,986,9329,9327,479,3784,8773,4442,988,7046,9328,711,7319,1628,9331,9103,989,686,8471,9330,9332],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23840"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23840"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23846,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23840\/revisions\/23846"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}