Today we close a major chapter of our post-founder presidents era -- covering the most impactful of them all in Andrew Jackson. No one before him, not even Washington and Jefferson, had the cult of personality that Jackson had. A whole new political party (which is now our oldest) was formed just to get him into the presidency. Without him, the Democratic Party does not even come into existence.

There have been other presidents who have thrived in their careers from leaning purely into character when you think about people like Teddy, or even Trump, but often what you’ll find in common with their rising political popularity is an overlooked populace that has an outsized grievance towards a government that is heavily favoring the rich and wealthy.

Jackson’s rise is unique when compared to those two, though, because he does much more to create the conditions for someone like him to gain that kind of popularity. If there is one thing that people know or could assume about Jackson, even today, is that he’s not really a nice guy, nor did he try to pretend to be. He’s someone who held a lot of grudges, he was vengeful and distrustful -- especially of the aristocracy -- and most notably, violent and brutal towards his opponents. It’s really how he makes a name for himself nationally through his service in the Tennessee militia and US Army.

Niel and Jusef discuss his new approach to presidential politics and its impacts on such a young country, especially when it comes to campaigning. We also explore his decision-making on the two issues that affected way too many presidencies in the 19th century -- the tariff and national bank.

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