The president cannot write a law, cannot spend a dollar Congress has not approved, and cannot decide a single court case. So what is the job actually made of?

In one recent two-year Congress, 24,789 bills and resolutions were introduced and 362 became law. Almost none of the rest lost a vote — most were never voted on at all.

One law handed out about a tenth of all the land in the country. Another built roads you have almost certainly travelled on. Two of the four came from Republican presidents and two from Democratic ones — and all four are still visible from a car window.

Five times in American history the candidate with the most votes did not become president. Nobody cheated in any of the five. Here is the machine that produced them.

The most famous power the Supreme Court has is the power to strike down a law. Go and read the Constitution: it is not in there. Here is how the Court got it anyway.

In 1783 the United States was a strip along one coast. By 1867 it was almost exactly the shape on today's map. Almost none of that was done by walking — it was done with signatures.

Count the stripes on an American flag. You get thirteen. Count the stars and you get fifty. Both numbers are counting something real — and they are not counting the same thing.