8 ms·

This has been an odd dynamic through my entire lifetime. The president has never been the one pulling the strings, and I'm not sure why everyone blindly blames

by fein 11y ago

This has been an odd dynamic through my entire lifetime. The president has never been the one pulling the strings, and I'm not sure why everyone blindly blames the person in that position. There are people whose names the general public has never seen that have a great amount of influence in our legislative process.

danso 11y ago
I dunno, the whole concept of a "commander-in-chief" -- Chief Executive of a country, "The Buck Stops Here" -- is an odd dynamic. While we have the 3 branches of government, one of them is physically and institutionally commandeered by one human being, subject to the limitations and weaknesses shared by the 300 million human beings he oversees. The checks and balances system is nice, preventing a situation in which a depressed or cranky president launches a war "just because"...But there are a lot of other less direct ways that his personal state of being could drastically affect the entire country. What if the senator who is a leading advocate for surveillance reform personally insulted the president's family? Sure, the senator's a jerk, and the president would never admit to basing his decision to ignore the senator on such a personal slight. But if such personal hostility resulted in the president putting the senator much lower on his priority list...such that he never gets around to giving the issue the proper amount of attention...The impact on the country is virtually the same as if the president's reaction had been, "Fk that d-bag and everything he stands for" This is just a long way of saying, yeah, kind of crazy how so much of what affects us as a society is in the hands of one human being, and it's unfair to blame him for not being able to control everything. And yet, he is the one who signed up to have those powers...criticizing him is not just a reflexive tendency to scapegoat, but the current "user-friendly interface" we have with our bureaucracy.
1024core 11y ago
When Bush was in charge, everyone was quick to blame him. But now that Obama is in charge, suddenly it is "president has never been the one pulling strings .. why is everyone blaming him?"
- krapp 11y ago
  When Bush was in charge, Republicans apologized for him and Democrats blamed him personally for destroying the country. While Obama is in charge, Democrats apologize for him and Republicans blame him personally for destroying the country. The truth is, the president is never the one pulling the strings (at least not all of them), but both sides insist it's the case when it's to their advantage to attack strawman positions of the incumbent party.

by fein 11y ago

danso 11y ago

I dunno, the whole concept of a "commander-in-chief" -- Chief Executive of a country, "The Buck Stops Here" -- is an odd dynamic. While we have the 3 branches of government, one of them is physically and institutionally commandeered by one human being, subject to the limitations and weaknesses shared by the 300 million human beings he oversees. The checks and balances system is nice, preventing a situation in which a depressed or cranky president launches a war "just because"...But there are a lot of other less direct ways that his personal state of being could drastically affect the entire country. What if the senator who is a leading advocate for surveillance reform personally insulted the president's family? Sure, the senator's a jerk, and the president would never admit to basing his decision to ignore the senator on such a personal slight. But if such personal hostility resulted in the president putting the senator much lower on his priority list...such that he never gets around to giving the issue the proper amount of attention...The impact on the country is virtually the same as if the president's reaction had been, "Fk that d-bag and everything he stands for" This is just a long way of saying, yeah, kind of crazy how so much of what affects us as a society is in the hands of one human being, and it's unfair to blame him for not being able to control everything. And yet, he is the one who signed up to have those powers...criticizing him is not just a reflexive tendency to scapegoat, but the current "user-friendly interface" we have with our bureaucracy.

1024core 11y ago

When Bush was in charge, everyone was quick to blame him. But now that Obama is in charge, suddenly it is "president has never been the one pulling strings .. why is everyone blaming him?"

krapp 11y ago
When Bush was in charge, Republicans apologized for him and Democrats blamed him personally for destroying the country. While Obama is in charge, Democrats apologize for him and Republicans blame him personally for destroying the country. The truth is, the president is never the one pulling the strings (at least not all of them), but both sides insist it's the case when it's to their advantage to attack strawman positions of the incumbent party.