To be the president...
By AidaLily
@AidaLily (1450)
United States
January 19, 2012 11:05am CST
~Don't respond unless you are going to actually read this~
Now most people will in fact argue this point and most if not all of Americans will not read it. I have already realized that Americans would rather be told by either political party what to believe rather than make their own opinions. This is for the US though.
~For the idiots: This is not an actual presidential saying, but what Americans tend to gloss over~
Hi, I am President So-So from the United States of America. I am a person like many of my fellow politicians, that is an established behind kisser and has made a career out of lying. Whether I am REPUBLICAN or DEMOCRAT, I know from five minutes of research and a large team of people who like my face, what the American people want. However, life as the president is a lot harder and simpler than people think it is.
For starters, I can only get things passed when the Congress is primarily my party. Even then it takes a lot of work convincing them to consider the legislation especially when so many people get paid off by lobbyists and other special interest groups. Also, I am not the only one to suggest these things. I can't just bring bills, laws, or spend money when I want because I have to go through 535 people just to get it. They have to approve of it BEFORE I can say YES or NO.
I am the fall guy. If your congressmen or representatives want something passed that might not work out that well, you will blame me. After all, that is what I am here for. Once a bill gets to me, I can say YES or NO and then you as the American people can complain about it and work to either keep or remove me from office. Consider it like an organized crime syndicate in which I am targeted to either to stay on top or to be 'removed' when the organization decides to fight for power.
That is who I am America. I am a person voted into office with promises of bills I want to pass and I make YOU believe I have any real power to pass them, when it truly lies in the hands of that large group of 535 liars you voted into Congress. If they reject an idea you like then ALL i can DO is change a few things and send it back to review. Its ok though my fellow countrymen. I understand that all I need to do is pay to have ads constantly running on TV, people to write speeches, and to pay other media outlets to show what I want you to see and you will believe it. I can be a REPUBLICAN or a DEMOCRAT but I know as long as you hear what you want to hear then you will vote for me or any of my political colleagues based on how good of liars we are. Its what you do. Don't blame yourself for not being that intelligent, we rely on that to give ourselves tax breaks, raises, and so on to keep our jobs and keep getting paid for them after we leave office.
So I want to say thank you, Americans. Your lack of actually caring to research us as presidential candidates, and following all of our REPUBLICAN and DEMOCRAT paid news and advertisements keeps us in business. We know if you ever really took the time to research and more then a lot of us wouldn't have the job of screwing you over time and time again.
I thank you on behalf of myself as the president, on behalf of BOTH parties in CONGRESS, and on the behalf of future presidents to come.
Yours Sincerely,
Any past or future president of the United States of America.
3 responses
@sierras236 (2739)
• United States
19 Jan 12
Nice rant. But you missed a few points.
The whole reason that Congress was needed to pass bills was so that many people could look at them. It was designed to prevent one man from having all of the power. That's why the Founding Fathers gave specific powers to the Presidency, Congress, and the Supreme Court. It was specifically to provide a system of checks and balances.
No, the President doesn't pass the bills. But ultimately his name is on them. Like the President of a company, he is responsible for the success or failures of the bill regardless of who writes them.
But you forgot he has one very important power that is often forgotten but is far more powerful than any other power the President has. The President can always veto.
Another point that needs to be made is that even if you took out all of the money out of Washington, (that includes all the lobbying, contributions, etc by the big business, small business, the Unions, and small donors), you would still have 535 people with different political opinions on what is best for their State and their country.
Just look at how diverse the opinions are on this forum and you will find there are very few points that people from both sides actually agree to. If you think you can find 535 people on this forum to agree on a single political point, than you are kidding yourself.
Then you forgot that a district is compromised of many different individuals who hold a variety of different viewpoints. Not everyone needs the same thing. A parent with kids has different needs than an elderly person living alone. The elected Representative basically has to listen to a thousand different voices saying different things.
Yes, the President is the target because he is at the top. His signature is the one that ensures a bill gets passed. Bad bill or good bill, he is responsible. Yes, people are going to disagree with him. Yes, he gets heavily criticized. But what President has ever escaped criticism?
So, yes. The President takes a lot of heat. That's part of the office. That's a part of being responsible. That's a part of a President putting himself/herself out there to the voters.
As Mark Twain stated "But in this country we have one great privilege which they don't have in other countries. When a thing gets to be absolutely unbearable the people can rise up and throw it off. That's the finest asset we've got -- the ballot box." http://www.twainquotes.com/interviews/Interview6Nov1905.html
@sierras236 (2739)
• United States
19 Jan 12
Perhaps, you would enjoy reading a few quotes by Mark Twain on the subject of Congress. You will find that politics itself hasn't changed much.
http://www.twainquotes.com/Congress.html
@AidaLily (1450)
• United States
19 Jan 12
Thank you. I never meant it as everyone will agree. You are completely right in the fact that you have 535 other people with different thoughts on what the people need. I didn't forget the VETO in there, I just used the word no because when I had posted that elsewhere someone didn't know what VETO meant. I will never think I could find 535 people anywhere to completely agree on one point especially when it comes to politics. I have a better chance a running a race and pole vaulting over a volcano. I understand that.
That quote you did post would be true if they would give people time to vote rather than 2 hours for 2,000 people. That is just a random number but they have those problems every election time where people don't always get their vote in.
This was just something about how everyone believes the president has so much power that the promises of change they claim during election time are supposed to magically work out with those extra 535 voices from different areas that say different things. Thank you for pointing out some of the things I missed though the Congress mention was that they are all for different things and I know the system was supposed to provide checks and balances, but the fact is MOST people don't know that. They don't even know the true meanings of some of their rights so most people would believe the president has all the power to do whatever whenever.
However, thanks for the other analogy I was trying to think of that but for some reason it escaped me while I was talking to my aunt over the phone this morning. Yes, he is the president of a company and if the company messes up then he gets blamed. Maybe we should vote in a president that has not been in congress before. That might yield some results but who knows.
@ParaTed2k (22940)
• Sheboygan, Wisconsin
20 Jan 12
Sorry that our system of checks and balances means that no president gets to be a dictator, or even a one man show.
Our system was set up precisely to make it hard to get a law past. It has to be important enough to make it through the 535 people, stand up to Constitutional scrutiny and get signed by the president.
It makes it so no idea can get passed on a whim or a demand.
What is also does is force the idea to be vetted by a person elected to represent the people of their district, and a two people elected to represent their state. In other words, it has to be approved by a majority of the representatives of the people and of the states before the one who represents the nation even gets to consider it.
Yes, it is a hard job, almost impossible. That is evidenced by how much a president ages in 4-8 years. But I've done a lot of hard jobs too, and guess what, I was not given the comfort of excuses or pats on the back for my failures. In fact, what I was told was my failures could land me in jail. If that is the standard to which parachute riggers and paramedics are held, then there is no way you can make the case that the most power person in the free world should be held to any less.
Now, all that being said, the same standard can and should be held to ALL our elected officials, at all levels of government.
@AidaLily (1450)
• United States
20 Jan 12
Do you even fully read things or do you just comment? This was more or less a satire or parody of what ANY president is 'thinking' as if it were a speech to be given. Why are you saying sorry? That's confusing... I hold no fairy-tale, idealistic misconceptions about this government. I really don't.
I'm not worried about it. It was just stating my point that blaming a president is pointless and you just somewhat agreed with me, when you didn't in another discussion. This is why I have no faith in the government or blame them. If I was voted in due to behind kissing (cause face it that is what they do), then I would do whatever it was to keep my job as well. Most of them technically aren't doing anything illegal, just things to irritate american citizens.
Now that being said. I agree, that standard should be held to ALL elected officials and most of both parties in Washington right now should probably be fined or go to jail. I highly doubt they are as 'clean and innocent' as they portray come election time. Thanks for responding.
@bestboy19 (5478)
• United States
20 Jan 12
If the whole idea of our political leaders is to screw the American public, we might as well forget the whole thing and settle for mob rule. Is that what you had in mind?
