(18-10-2020 16:01 )Slabhead Wrote: TDS syndrome alert lol. He doesn't 'owe' the country. He owes his voters who elected him. He doesn't have to do anything beyond that.
He's the President of the United States. Not the President of People Who Voted for Him.
It is a product of the Constitution -- and the precedent set by 44 other holders of the office -- that the President has at least four roles. He is the head of his party; he holds executive powers; he is the commander in chief; and he is the Head of State. As such he combines some of the functions of, say, our Prime Minister, and others that are closer to the Queen's.
In the first two roles, I don't begrudge him fighting his corner and advancing the agenda he campaigned on -- however much I disagree with it. Elections have consequences and all that. But I do think that the latter two roles require him to take some of the heat out of the rhetoric and make at least some attempt to unify the country that he leads.
I get the whole argument that politics is division and I've no problem with vigorous debate and disagreement. There will be winners and losers. But it doesn't have to be bloodsport all the time. Most Americans broadly agree on most things. All the unnecessary rancor is exhausting. I don't have TDS -- I have Trump fatigue.
I think that's why COVID will be the thing that ultimately ended this presidency.
He was not the man for the moment. It's revealed him to be the small, angry, mean-spirited, narcissistic man that he really is. He's all 'me, me, me' at a time when the country needed someone to say, 'we, we, we.'
I think you said a while back: if Obama was so great, how did it lead to Trump? (Or something to that effect). And there is something in that. Obama must have failed in some respect if he created a situation that allowed the Republican party to be hijacked by its own Tea Party wing.
But the same will have to be asked if Biden wins. Because, candidly, I
don't think Biden is a strong candidate. I don't even think he'll serve two terms. He's just an off-ramp from the path to nowhere that Trump is taking the country.