On Presidential Failure

“How can you hope that the President fails?” we are asked. “If you want for the President to fail you want the nation to fail”. The answer to the question is simple: I simply don’t agree with him, and just because he’s been elected President in no way obligates me to accept his idea of what national policy should be. In fact, one could argue that because I disagree with him I am duty bound to oppose his efforts with my own. It is up to his supporters to try and make him successful. As for the nation failing if the President fails: That just isn’t true. The President isn’t the nation.

The President is the chief executive officer of the United States of America. The Congress makes the laws, the Supreme Court rules on their constitutionality and the President executes them. Of course the President is also the head of his or her political party and uses that influence to shape what sorts of laws get passed through the congress. In this way the President sets domestic policy and tries to steer the nation in one direction or another. But, since the President and I disagree on what sort of changes are necessary in our country I hope that he fails in his efforts. And not only that, because I disagree with him I have promised myself (in an effort at making myself feel less like a helpless onlooker) to oppose him whenever and with whatever means I have at my disposal. To openly and unashamedly try to bring about the failure of the President in his efforts to change our society in ways I think are unacceptable.

In addition to his role as chief executive officer of the country, the President is also the formulator of foreign policy, his job being to look out for and promote the interest of the United States in the world community. In this role, he is more or less on his own except for the Senate having confirmation rights as to who serves as Secretary of State and the responsibility to ratify or not to ratify any treaties that the President would like to enter into. One wants to believe that the President has the best interests of the citizenry in his heart, but as citizens we have much less input into foreign relations than we do domestic issues. This is as it should be. The President’s foreign policy successes and failures will be written by historians in glowing terms of peace and prosperity or in the blood of those who’s suffering and death were brought about by his inexperience and naiveté. And so, in his efforts to look out for the best interests of the United States, I hope the President succeeds, but I fear he will not. This is something about which the citizenry has little to say, and must simply wait for the next election.

And that’s what an average guy thinks.