Leaders shouldn’t do Stupid Shit

I always here people saying, “thanks Obama” or “F Bush” or “thanks to Granholm.” My thought is, is it really their fault, even in part? I will be the first to admit that I think George W. Bush is an awful man and that he truly didn’t act in the best interest of the country. He was a foolish leader, and as a result, our relations with other countries have been strained. However, did all the legislation that was passed during his 8 years in office have a great deal to do with him, or is there some other culprit here? Is the recession Bush’s fault, is it the governments fault, or is it anyone’s fault?

Basically, my view on all of this is the following:

People like to ask, “whose in charge,” and that person becomes the scapegoat. However, lets distribute blame where it is due. I don’t think any politician intentionally wants this country to be worst off after the leave office. I don’t think that was on Bush’s agenda. So we can’t say anyone intentionally screwed up anything (I suppose people can argue otherwise). So is Mr. President or the presidents of the past deserving of any blame?

Well, when you a person takes office they promise to faithfully uphold the constitution and blah blah blah keep us all safe. I know many of Bush’s actions were constitutionally questionable, but the Supreme Court never said that he, himself, was guilty of any crime. Some of his acts were unconstitutional, but I don’t think any were made in complete disregard of constitutional restraints. I don’t know if any president blatantly disregards the common law interpretation of the constitution…so thats not at issue here.

Now that we have established that we have no right to call our president or the recent presidents a criminal (with the exception of Nixon), are they deserving of blame?

The president, like every government official, has limited powers (most of which are not enumerated). And with those powers come duties. Has a president breached his duty to us simply because unemployment is high and the economy is down? Not necessarily! The president breaches his duty if he is negligent…yes I am using a torts term: He fails to use reasonable care in his actions. We can certainly show that he has a duty, but now we need a standard to determine “reasonable care.” I don’t have any way of determining this, so I’m gonna simplify it, the president shouldn’t do stupid shit! Things that are void of reason.

Now lets apply this standard!

Can we say that the president is ever negligent in passing a law given to him by congress. No! Why not? Because half of our elected officials are asking him to do it…basically signing legislation can never be stupid shit.

So what kind of actions can we classify as “stupid shit.” Basically the powers that the president has that come with little restraint. What can the president, in his discretion, do? I don’t know all of them and I don’t know if the constitution lists all of them (probably not). But I do know that he can grant pardons, move and order the troops, meet with other heads of states, hold press conferences, and (THIS IS A BIG AND) direct his/her party. So, has the old president messed up in any of these areas? Not really, I mean I cannot think of anything that stands out. It seems like he was reasonable in delegating  most of his duties and although his decision to invade Iraq was questionable, it was still supported by our legislature.

So what stupid shit did he do? What stupid shit does the president do? This is it: he comes up with elaborate schemes to shift his party, and thus a great deal of our elected officials to do stupid shit. Thats where, I think, it falls. Its the way he leads his/her party. He has restraints on his power as commander and chief, but those restraints can be lessened if he can convince his party to give him something, thus convincing our elected officials to do something CARELESS. Under the Bush administration he used the illusion of the “war on terror” to do stupid shit. And to be fair, Obama is using the recession to carelessly push for bail-out funds that seem to do nothing but protect old money.

So what am I trying to say? Its not the President that messes things up, its his role as the party leader that allows him to be careless. Thats where the power is and thats where stupid shit can begin. So to say that anyone was a bad “president” is probably a misstatement.  To say someone was a bad leader (of his political followers/puppets) is more proper. A great example of this is Adolf Hitler. Hitler was a great Führer but a rotten leader. The same goes for Bush, and it could stand for Obama. But don’t hate the office, hate the party and his role as party leader.

AND THATS WHO WE ARE TO BLAME, THE PARTIES THAT DO STUPID SHIT! NOT THE OFFICES,  BUT THEIR INFORMAL ROLES…THE ONES THAT DON’T NEED A MAJORITY VOTE. (PRETTY DAMN SCARY)

Remember that the entire time Bush was in office, Kerry was still the leader of the Democratic party…so if you want to blame Bush, don’t forget to blame Kerry to. He, although he wasn’t elected, probably did some stupid shit too!

He’s still better than Bush and most conservatives though 🙂

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8474611.stm

Special thanks to Brian “Big Daddy” Schmidtke