In my honest opinion, I believe that the President should only act as a trustee when he represents the people of the United States. A President that follows the wishes of the public of the country, will follow an incorrect path in my opinion. Why do you ask? Because the American people, on average, are dumb. The American person is not mentally or intellectually equipped to know what is best for the country. I think the American people should vote to elect a President that they can trust will do the right thing, not what the American people will say they want because more often than not, Americans will be wrong. The cons to this are that the president is afforded a lot of power in just doing what he wants and not being able to be directly checked by the American people except in elections which will only occur once.
The President should really strive to represent his own political party because if they do that, I believe more things will get done. Reason being, I believe that moderation rarely works...if we always moderate, we will stay the exact same. We need something extreme in order to make the country the way it needs to be. Unfortunately this means that this Presidents will rarely get reelected as people will feel disenchanted if they arent represented.
Lastly I believe that the President should be more on the side of substantive representation as I believe the President needs to realize political needs of constituents, yet not desires. Needs are different than wants and I think a president should distinguish from the two and make his or her best decision without regard to public opinion.
Well you went out and called us out for being dumb. That's slightly unfair. I mean, I wouldn't call myself dumb but I would also not recommend you taking my advice on esoteric military topics.
ReplyDeleteI ideally agree the president should be a trustee. However, what do you do in circumstances when the president is wrong? Can the American people hold him accountable if he never listens to them?
I strongly agree that the average American is dumb regarding political matters (or possibly even more). I also understand what you mean when you talk about represent the party, because I agree with the idea that moderation will keep things similar (I would argue on the comment they would be the 'same'). My biggest concern is over what you talk about are the political needs of the public. I think it would be tough to establish everyone's political needs because I would argue that they aren't all the same.
ReplyDeleteLike I have said in my other posts, I would argue that having the president as a trustee is not enough. He needs to be a delegate too, which is of course why i said he should be a politico! But, as for being a trustee, I think this is a good idea when the American people are dumb, which I agree is a lot of the time, but are they really that dumb on everything? Shouldn't a president represent the people's interest on things like abortion, gay rights, and capital punishment. It seems unfair that he would be able to make such decisions for the majority when it is typically an individual's right (at least in regards to abortion and gay marriage) to have their own opinions and to try and be heard.
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