What sort of image are americans giving the world if they treat their president badly?

Question

I feel it gives the country a weak image internationally and the disassociation with your leader is something that terrorists hoped for.

Answer 1

It show the freedom we have and that we don't have to worry about our government killing us for saying such things.

P.S. Fuc the other countries!

Answer 2

I am proud to be American- there are some very good answers here. As you can see, the American people are less concerned about our "image" than the real issues. We are blessed to be able to call something what it is, not pretend it isn't. Bush has not represented the people well and we don't have to pretend that he has. That is patriotism- people standing up for what they know is right, and standing against what is not right.
As for the terrorists and what they hope for- do you really think they give a rat's behind what any of us thinks? The damage was done. Much of it could have been prevented, but was not, due to the arrogance and laziness of some of our leaders. All we can do is continue to pray for our leaders, and hope that God, not greed, not political pride, will guide their actions from now on.

Answer 3

If a leader is breaking the law and promoting his own agenda in ways that cost the lives of American soldiers, the people have a duty to treat him accordingly. If he does well he deserves credit- if he causes a disaster, he must be held accountable.

It's more important how we are viewed by the leaders of other nations and billions of citizens in nations around the world, than how we are viewed by the terrorists we're eliminating. Their opinion of us isn't exactly a secret. We only need look at 9/11 for confirmation of that.

Answer 4

A side comment for birdsnake: I despise Bush AND terrorists. I despised Bush before 9/11.

Now, to answer the question: Dissent is the highest form democracy. We, as a "free" people, have the right to voice our concerns regarding our President. Being outspoken about our displeasure with him, and not being subsequently murdered, should show the world that democracy is a good thing.

Answer 5

It shows that we are not always the stupid, non-thinking masses that we often appear to be. A far weaker image is presented when we show no criticism and blindly follow someone who is clearly not the sharpest tool in the shed. Everyone thinks of Germans during the 30s as being totally stupid for not resisting a very bad leader and unfortunately for them, their image is still tarnished. The President will be gone in about 2 years, but we the people will remain.

Answer 6

from a recent paper:
"One of the more interesting ways American’s show patriotism is through what USA Today calls “Constructive or critical patriotism. Belief that the best way to love one's country is with constructive criticism of the government.” (USA 1). This exemplifies the best of American ideals that goes back to the days of George Washington as shown by this quote: "The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government." (Washington 1). The people choose the government and interpreting what Washington said, the people then have the right to inform the government by any means at what their opinions are and how the government should operate. Some people write editorials or scholarly papers about it such as “Ordinary citizens believe that their representatives pay heed to the whims of wealthy and powerful special interests rather than to the public interest.” (Hirsch 1); and are seen as patriots in their writings by others like them. This form of patriotism shows the will and right of patriots to be involved with the dealings and decisions of their government. As Thomas Jefferson said, “The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of government, and to protect its free expression should be our first objective.” (Jefferson 1). This means that the protection of freedom of the choice of the people is the most sacred of all rights for the American people and that being patriotic means using the freedom of expression by any reasonable means."

Sorry, but no terrorist is on record for saying that anything we say about Bush makes one dang bit of difference to them at all.
People have a right to question our leaders, and such a tradition is as old as our nation! To say otherwise for any reason is absolutely distorting history. Lincoln took more criticism than Bush has, so did FDR if you check the historic texts. If you take away the right of free speech, then you are fueling the left wing notion that Bush and company are taking away our basic freedoms.

PS: America first, politics last, then we will have a united country.

Answer 7

Terrorists could not care less about how we treat the president. They care about our behavior in certain key fields. It does not do our image any good at all if we allow a president to ignore sound advice, not spend even ten minutes thinking about consequences of his decision, take us to "war", spend untold billions upon billions on the project, and be unable to comprehend or decipher when the "project" will end. In fact, a good bit of the world is laughing at our collective stupidity for being in such a mess.

Answer 8

So we are just supposed to follow a man that we may not agree with simply because he was elected into office? The country is based on a system of checks and balances, if we don't check there will never be balance.

If we follow, blindly, someone it shows us weaker then people who question judgment. Without questioning actions we can't discover the good or bad of those actions.

Answer 9

Well, maybe its time that our leader act in ways more consistent with the good of the people. You can hardly fault the american people for showing extreme dissapointment in this and the former presidencies. It is not up to us to "suck it up" and put on fake little grins while this sham administration makes a laughing stock of our nation time after time. That is NOT what creates fair and adequate prepresentation of the people.

Answer 10

America doesn't have a president, it is likely that you mean the United States, if that is the case you'd be interested in this:

There is no such a thing as ‘American’ nationality, America is not a nation America is a continent with many nations in it. The US never named itself the name of the United States is a designation it comes from the end of the Declaration of Independence, "WE, therefore, the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in GENERAL CONGRESS, Assembled...". The preamble to the U.S. Constitution reiterated the phrase: "We the People of the United States..." (The authors of these two documents probably used the phrase "united states" in place of a list of colonies/states because they remained uncertain at the time of drafting which colonies/states would sign off on the sentiments therein.) The geographic term "America" specifies the states' home on the American continent.

It is therefor incorrect to refer to US citizens as Americans with the intent of denoting citizenship, or the United States as America with the intent of denoting a nation. Americans have a term for US citizens, we are called United Statesians by the rest of Americans, to say American with the intent of denoting citizenship or America when we mean the United States reflects poorly on our attitude towards the 70% of Americans that are not United Statesians.

Answer 11

I disagree. I think it shows a prime example of our freedoms in this country. There are many countries out there that will kill someone for expressing the freedoms that we have. What terrorist don't understand is that our President is only one leader out of many in this country.