Americans, your views please......?

Question

Sen. John McCain recently asked on this site for your suggestions on how to reduce wasteful government spending.

Answer no. 257 suggested "Elect a democratic president to the Whitehouse in 2008". In view of the powers that Bush has given himself under the Patriot Act, which allow him to ignore the wishes and votes of democratically elected members Congress, I thought that this was a fair and balanced observation.

So I was astonished to see that only 1 person had given it a "thumbs up", whilst 9 had given it a thumbs down.

My questions:

Is this yet another indication that Americans really don't care what the US president does, at home or abroad, just as long as he preserves the American way of life?

Do American voters realise that George Bush has more dictatorial power in the US than Hugo Chavez has in Venezuela?

Thanks for the views....

Steve J - anything to oblige.

Iain - I agree.

Scratch - thanks for the heads-up

Freddie - this IS a question relating to my country, because my country is up to its neck in Iraq so that American multinationals can plunder Iraq of its oil or oil revenues. If America tries to drag the rest of the world into a phoney war on terrorism, then American politics is our business. If America touts itself as the World's policeman, then American politics is our business. If America wants to station its bombers in my back yard, then American politics is my business. If you still don't get it, go ask mummy.

Richard - you've managed to miss not 1, but 2 points by miles. I am not asking you if your govt. should preserve your way of life. Read the question again.

And secondly, it's the Democrat Party, not the democratic party. A democratic (adjective) president could be a Republican, Democrat or independent.

Big O - Murdoch, Turner....Democrats??

Answer 1

Conservatives in America have abandoned their traditional conservative values because they like the big powerful government our president has created. They would like to live in a dictatorship. For the rest of us Americans, we speak out in favor of the Constitution and against the Bush administration's scandals and injustices.

Answer 2

OK I’ll take it on:

"Is this yet another indication that Americans really don't care what the US president does, at home or abroad, just as long as he preserves the American way of life?"

Yes we care, and if you look at our last election you’d see there was a switch in power, the Republicans, forgot that the people wanted to elect conservatives and we expected them to act that way, they didn’t and now they are on the outside looking in.

As for the second part of your question, it is the government responsibility to preserve the way of life in their country, US, Iran, Canada, Etc. it doesn’t matter. I don’t know what country you are from but let say your leadership decided not to preserve your way of life, you could find yourself working under a drug lord, or doing forced labor for a multi-national corporation or your country could be flood with cheap good and forcing your unemployment up, and destroying your economy, it is the responsibility of your government to protect the interest of your country and to protect it citizens and their way of life.

"Do American voters realise that George Bush has more dictatorial power in the US than Hugo Chavez has in Venezuela?"

In some cases, yes he does, in others no he doesn’t. Right now George Bush doesn’t have a congress to rubber stamp his decisions. So the Patriot Act is under review, congress could force George Bush to return troops from Iraq. Although he is commander in chief, but he can’t pay the troops, or for the oil, munitions, Etc. that power is left to congress, if they cut off funding he would have no choice but to bring the troops back. Also the Supreme Court hasn’t ruled on the Patriot Act, it could easily find that the Patriot Act is unconstitutional. That not to say the president doesn’t have a lot of power he does, but there are many checks to his power, if congress does its job, and the Supreme Court does its job.

"Sen. John McCain recently asked on this site for your suggestions on how to reduce wasteful government spending.

Answer no. 257 suggested "Elect a democratic president to the Whitehouse in 2008". In view of the powers that Bush has given himself under the Patriot Act, which allow him to ignore the wishes and votes of democratically elected members Congress, I thought that this was a fair and balanced observation.

So I was astonished to see that only 1 person had given it a "thumbs up", whilst 9 had given it a thumbs down."

The Democrat party has long been known as a tax and spend party, that’s why elect a Democrat president got so many thumbs down.

Edit

Sorry I’m a little dyslexic and a terrible speller on top of that, as long as it’s close, ie it looks good to me and my computer doesn’t say its spelled wrong, then I think I got the right word. And yes I tend to have my computer look a lot of words up just so that such a mistake, like that, doesn’t happen. That one got by me sorry.

As for your questions I’ll try again

1. Yes we care what president does at home and abroad, again look at the last election, his party lost. But once a president is in office it is really hard to remove him, as it should be. Are we happy with everything our president does, of course not. Now I’m assuming you are referring to suggested "Elect a democratic president to the Whitehouse in 2008" I can only hope that like me there were nine dyslexic people who misread the post.

2. What I was trying to point out was a true dictator doesn’t have checks on their power, or not many. Here the president make up 1/3 of the government and does have a lot of power, but congress holds the money. The president can do a lot with presidential powers, and as Commander in Chief. But congress can stop the president, by withholding funds. Also the President and Congress also have to deal with the Supreme Court, a further limit on power. The patriot Act has yet to make its way through the court but the president may be in for an unpleasant surprise when it does. Of couse a lot of this would require congress and the Supreme court to get a little back bone and stand up for the constitution.

If I still haven’t answered your questions please post an edit. Maybe, I am just not understanding what you are asking.

Answer 3

Please remember that American support for this war if about 35%. You see the problem was a bunch of nuts figured out the regular (i.e. normal) Americans don't vote and decided to vote in mass. Basically 10 to 20% percent of the country in the last election accounted for 50 to 60 percent of the vote. Normal Americans now realize that we have been overtaken by those with an extremist agenda. These 51/40 or 50/50 vote splits are the results of crazy people voting but only represent about 20% of the USA. We have extremists on both sides in this country those who want to tax the normal citizen out of existence and those who want to blow up the world. It is the normal people of the US who hold responsiblity since we did not vote. Don't worry I think most of us have realized our mistake and will not make it again.

Answer 4

Please understand that Yahoo/answers is NOT a forum that attracts many adults. Most of the posters are teenagers and really young and immature people who don't have a grasp of politics but only parrot what their peers say.

There are some of us on here who do find an occassional adult to debate with - but they are few and far between.

Don't judge the American people by some of the Boobs you find here.

Answer 5

<>

I don't think they do, and I don't think they have a clue how despised they are outside the USA.

Answer 6

Don't kid yourselves. Bush's approval rating means nothing. Do you really think we can trust a media that is run by a majority of severe left-wingers to tell us how popular he is? Why, that would take away from their two favorite past times: Bashing republicans and spending 90% of their news time telling us about Paris Hilton's latest antics, or what's up with Anna Nicole Smith's dead body. Both real news worthy stories I'm sure, but I have never heard them talk about the good that our troops are doing in Iraq. And if you don't believe that they are doing good you haven't talked to them, or you are Sean Penn.

Answer 7

I'm sorry but in my experience Americans don't realise much. As long as what is going on in the world doesn't affect their way of life they are content to continue in blissful ignorance.

Answer 8

I'm a conservative Christian and I have come to realize that there is no difference between Republican and Democrat.

I'm an independent, and I'm fed up with Bush, just as I was fed up with Clinton.

Answer 9

WE have got the same here with " President " Blair.
Let the people run our countries and we will all be better off.

Answer 10

i keep reading reading the thoughts and opinions of non american citizens concerning our politics our president and our way of life my question is what business is it of yours you dont live here you dont pay taxes here you dont vote here so why please tell me do you believe your opinion on our government and our way of life matters if you are not satisfied with the way our government runs have your own representitives to quit helping us or quit accepting our help or better yet ask a question concerning something relating to your own government or country