Why is it when people consider a country's international relations, they just blame the president?

Question

Wow! I got a lot of answers to my last question. Impressive. Many said, "Good country, bad president." But do you consider many people voted that guy into office? I talk to many of those people and they are still not sorry that they did. Don't you blame them too? More than just Bush is responsible for the BS going on around the world.

Answer 1

Bush is the face of American government, therefore he is held accountable for America's failures and mistakes.  Rightly so.  Especially when our country's major decisions fall to him.

Answer 2

Because they don't have to deal with any responsibility.  They can just blame that damned president.  Its all his fault that ________ happened (fill in the blank).  Its easy to blame one man for everything.  Harder to take responsibility and make things better.  Being an inherently lazy people, we choose the easier path.

edit--This is not just about Bush-bashers.  I recall much anger and venom hurled at Bill Clinton, too.  My statement applies to everyone.  Not just one side or the other.

Answer 3

Because the president is primarily responsible for foreign policy. As for the rest of the government, congress has to act on the realities of the situation. If the world was as simplistic and one-sided as all the know-nothing bloggers perceive it to be then there would be much more opposition to his policies by the democrats. As it is, both parties end up with positions that are fairly close to each other because the facts dictate it. I'm talking about voting records, not campaign rhetoric. Remember most of the 'facts' on blogs are pure fiction, and the ones that aren't are so exaggerated as to be useless. Get your information from primary sources, you may be surprised how many things you've believed turn out to be false. It also makes the lukewarm opposition of the democrats more understandable. I'm not a republican or a Bush supporter but I find the amount of vitriol directed at the man based on easily discredited lies appalling. If you want to know why we're in a war read the declassified intelligence reports, especially the ones from the Clinton administration. I started doing it to support my argument that the Iraq war was a mistake and learned instead that most of what I thought were facts were just plain incorrect. I still don't agree with a lot of what's being done in the war, but I learned that most bloggers and some news media will write what they wish was true regardless of overwhelming facts to the contrary.

Answer 4

Because the president impacts us all.

Answer 5

Because they're small minded and naive. It's easier to have someone to point the finger at than to consider the whole complicated picture.

Answer 6

Bush makes our foreign policy.  He does what ever Cheney tells him to.  That is why he is blamed.  Bush was never elected in a fair election.  He lost both times and had to cheat.  In Florida he had his brother helping him.  Voting machines were purchased from Bush family friends which left no way to verify the votes.  When Florida got a new governor one of the first things that happened was to discard all of those questionable voting machines even though they were brand new.  And, his successor is a Republican. In the first election, he was appointed by the supreme court which refused to let Florida count the votes.  Much of the things happening globally now can be directly laid at Bush's feet.  History will recognize his as the worse president EVER.  Bush formed his coalition by threatening to bomb the countries who did not side with him.  If they did he would give them billions in foreign aid.  Which would you select, being bombed to h**l or given billions of dollars?  The whole world hates Bush and blames him if far higher percentages that Americans.

Answer 7

You see in Government, the President is elected by the people, from the people to lead the people.  So Bush and the people he appoints to the various positions are a representation of us, the people.  With in his Cabinet, people such as Condi Rice take orders from Bush, Rove, and Chaney, to represent us to other Nation States.  With his "your either with us, or against us" statement he set up a president that requires Nation States to make a choice.  His war in Iraq was trumped up and false for the start.  A war that is not needed, dose not create a warm feeling of hospitality around the world.  Yes the world was shocked that we were attacked, and many sent help, but Bushe's cowboy ways have hurt us on the international front.  

Okay to the 2000 election, I voted for him, and regretted it all the way.  By the way he lost the popular vote, but wont the electoral college vote's.  I wont even get into the idea of voter fraud in Florida, and how the disenfranchisement of many minorities took place in many polling areas.  I do blame those who voted for George Bush.  I blame myself in 2000, and I try to fix my mistake every chance I can to speak out against Bush when ever possible.

BTW I will concede that the new Democratic Congress and Senate is no bargain either.

Answer 8

An important point, as in America, the citizens share sovereignty with the constitution.  I agree that all who share sovereignty (not just the people who voted for the president) share responsibility in their government's policies.

Regrettably, we tend to be intellectually lazy and obscenely unaware of where we come from and where we are.  Some say lambasting one's country for past and current mistakes indicates a lack of support for that country.  I would argue that it indicates the opposite.  How can we claim to love our respective country if we do not acknowledge past atrocities?  If we do not accept these things, we end up romanticizing an idealized and largely fictional caricature of our country.

It is my belief that America is the greatest country in the world in this moment.  But my ardent support is reinforced with the knowledge that we are wholly fallible and responsible for oppression and suffering around the world.  That it is not on the news, does not make it any less real.  That our leaders do not champion these issues as talking points does not wash our hands at allowing these things to continue.

As an example, the war on terror has pushed the drug war to the backburner, this does not mean that Peruvians and Bolivians are going  to shoulder any less of the burden of an insatiable American drug habit, it just means that in this zero-sum world, most of us will not pay attention and hold our leaders to account.  In this, we are all culpable.