# Is a president that you dislike, still "your" president? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 12, 2017, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-president-that-you-dislike-still-your-president/798671 "2017-10-12T19:19:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-president-that-you-dislike-still-your-president/798671/41 "2017-10-13T00:09:47Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > How does that make sense? That’s pretty much my point if you are an American you can answer the poll however you want. It doesn’t change the fact that the current president is your president. The alternative feels like sticking your fingers in your ears and saying lalalala to drown out reality. Believe me I’m not too happy about it either. “My” implies a closer relationship then “The”. Let’s try this: When I lived in Seattle, _The_ team was the Seattle Mariners, but _My_ team was/is the Chicago Cubs, Do you think I was sticking my fingers in my ears and saying lalalala to drown out reality when I said this? ---
**Author:** ![Trancephalic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trancephalic/32/380_2.png) [@Trancephalic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trancephalic)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-president-that-you-dislike-still-your-president/798671/42 "2017-10-13T00:10:16Z")
But he’s not O Captain My Captain ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-president-that-you-dislike-still-your-president/798671/43 "2017-10-13T00:29:42Z")
Yes, he’s my President. But he’s not my fault. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-president-that-you-dislike-still-your-president/798671/44 "2017-10-13T00:45:54Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Do you understand the difference between Trump being _The_ President, the legally elected leader of this country, and _MY_ President, the leader of this country that gives a shit about anything other than his own self-interests, the leader that gives at least lip service to serving the entire country and not just the parts that support him and/or make him richer, the leader that gives a shit about how he looks to the rest of the world, the leader that wouldn’t rip apart this country’s health care system just because it is named after someone else, a leader that would consider me as much a citizen to be listened to as any that voted for him. Trump is _The_ President. I don’t understand that, actually. That whole paragraph sounds like some rule of construction you just made up. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-president-that-you-dislike-still-your-president/798671/45 "2017-10-13T00:48:26Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > “My” implies a closer relationship then “The”. > Let’s try this: > When I lived in Seattle, _The_ team was the Seattle Mariners, but _My_ team was/is the Chicago Cubs, Do you think I was sticking my fingers in my ears and saying lalalala to drown out reality when I said this? Sure, sure - but that’s because there is no relationship other than fandom between you and a baseball team. You could have equally well piously announced, “THE team is the Chicago Cubs, because they’re the only team that matters to me,” and then ardently defended that construction. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-president-that-you-dislike-still-your-president/798671/46 "2017-10-13T00:49:58Z")
I just don’t use the word “my” in relationship to President whether I approve of him or disapprove of him. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-president-that-you-dislike-still-your-president/798671/47 "2017-10-13T00:50:47Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > I don’t understand that, actually. > > That whole paragraph sounds like some rule of construction you just made up. It’s not my problem that you see only one answer as valid for this poll. I have tried more than once to explain my personal answer to the question posed, which was NOT “Is the person in office the official President of the United States?” ---
**Author:** ![Dobbs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Dobbs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dobbs)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-president-that-you-dislike-still-your-president/798671/48 "2017-10-13T01:32:02Z")
I’m somewhat reminded of the truism ‘the customer may not always be right, but they’re always the customer’. There have been a few Presidents that weren’t my President, but they were always the President. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-president-that-you-dislike-still-your-president/798671/49 "2017-10-13T01:57:02Z")
I accept him as my/our president, as in our responsibility, we fucked up, and we are responsible to correct this mess and will be mopping up after this infantile jerk for years to come. Doing else wise would be like allowing a child to run amuck once we released him like a bull in a china shop, and then disowning him when it comes time to make amends. We as Americans have a moral responsibility to accept him as our own. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-president-that-you-dislike-still-your-president/798671/50 "2017-10-13T03:13:22Z")
He’s the president, he’s my nation’s president. He is “my” president in the sense he’s the one I’m paying to preside, but only because it’s not my call to can him for sucking at it. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-president-that-you-dislike-still-your-president/798671/51 "2017-10-13T04:11:05Z")
I went no but this is a case where I really wanted an “other” option. Any President is mine in the sense that I am, as of the moment, still a citizen of the United States. I went no because _no POTUS_ is really “ours”. Their respective parties and major business owners/contributors/special interest groups have the better claim to ownership both heart and soul. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-president-that-you-dislike-still-your-president/798671/52 "2017-10-13T04:33:55Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > After Election Day 2008, I saw social media of “Not my president,” and plenty of that after Election Day 2016 as well. Out of curiosity, does anyone remember seeing any such comments about presidents/elections earlier than 2008? If not, I believe that such comments originated (in the 2008 case) with people who were either racists themselves or who at least believed the lies spread by racists and therefore refused to accept that a “person like that” could be POTUS. And would people be saying it about Trump after the 2016 election if people hadn’t been saying it about Obama? I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-president-that-you-dislike-still-your-president/798671/53 "2017-10-13T05:00:50Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > If the president was lawfully elected by your fellow citizens under the procedures in your Constitution, then yes, he is “your” president, no matter how much you may despise him. To believe otherwise would be to reject “your” entire country. That’s the way I see it. Like it or not, Donald Trump was legally elected to the office. If you reject the legitimacy of his presidency, you’re basically rejected the legitimacy of the American body of law. As for the possessive, Donald Trump is my President in the same sense that Andrew Cuomo is my Governor and Louise Slaughter is my Congresswoman. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-president-that-you-dislike-still-your-president/798671/54 "2017-10-13T06:03:29Z")
Yes, but I reserve the right to evaluate individual policies and actions independently of where they come from. If a president I voted for does something stupid it’s still stupid and if someone I didn’t vote for does a good job they’re still doing a good job. My favorite Labor Minister was a guy who (oh scandal!) nobody had voted for; unusually for Spanish politics, he wasn’t in Parliament and in fact had never held any elected positions. But he knew his ass from his brain and used each appropriately. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-president-that-you-dislike-still-your-president/798671/55 "2017-10-13T06:16:31Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Out of curiosity, does anyone remember seeing any such comments about presidents/elections earlier than 2008? Yes. Many people said this during 2001 (and the 7 years after). I very distinctly remember a lot of unpleasantness after Florida. But that’s just my memory. Checking the google ngram viewer, the phrase spiked in the late 80s, lulled in the 90s, then began to climb again during the Bush43-era. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-president-that-you-dislike-still-your-president/798671/56 "2017-10-13T09:56:41Z")
In general, yes. In the current case, no. He is an enemy of everything that makes up America. And he’s not really capable of actually doing the job. He can’t be my president if he can’t actually handle being president, let alone be someone who represents American values. Trump is not my president. I have no president right now. There is a senile old man who everyone calls “president,” but he’s not really the president. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-president-that-you-dislike-still-your-president/798671/57 "2017-10-13T10:13:34Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > He’s “the” president and I respect that he’s lawfully in office. I don’t feel any obligation to respect him or wish him well. I’m not sure what would make him “my” president but he ain’t it. But then, the last guy wasn’t either. The idea of someone being “my” president seems a bit weird to me. I voted “Yes” but this is essentially my view too - I accept that Trump is the President of the United States but I’ve never thought of presidents as being “mine”, not even when I liked them. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-president-that-you-dislike-still-your-president/798671/58 "2017-10-13T10:38:57Z")
Yes he is. Yes they were. > [@Velocity](#): > > FWIW I am of the view that a president of the country of my citizenship is “my” president however much I may wince at or dislike it. Agreed. I served under Presidents I voted for and/or agreed with, and those I did not. They were all my Presidents. This is my country. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-president-that-you-dislike-still-your-president/798671/59 "2017-10-13T12:19:40Z")
I don’t know that I’ve ever considered any president, whether I love them or hate them, as MY president. I acknowledge that they are all the president of my country, and sometimes I have generally positive views of their actions. Sometimes ( like now) I have negative views of most of their actions but I don’t have any ownership stake in any of them. ---
**Author:** ![Falchion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a88e57/32.png) [@Falchion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Falchion)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-president-that-you-dislike-still-your-president/798671/60 "2017-10-13T13:31:03Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Out of curiosity, does anyone remember seeing any such comments about presidents/elections earlier than 2008? I remember it being pervasive during the Bush 43 administration. I don’t recall it earlier, but I have no trouble believing that it has been around for a long time. As to the poll, I answered “yes” after reading the explanations for some of the “no” answers. But, I don’t think I’ve ever viewed a president as “mine” in any sense. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-president-that-you-dislike-still-your-president/798671.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-president-that-you-dislike-still-your-president/798671.md?page=4)