Would you? Would most of those that know you consider you to be sane? If so, then please explain.
To do for their country.
I don’t think I have the ability, but if somebody could prove to me that I did, then yes.
My OP rests upon an assumption that whomever wins the next presidential election is going to have an exceedingly miserable four years ahead of themself.
The awesome perks. And if you dont mind being flexible morally the perks are tenfold. And im not referring to the likes of Trump, he’s just absent entirely from any conversation about morals, or ethics or understanding anything outside of his immediate baser impulses or what happened 2 minutes ago or anything that anyone said to him prior to the current person speaking to him or any food besides Big Macs and Oreo McFlurries or why other people dont also have orange skin or the goings on of any country in the world besides Russia and maybe Montenegro or why when they say someone’s legs are “paralyzed” yet the person’s legs flop around like that? And on and on.
It’s a position of tremendous power and influence. The pay - $400,000 a year - would be considered fantastic by 99% of Americans. You get to fly aboard the VC-25. You get to enact - or, at least - try to enact whatever policies you’ve always wanted to see happen but never happened. You eat great food. You get access to classified secrets that many yearn to know but will never know. You leave your mark on history. You get books written about you, any tweet or Facebook post you make will be read by millions…
What’s ***not ***to like?
Why wouldn’t you?
It’s one of the most prestigious job there is.
The standard of living is better than what a billionaire has access to
Ex presidents easily become multi millionaires. You can make $200,000 a speech in retirement.
You can push your ideological agenda.
You can mold the world.
You have massive power.
Why would you not.
This made me chuckle
Even for a relatively sane and honorable POTUS, they literally can’t do anything without pissing somebody off. Imagine have to choose between having chicken salad vs tuna salad for lunch and knowing that whatever you choose, letters, E-mails and petitions are going to fly questioning your intelligence, your morals, your very soul. EVERY choice you make, every act you perform and somebody hates you for it.
I’m with the OP on this.
The next president might have trouble with a sharply divided house and senate where politicians are no longer willing to work with each other, but they’re also going to have every thinking person in the US go “well at least they’re not Trump” no matter what they do to piss people off.
If you believe that — and I mean really, truly believe it — it sounds super liberating. Wouldn’t it pretty much take the sting out of any criticism? Isn’t it kind of the entire point of that cliché where, If Everything Is X, Then Nothing Is?
Trump has really lowered the bar, so it’d be hard not to look awesome in his wake.
How are everyday people availing themselves of the information of the presidents dietary choices on a daily basis? And regarding the general concept of not being able to conduct any duties as POTUS without pissing someone off, well, thats why only a very certain and uncommon type of person can make it as POTUS, even be successful (or even survive ) in the campaign to be elected. And a big part of that uncommon person is a large helping of extreme personality traits. Maybe not full blown narcissism (but then again, maybe that has been more of a presence in our Presidents than we realize (we certainly realize it with the current office occupier). They need to have such an astronomixally outsized sense of their own importance and exceptionalism that they can say “You know, I think i can become the next President of The United States.”
There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one’s own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. If a potential candidate was crazy, he could avoid becoming POTUS. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to become a candidate. A potential candidate would be crazy to Want to be POTUS and sane if he didn’t, but if he was sane, he had to run. If he ran, he was crazy and didn’t have to; but if he didn’t want to, he was sane and had to.
This is what I’ve been thinking for a long time - whoever succeeds Trump as president - be he a (D) or an (R) - is going to be in a honeymoon period of playing the President Game on the easiest possible difficulty setting. No matter how he or she does (well, within certain parameters,) the media will be gushing about how refreshing it is to finally have a return to sanity and levelheadedness, to have an adult in the Oval Office for once.
Sure, after a year or two the honeymoon period will end, but for a time, that POTUS will be skating by with ease.
For anyone who wants to be POTUS:
Do you have any idea the shit they’ll dig up on you?
Or the shit they’ll make up about you (and the deepfaked docs to prove it)?
Two reasons.
[ol]
[li]Anyone who runs for president at any time has one eye on the history books. Even William Henry Harrison who is just a footnote in presidential history, is part of the history. [/li]
[li]You probably think this is the best chance you’ll ever have of being elected because of how divisive the incumbent is. He has his base which will still stand by him but his base is not enough. Not this time when now he has been on the job so can’t be the “outsider” anymore. Much like how so many people ran in 1976 because after Watergate and Ford’s pardon of Nixon it was assumed it was an election the democrats could not lose so why not throw your hat in the ring to be the guy who wins it all. (of course they almost did lose it).[/li][/ol]
Literally everything. Put aside the overbearing ego, ambition, sense of entitlement, compromised values and sheer, monstrous hubris it must take to fight your way into that position.
Just focusing on the job itself you have four-eight years on a hot seat, your every move and bowel movement scrutinized in agonizing detail. Despised by large segments of the country, grudgingly tolerated by many others, pathologically adored by a few( those could be the worst ). The constant stress of knowing that even seemingly small decisions you might make might end in a disaster where not only could you be responsible for many deaths, but you could leave a legacy that will haunt an entire country( and you personally ). A life lived in partial confinement, where even wandering out to grab an In-n-Out burger requires either a ridiculous big production or a Get Smart-style incognito raid. God knows how much premature aging.
And then when it is all over after a few short years of being THE MAN you have a continuing lifetime of partial, security-smothered confinement and periodic bursts of intense, intrusive scrutiny. Paparazzi will be haunting you and nutcases will be picking through your garbage until the day you die. And you aren’t just inflicting this on yourself, but on your entire family. After you die they’ll still be picking through your kid’s garbage.
I wouldn’t even want to be a well-known character actor. Being president would be a thousand times worse. It’s an utterly shit job. Sadly someone has to do it, but I’m glad it isn’t me.
A syphilitic hyena would look awesome in Tramp’s wake. That’ll raise the bar.
What personality defects propel a humanoid toward the presidency, Bierce’s “greased pig in the field game of American politics”?
[ul]
[li] Lust for power, planes, bribes, sexual access, and hot meals.[/li][li] Ability to absorb or ignore critical verbal shit. (Tramp lacks this.)[/li][li] An actual desire to benefit the public – as long as self-interest wins, too.[/li][li] Treason, if owned by enemies waging war on the US. (Tramp is there.)[/li][li] Curiosity about UFO-ET reports, or desire to quash them because alien.[/li][li] If so inclined, it’s easier than actually working for a living.[/li][/ul]
On the downside, candidates and winners will be probed closer than anything but a cow near Area 51 with an alien anal probe. The sensitive (and sane) are disqualified.
Tramp lost the vote but won the White House. Luzers rule! He was impeachable and removable as soon he took office. Had Hillary won 75k more votes in 3 counties, she’d be in the hot seat - and GOPs would have filed impeachment articles on 22 Jan 2017.
US national politics are broken, imposing kakistrocracy (rule by the worst). Smile.
so I could appoint people to the Supreme Court that used the Constitution not the bible to rule on cases.
This is the thing that would stop me from pursuing any office. I don’t need the whole world knowing that I got a D on my Aerodynamic final exam. Or that I had an illegal hot plate in my room that one time. Or that Sister Mary Alice made me stand out in the hallway because I didn’t follow directions on my worksheet in first grade.
Seriously, while I’ve tried to live a decent life, I’m sure I’ve done and said things that could be interpreted or twisted in horrific ways if someone was so inclined. Not to mention what might be said by anyone I may have pissed off in the past.
That, and my total lack of leadership skills.