I have listened to people call President Obama the new Hitler. Say he has a tail under his suit. All sorts of things that I could deal with coming from a resident of another country. But from an American? That’s wrong and it is both disrespectful to the office of the president and to every American he represents.
Every president we have ever had has been duly elected by the people. (Though some question the election of Bush the son.) We are all entitled to a vote and the choice to use that vote or not. Throughout the history of our country, we have had more than one political party. There is always a winner and a loser. But one thing remained a constant: no matter who won, he was our president. The president of the United States represents all Americans. Democrats and Republicans. Independents and nonvoters. Whether we like him or not.
Every president that has held the office in my lifetime has been my president. Nixon, Ford, Carter, up to our present sitting president, President Barack Obama. I come from a family that tends to vote democrat but on occasion we have been known to vote republican. But no matter how we vote, it’s still our president who wins. Whether that president’s policies were good for my country in my opinion or not isn’t important. He is my president and therefore deserving of my respect.
So forgive me for getting out my soapbox, I promise it won’t happen often. We wouldn’t publicly speak ill of our family and to the rest of the world our president might as well be our father. So we don’t publicly speak ill of our president. Don’t get me wrong, we have the right to disagree, even publicly with our president. But to call him names and degrade him is wrong. He represents us to the rest of the world. If he fails, we all fail. I would rather not fail just so that his opposition is justified.
We are Americans. Before our allegiance to our favorite political party, we are Americans. If we don’t like the way our elected officials do their jobs then we vote them out. We don’t behave like schoolyard bullies that yell mean names at each other. We wonder why our kids are ganging up on each other and tormenting the weak ones to death. It’s because they watch us do it on the news every day.
So respect our president. If not because you think he deserves it, then because we deserve better.
.jpg)
