Quote:
Originally Posted by mapuc
According to some USA-expert on American politics Obama scored high points on domestic politics while he scored low on foreign policy
Were they correct, those expert ? Do you American think Obama did a great job as a President when it comes to domestic politics and do you think he did a bad job regarding foreign policy ?
Markus
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It depends on whether you want to make Obama look good or bad. It can be spun both ways. The reality is that few effects on the US are solely caused by one and only one person. We have state governments and a federal congress that handle most of the domestic issues.
Here is a breakdown you can print out
1 You like the president
1.1 Anything good that happens in the country is due to the president
1.2 Anything bad that happens in the country is due to someone else other than the president.
2. You don't like the president
2.1 Anything good that happened in the country is due to someone else in spite of the president's actions/inactions
2.2 Anything bad that happened in the country is due to the president
It really does not matter if the president has the capability of affecting these outcomes. That's not part of the political equation.
Which is why many online (and RL) political arguments alternate between either the president is responsible or congress is responsible, depending on which interpretation helps the person's argument.
The reality is that the government, as a whole, at both the federal and state level affect changes in the nation. But it is easier and more satisfying to point the blame at one single person (or congress) depending on whose side you are on.
It is also true that actions/inactions on the part of former congresses and presidents can have a delayed effect on the current state of the nation. This can also be used to your advantage with the current administrations/congress.
Don't like the president and don't like the congress? not a problem
Anything good that happens was due to the actions of the past (liked) administration/congress it is just that this current (disliked) administration/congress is "taking the credit".
The converse is can also be used. If you disliked the past president/congress anything bad that happened during the current (liked) president/congress can be blamed on the past and the current president/congress is just taking the fall for what was done in the past.
That's the beauty of it. No matter who I like or what happened, I can easily rearrange causalities to make "my guy" look good and "your" guy look bad.
And that's how political arguments work in the US.
