khagler Wrote:I don't know where you're from, so maybe it's a country where that is true. It definitely isn't in the US, though--the last US president to face any long term consequences for his actions as president was Abraham Lincoln in 1865, and that was an assassination, not any kind of legal proceeding. (Nixon resigned much more recently, but that was for actions outside the scope of his office and certainly not much of a consequence given everything he did as president.)Wow...
robkelk, there's not really a lot of "depth" involved: being a bad person is a prerequisite to being a politician, because if you're not willing to rob and kill you can't get elected in the first place. Perhaps the source of your confusion is that you share the (sadly very widespread) belief that things that would be crimes for you and me suddenly become noble acts of statesmanship when done by politicians? I do not share that belief. As far as I'm concerned, if someone orders his men to go out and steal from people and kill any who resist, it doesn't make any difference whether his organization is called "Mafia" or "Congress."
Where to begin?
At the beginning, I suppose.
"I don't know where you're from" Epsilon has stated that he's from Nova Scotia.
"the last US president to face any long term consequences for his actions as president was Abraham Lincoln in 1865, and that was an assassination, not any kind of legal proceeding." Perhaps you've forgotten that Andrew Johnson (the President immediately after Lincoln) and Bill Clinton were both impeached, and Richard Nixon resigned rather than face the possibility of impeachment.
"because if you're not willing to rob and kill you can't get elected in the first place." Evidence within living memory indicates otherwise - Jimmy Carter was elected President, after all.
"Perhaps the source of your confusion is that you share the (sadly very widespread) belief that things that would be crimes for you and me suddenly become noble acts of statesmanship when done by politicians?" That is a vile stance, and I request you withdraw your suggestion that I might even possibly entertain taking it.
"As far as I'm concerned, if someone orders his men to go out and steal from people and kill any who resist, it doesn't make any difference whether his organization is called "Mafia" or "Congress."" Please cite any case where Congress has given such an order.
Bringing this thread back to "historical ignorance", it's sad that I know more US political history than a US citizen does. I'm not a historian, so I really shouldn't be better-informed than the people who are actually affected by that history. Perhaps US politicians are merely representative of the US population at large?
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012