I don't respect "offices". Makes as much sense as respecting flying spaghetti monsters as far as I'm concerned. and I only respect people who have earned my respect. Obama hasn't. Bush didn't. I gave it to...
It would seem, then, that you and I have more in common than I would have been previously believed. The last person in office that I truly respected was Ronnie Raygun. Clinton gets grudging props for some things that he did, but he also did alot to bring down the prestige of the office.
But...
There are some things that I can't seem to agree with you on. You respect the position of President precisely because you don't respect the man holding it. You respect the position because in the end, if we don't then who else will? After all, the office is currently held by someone who doesn't respect what it is that he does.
It's not that this country was founded on the disrespect of authority. That's liberal militant talk there and I've lived in that type of household for a good portion of my life as a younger man, so I know it when I hear it. This country was founded with the idea that the government was answerable to the people. That the government should be afraid of its people, not the other way around.
And make no mistake, this government is afraid of its people. Just look at the freedoms that we have that have been inexplicably taken away from us for our own protection. How about the fact that the government is making us so dependent on them for everything that we need or want because either they think we're too stupid to know better or that we don't care enough to do anything about it.
I see all of this going on around me and it scares the living crap out of me, because I have a son who will have to deal with all of this long after I'm dead and gone from this life. I want better for him and right now, that's looking less and less likely to happen.
I would love for Obama to have an epiphany and come to his senses, but his...
