The US electorate seems to believe that the office of President is equivalent to a King or some other monarch. This isn’t the case. POTUS (President of the United States) is a position in the executive branch of the federal government. He is not even elected by the people (the Electoral College elect the POTUS). The President’s most important powers are selecting the Judiciary (with Congressional approval), sitting as Commander in Chief of the military, and vetoing Congressionally approved bills before they become law as a check to their power. Nothing more.

This whole President worship thing started when Abraham Lincoln abused his executive office power, declared himself dictator, suspended the writ of Habeas Corpus, jailed his dissenters and started an unnecessary war with the Confederate States of America which claimed the lives of over 600,000 Americans. Abraham Lincoln’s Constitutional violations made George W. Bush look like Thomas Jefferson, yet he is still the most celebrated POTUS of all time. He has an enormous monument in DC, he’s on the penny and the $5 bill, and no one even knows about the mock-dictatorship he helmed for 4 years during the Civil War. His Kingly image has been wiped clean. I do not use the image above to condone violence (an act that I find barbaric and atrocious, except as a last resort), I use it simply to illustrate the cause and effect of certain actions. The assassination of anyone is an untenable offense, but historically it is the most common end of both patriots and tyrants.

How many people can name the nine members of the current US Supreme Court? How many even know what they look like? Even closer to home, how many of you can name your Senator or Congressman? So why should the President, a non elected official of lesser power, be anymore celebrated than the Congressmen and Senators who we actually put into office with our votes? The only members of the federal government who we directly vote into office are the members of the Legislative Branch. The Congressmen/women and Senators who’s names you don’t even know. 

You want to orchestrate real CHANGE in this country? Turning the POTUS into a celebrity is going to get you nowhere. We as an electorate have to wise up, we’ve been tricked into thinking that we are in control of the direction our country takes while they downplay the only weapon we really have for making the federal government do what we want. Read the Constitution and get on the same page folks. We want liberty, in which we are all individually equal, but are quickly heading back to the days of tyranny where a select few sit on top and tell the peasants how to act, think, speak, dress, and raise their families. Fight back the war is not over just yet.