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The president almost revered like a god !! In the USA ?? Not in my lifetime.
".... populations are hardly better informed today than they were in the past"
I would argue that on many things populations are less well informed today -- people are exposed to so much information that they no longer know what or who they are.
MM
The one thing that I think is healthy is robust ridicule and caustic wit in papers like Private Eye to expose the bigwigs and polictical animals for what they really are.
JFK was wasn't he Tom?
JFK's popularity might have actually went up AFTER he was killed. But during his short stay in the white house he had his detractors just like any president, he wasn't very popular in the south.
I used to love reading Private Eye! That programme with Paul Merton and Ian Hislop, Private Eye's ed, with Angus Deaton was brilliant as well
Americans elevating the President to god-like status? Maybe that's a bit of an exxaggeration on my partbut to the rest of the world it at least looks that way. Could you imagine the British, New Zealand or Australian population being expected to behave in a similar way toward their prime ministers as Americans do toward their presidents? Not gonna happen!
Part of the problem with English-speaking nations is a tendency to assume that the fact of us speaking the same(ish) language leads to closer similarities in other areas. US and Parliamentary approaches are very different forms of democracy, and there are others - just look at Europe!
Do we have to look at Europe though....
Well, being a Yank in Oz, I am experiencing the real reason for the Colonies booting out the British form of government, it is not what I would refer to as democratic!
Well, being a Yank in Oz, I am experiencing the real reason for the Colonies booting out the British form of government, it is not what I would refer to as democratic!