Backing a President

In America, we have a syndrome called; "We love to defend the underdog". It seems that whenever we can, we as Americans like to defend someone who is under attack. Sometimes we are right and sometimes we are wrong, but it's that attitude of defending the little guy that defines part of what it is to be an American.

This extends to a social phenomenon that people may not be aware of. When one party or the other has chosen a presidential candidate and that candidate wins and becomes President of the US, the party is supportive of him.

Of course the opposition party is less than supportive of him and in fact attack him on every issue. This is nothing new. It happens to every president. The opposition will attack him regardless of the kind of job he is doing.

But when there is real evidence that a president is doing a terrible job, it gives the opposition even more ammunition to attack him with, therefore the attack on a bad president becomes more intense.

The problem that occurs here is even though there is evidence that this is a bad president, the more the opposition attacks him based on that evidence, the more that president's party rises to his defense.

Conclusion; The worse a president is, the more those that helped him get elected will defend him. This is on both parties, not just the republicans currently in power.

Reasons;

1. The supporters of any current president don't want to admit they are wrong. That's human nature.

2. They are afraid if they admit they were wrong to choose the current president that they won't be able to get someone from their party in office next time there is an election. They use that reasoning to justify supporting one that is in office doing a poor job.

3. They hate the opposition so much that they will defend almost anyone as long as the opposition doesn't like them. The old "If you're the enemy of my enemy, you are my friend" syndrome. Again human nature.

4. The person being attacked becomes the underdog, the little guy, and we all love to back the underdog as Americans. The more he is attacked, the more they will defend him.

So, when you wonder why people defend a terrible president even more than they do a good one, don't be shocked. Thats just how it works.

by Chris McElroy
More things that just piss me off