Would you want to be the President or Prime Minister of your country?

Would you be the President/PM of your country?

  • Yes

    Votes: 8 28.6%

  • No

    Votes: 20 71.4%
  • Total voters
    28
amadeus

amadeus

Serenity now
Joined
Aug 30, 2001
Messages
39,375
Location
Civilization II
I would guess being a world leader is a lot of responsibility. Could you handle it? Not just in deciding on policy, but also the celebrity that comes with it?

I don’t think I could do it or would even want to.

For this question, you would be guaranteed electoral success with a five-point margin of victory. This happens when your opposition points to the unclaimed Bir Tawil Triangle when asked to find your country on a world map.
 
no thanks, I'll be dictator for live or you can kiss me goodbye. I don't want to spend my entire life shaking hands and making vague, purposeless statements while taking mediocre bribes.
 
Nah, I would prefer to be the power behind the throne, so to speak, that manipulates the public face of the government. That way I have all the power, but that poor simp catches all the flak when my policy decisions go horribly wrong.
 
The question posed in the title and that in the poll are different, and have different answers for me:
  • Would you want to be the President or Prime Minister of your country?
    • No. It is too much responsibility, the problems are too hard, and the rewards are too small unless you are willing to sell out to big money of some type, and I would not be willing to do so.
  • Would you be the President/PM of your country?
    • Yes. If that is what it took to get rid of BoJo and company then it would be a cost I would be willing to bare for the good of the country. I think I could shift priorities towards things that will keep people alive and productive in ways that the current administration are not willing / able to do.
 
Samson said:
The question posed in the title and that in the poll are different, and have different answers for me:
  • Would you want to be the President or Prime Minister of your country?
    • No. It is too much responsibility, the problems are too hard, and the rewards are too small unless you are willing to sell out to big money of some type, and I would not be willing to do so.
  • Would you be the President/PM of your country?
    • Yes. If that is what it took to get rid of BoJo and company then it would be a cost I would be willing to bare for the good of the country. I think I could shift priorities towards things that will keep people alive and productive in ways that the current administration are not willing / able to do.
Click to expand...

Also depends on the type of PM/President you want to be.
Trump manages to fit being President in between his golf, TV and twitter sessions. Most politicians (even the ones I hate) work very hard doing a lot of boring paperwork and committee meetings.
 
No. Automatically half the country hates you right off the bat. Then it's a very stressful and demanding job. Just look at the photos of US presidents before and after their terms. They seem to age two or three times their terms. If you ever take some time off you get ripped on by half the pundits. Look at every time Obama or Trump goes golfing. It's a media field day.

Plus I don't know how to solve every issue. Sure we can armchair quarterback and monday morning quarterback and say this decision would be better, but even if you know what the policies should be, it takes so much time to turn anything around. Anything positive you do will take years to see results so one of two things will inevitably happen; the next president will take credit for the results or the next president will undo all your changes since the results haven't materialized yet.

PS for those who don't understand the phrasing, armchair quarterback means you make decisions without understanding how difficult it is in reality and without putting your body on the line, and monday morning quarterback, since games are played on sundays, is the same thing as hindsight being 20/20.
 
Samson said:
The question posed in the title and that in the poll are different, and have different answers for me:
  • Would you want to be the President or Prime Minister of your country?
    • No. It is too much responsibility, the problems are too hard, and the rewards are too small unless you are willing to sell out to big money of some type, and I would not be willing to do so.
  • Would you be the President/PM of your country?
    • Yes. If that is what it took to get rid of BoJo and company then it would be a cost I would be willing to bare for the good of the country. I think I could shift priorities towards things that will keep people alive and productive in ways that the current administration are not willing / able to do.
Click to expand...

:stupid:
:joke:

Yes. There's zero, absolutely zero, question in my mind that I could do a better job than Trump, and if it's only four years, I could do a solid job generally. But I'd absolute do a full-on Dubya right afterward.
 
No. I'm not good with people, and the political structure in particular is one I would do poorly in. I would not be able to accomplish anything and would be beholden to people who can game the system better than I can, which would cover just about everyone around me. Even with Samson's reframing, flat no on both counts. No hesitation.
 
Crowns were pretty heavy. At least modern governance in this country is limited. I'd do it if my name topped the polls for some reason this fall, but I'm not sure I'd WANT to. It'd be tempting though. Get a bunch of advisers to at least be as informed as I can be, try not to wreck too much, and enjoy the checks after 4 years.

Maybe I could at least break lobbying ties and try to get rid of FPTP voting and such. Maybe, but even that would probably be hard. Don't really know what the president knows unless you sit in that seat.
 
Samson said:
The question posed in the title and that in the poll are different, and have different answers for me:
  • Would you want to be the President or Prime Minister of your country?
    • No. It is too much responsibility, the problems are too hard, and the rewards are too small unless you are willing to sell out to big money of some type, and I would not be willing to do so.
  • Would you be the President/PM of your country?
    • Yes. If that is what it took to get rid of BoJo and company then it would be a cost I would be willing to bare for the good of the country. I think I could shift priorities towards things that will keep people alive and productive in ways that the current administration are not willing / able to do.
Click to expand...
That was an oversight on my part. Unfortunately, I can't alter the poll title now that it's up.

Would you be willing to do it if, say, Gordon Brown was PM again? Americans: would you do it if Obama had two more terms?
 
Synsensa said:
No. I'm not good with people, and the political structure in particular is one I would do poorly in. I would not be able to accomplish anything and would be beholden to people who can game the system better than I can, which would cover just about everyone around me. Even with Samson's reframing, flat no on both counts. No hesitation.
Click to expand...
This is pretty much me, as well. I'd like to believe that, if called upon, I could and would step up to take on an important role, but I would be a poor leader and a worse politician. I don't even like ordinary "office politics." In high school & college, I was the guy who was oblivious to, and distanced from, the drama around me. I could be a policy guy, an advisor or something, but professional politics would put me in an asylum.
 
amadeus said:
That was an oversight on my part. Unfortunately, I can't alter the poll title now that it's up.

Would you be willing to do it if, say, Gordon Brown was PM again? Americans: would you do it if Obama had two more terms?
Click to expand...
I wonder how well you know me, that is probably the hardest one to answer of all PM's in my living memory. It would probably depend on his handling of current events.
 
amadeus said:
I just went back to the last Labour PM I could think of. How about Attlee? Harold Wilson?
Click to expand...
They are before my time, and I do not know very much about them. Clement Attlee created the NHS and the welfare state, I would expect him to be much better than I. History has not remembered Harold Wilson so well, so it would probably have to depend on his handling of current events.
 
No, I wannabe the richest man in my country, so I can be the emperor of Indonesia.
 
This depends. Do I have a loyal, ideologically-motivated party, ready to live and die for the rule of the country that we're considering, or is it just another party of hanger-ons who want cushy jobs in the government?
 
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