PayingAttention

It always makes me shake my head in amazement when Americans refer to the President of the United States as "The Leader of the Free World".

He is not. He is the leader of approximately 350 million Americans and nothing else.

catawba

I would add that half of us here in the U.S. don't consider the current president to be our leader. I know I sure didn't vote for him.

fred

He's much more than that. He (or this time maybe she) has the power to decide who will live in peace and who's oil they want to steal.
They can decide who to kidnap with no evidence and the shape the world to come.
They can allow journalists to be removed from their work and dumped in Cuba for years with no charge or trial and with not so much as a sorry when they are released with the mental scares that kidnapping often leaves on a victim.

Power allows that but with it comes the responsibility to act sensibly. Sadly that has not always happened.

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francois60

He's the leader of the free world in the sense that almost no other free country is willing to lift a finger to do anything outside its borders unless the US takes the lead.

Think of the Balkans, in which you Europeans sat on your hands and watched a genocide happen, afraid to do anything until the US took the lead.

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chicken butt

Kazikli Bey

Actually, with the Balkans, it was Tony Blair who encouraged the US and garnered support for intervention but it wasn't until America joined that other people jumped in.

I would say that the President of America is 'leader' of the free world because of all the free countries, America has the most power and nukes.

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Spin

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Slartibartfas

That doesn't make him a leader of anything. It just says he has more power to take hostile actions towards others than any other political head of another country.

I could neither see much leading skills in the last years, nor could I identify what this all had to do with the "free world" whatever that means. First talking about defending human Rights and then explaining why it is just to break the binding treaty that bans torture.

Last but not least, shouldn't a leader show the way that others are accepting to follow?

TheHat

Well it doesnt matter if you voted for him or not, he is still the President and that makes him the leader of our nation.

I didnt vote for Clinton back in the 1990s but I still considered him my country's leader for Christ's sake. You guys really need to let go of your hate and recognize the position held, regardless if you think he is a boob or not.

mairead

Well, Americans may view him as such, but he sure ain't the leader of this part of the free world, even if our erstwhile PM, Mr B'liar crawled to him.

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PayingAttention

That's an interesting perspective (and one that I agree with).

So often when I critcize America and Americans for what the present administration has done I am sharply told to differentiate between the government and the people.

On the other hand I am frequently reminded that one of the hallmarks of American Democracy is that it is the government of the people for the people by the people. So how can I differentiate between the government and the people? It's either a democracy or it isn't.

I also see frequent references to America being the greatest democracy in the world. On what basis does one judge greatest?

The first?
The oldest continuous?
The most number of people?
The best functioning?
The least corrupt?

I'm not sure we've hit the definition yet. What do you think justifies the statement that America is the greatest democracy?