Hail To The Chief

I live in Buffalo, NY.

To be fair, it's not the most happening place in the US, but it's not a terrible place either. It's not the hustle and bustle of New York City, nor does it have the all-encompassing cultural roots that a place like Chicago has, and it isn't the cosmopolitan epicentre that Los Angeles is. However, it has plenty of its own smaller, less obvious quirks, and it's always a delight to find them. I'll probably explore those later on, when we have sunlight and summer to highlight some of the fantastic architecture I've seen just on our drives around town.

What I'm actually going to talk about is the President. Love him or hate him, President Barack Obama is actually visiting Buffalo today. One of the local blogs I follow reported some local steel workers have created a rather snazzy-looking presidential seal out of steel for the President to take back to the White House as a souvenir of the town, which used to be quite famous for its role in the 'Steel Belt' (now know more as the 'Rust Belt', as it was heavily linked to the US automotive business - look how that worked out for Detroit).

I suppose it's a bit of a difference between Canada and the United States, but I never cease to be amazed at how Americans treat their politicians. Some are rock stars - Obama certainly comes to mind. Others are treated as social lepers - Blagojevich, I'm looking at you. In Canada, I don't think we've had a politician since Trudeau that has really taken hold of the Canadian psyche and given it a twist enough that women scream so shrilly that dolphins in the south Pacific are chittering for them to shut up. When the Prime Minister comes to town, people are more likely to just outright ignore him than wave signs and cheer and throw panties, or what have you.

Americans seem to have fetishized their politicians - which is such a strange sentence to write - to the point where they get annoyed if you don't know who they are, or can't rattle off their achievements in office. Like other celebrities, they have the ability to start trends just by saying 'I like this', or wearing their hair in a certain style. How many times did CNN comment about Michelle Obama's outfits being from J Crew instead of Chanel? Constantly! And how much did J Crew's profits spike? Exactly.

It's the same with movie stars: most people know who Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie are, even if all they've given us is entertainment in both movie and tabloid form. And like most famous people, everyone knows who the President is - but how many of you could name five other heads of state? Would you even care to?

Perhaps Obama is the greatest hope for the country to regain its former world-stage glory, or perhaps he's the dying gasp of a nation buckling under exorbitant debt and mismanagement. Either way, he's a guy doing a job he was elected by a majority of the country to do. That's all. Just a guy.

People forget that, I think, and get very upset when their would-be gods and saviours fail, as men (and women, I'm not sexist) often do. They get mad when their politicians have extramarital affairs, or are homosexual, or don't go to church every Sunday here. Canadians get mad when politicians waste tax money on bribes, or blow a budget, or cut spending on health care. Americans won't bat an eye towards that, but don't even think about suggesting Senator Joe Blow from Ohio is fooling around with a hooker - that'll be top story on CNN for days! ... oh and yeah there's all kinds of other bad stuff happening in the world, but SENATOR JOE BLOW CAN'T KEEP HIS PANTS ZIPPED UP MORE AFTER THE BREAK WITH WOLF BLITZER.

In summation, I think it's easiest to sum up the two different viewpoints on politics and all things associated with it in the countries just by looking at the major tenets of the respective country-forming bills (The Declaration of Independence, and the Canadian Constitution):

America has 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness'.
Canada has 'peace, order and good government'.

Makes you wonder a bit, doesn't it?