The Job of President

Matthew Gates http://notetoservices.com 13m 3,233 #potus

The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.

The Job of President Requires a Psychopath and a Sociopath

This article is solely my opinion and does not reflect the opinions of Confessions of the Professions or authors on this site.

More attention than a mayor, a governor, or a celebrity, the job of the President captures the attention of the world. Spotlights shine on the President of the United States, and whatever the world’s problems may be, the entire nation and many parts of the world turn their eyes on the President, who is expected to know what to do in times of peace and in times of crisis. The President acts as a spokesperson and the Commander-in-Chief which comes with a lot of responsibility. The information is relayed to the President, who speaks with government officials and top advisers for what the United States should do and how it should act in certain situations. The job of the President is one the most stressful, scariest jobs in the world, but also one that is rewarding. Honestly, would you run for President of the United States?

The only other people who can remotely relate, are the ones who have to make the call: to pull the trigger; to pull the power cord and end a life; to perform a complicated surgery, to get an abortion; to commit suicide; to murder someone; to turn away; to let someone die without helping; to decide guilt or innocence; or to simply lack sympathy and compassion. This also includes the Secret Service, who risk their lives and face death everyday, protecting the President throughout his term and possibly even his life. These people affect a lot of lives, in a lot of ways, and their choices are not to be taken lightly. Whether they prevented a life from beginning, ended a life before it was supposed to end, or even thought about taking another life, these types of people are psychopaths and sociopaths, and that includes all of our Presidents.

The Job of the President

The job of the President requires the President to have composure, competence, and complacency in his movements, judgments, and actions. He must be cunning, yet fearless, but still put on the face of compassion and sympathy. It requires he be able to be reasonable, democratic, and logical in his decisions. He must be strong in all circumstances, and never be seen as weak, as that is not how we normally see a President. He must be human, yet not human. In trusting others, he should trust, yet not trust.

If the President were to read everything that passes his eyes, he would be the most exhausted-looking person in the world. Obviously, there must be trusted officials who are giving him the break-down and he agrees or disagrees with it. While the President has some word, of course, Congress has the other, like a married couple, who argue or agree. This alone, makes the job even more stressful. Imagine working with hundreds of co-workers who always disagreed with you, went against what you said, and were just barely willing to compromise with you. This may also work in the President’s favor, if they happen to agree, and they compromise immediately. That is how the relationship between the President and Congress is.

The job of the President rarely allows for a sick day and requires the President to be on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days of the year, expected to know what to do, expected to know how to act, and react in all situations, and understand many outcomes. It is the future of not just the United States in the hands of the President, but the future of the entire world that lies in the hands of the President of the United States of America, and that also means that the President is one of the most powerful and dangerous human beings in the world.

Dangerous Job of Secret Service

The most known man in the world, as President, also means that the life of the man is by far the most valuable thing, until he dies or is no longer President running the country. Therefore, even the President of the United States must have security for the remainder of his life and his family’s lives. The Secret Service was created for this very reason: to protect the President throughout his entire life. It created one of the most dangerous jobs in the world, as assassination attempts do happen, even if rarely, or many of them being foiled before they have a chance to lead to anything. Sometimes, however, the attempts are successful and extremely controversial.

No matter how good the Secret Service is, there is always a chance of the President being assassinated. If there is corruption within the government, there may also be issues that arise, and assassination attempts may be easier to pull off, as seen in the JFK assassination, which is still an ongoing controversy to this day, of which much of the evidence has been “blacked out”, “covered up”, or simply “lost”.

How many people in the country are in jail because they threatened the President, even if not seriously? Threatening the elected President of the United States is like a threat against the United States. Whether you voted for the President or not, he is still our President. As a country, living in this country, paying taxes in this country, we adhere to a certain social contract, or most of us do, that the United States represents “We The People”, and our President stands as the leader who represents this this country and the people of this country.

Assassinating the President

Nearly every President has had at least one assassination attempt on his life with several attempts being successful. The Presidents who have been assassinated were Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy. Presidents who have had assassination attempts on their lives are Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, William Howard Taft, Theodore Roosevelt, Hebert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.

The President, who did not live long enough as President to have an assassination attempt on his life, but died a month after being elected as the President, was William Henry Harrison, after contracting a cold, which turned into pneumonia and pleurisy, with his official cause of death at the time being, “pneumonia of the lower lobe of the right lung”, but in 2014, an updated medical analysis concluded that he died of enteric fever, which may have been brought on or escalated by a sewage dumping ground and human waste near the White House. He would be the only President so far who had the shortest term and the first President to have died in office.

Nearly every single President has faced the risk of death or has died while serving as President. When the President swears an oath to his country, he must know the risk he faces when he takes responsibility for being the leader of the United States. Unfortunately, despite his winning the Presidency, it does not mean everyone agrees that he should be President, and there are plenty of people who are willing to risk their own lives, whether they are caught and detained indefinitely, or killed, to prevent the President from running the country.

This makes being President one of the most dangerous jobs in the world.

The Aging and Appearance of the President

If you notice the appearance of President Obama and every President before him, from the time they get elected until the time they leave office, the toll of being President affects their life dramatically, or at least the way they look. What job does anyone have that makes them look like that after so many years? Prostitution is probably the only other occupation that might cause the body to break down or look older that fast.

As President, you age from all that you learn; and all the information that you must not tell the world; and all the information that you must keep from your family; and all the information that you must keep from yourself, you would look as if you had aged almost 20 or 30 years. Running a country is probably the most idiotic thing anyone could ever do. It is the most taxing and stressful job in the world, and that is not just our country, but every country on the planet, regardless of a free country or not. Trying to run a society of people who are happy and not happy all the time is hard work. In fact, it is impossible, as everyone has their own opinion about how a country should be run.

These are the photos of all our Presidents around the time they were sworn into office and about the time they left office.

George Washington – 21 years

James K Polk – 4 years

Abraham Lincoln – 4 years

Ulysses S. Grant – 14 years

Theodore Roosevelt – 8 years

Thomas Woodrow Wilson – 8 years

Calvin Coolidge – 6 years

Herbert Hoover – 4 years

Franklin D. Roosevelt – 12 years

Harry S. Truman – 8 years

Dwight D. Eisenhower – 8 years

Lyndon B. Johnson – 6 years

Richard Nixon – 6 years

Gerald Ford – 3 years

Jimmy Carter – 4 years

Ronald Reagan – 8 years

George H.W. Bush – 4 years

William J. Clinton – 8 years

George W. Bush – 8 years

Barack H. Obama – 7 years

What type of information ages a person so much? Whether he serves between a 4-year term or an 8-year term, he still ages faster than the average person. Some may argue that Presidents do not in fact look older than usual, but that it is simply the decade or so that has passed, and the man is simply older. Perhaps though, when the President knows there is corruption in Washington, or when he knows that funding must go to a certain place to save lives, but is helpless to change it or prevent people from dying. When a President calls for war on a country, a country filled with men, women, and children, similar to the citizens of United States, of people just trying to get to work and take care of their families, what type of person could possibly call for the destruction or harm of a civilization? When a President must make a call to drop a nuclear weapon, what must be going through his mind?

Only a psychopath could murder so many people and feel nothing. If he does feel something, than this is what must age him greatly, because everyday he has to make decisions that protect his country from other countries. However, when it comes to his job as President, he must be willing to make those calls. In Truman’s defense, Pearl Harbor was attacked, and the President’s job was to protect the country, even if it meant driving the Japanese country to be endangered.

The whole system manages to work with our choosing a President for the United States every 4 to 8 years, which is a huge decision for any country, as it affects the future of that country and the world. The President can make or break a country depending on what his real intentions are, whether he chooses to enact his own laws or the laws of others. Somehow, our founding fathers created the government for this to happen and for many generations, it seems to have worked well this way. As the United States progressed and more land was acquired to what it is today, it is a wonder how the United States became the United States, with people able to live somewhat peacefully together, for the most part.

The Many Personalities of the President

Disassociation, Detachment, Desensitization

The job of the President is extremely demanding and while the benefits may seem great; and you do get your own section written in a history book; and you are forever remembered as the President, more recognizable than any celebrity, the fact that the President has to lie to an entire nation during his speeches, whether he is lying or telling the truth, he must keep a straight face and de-attach and de-sensitize himself from all emotion, compassion, sympathy, and empathy. He must become a psychopath; by definition, someone who displays antisocial behavior, diminished empathy and remorse, and dis-inhibited and bold behavior.

On the other hand, he must also display the complete opposite, which almost requires bipolar, schizophrenia, or multiple personality disorder. He is also, by definition, a sociopath, in which his behavior can be harmful to society, in his decision-making. A sociopath is charismatic, manipulative, and charming at the same time, as well as a pathological liar, and even sometimes, though plans from the President may seem like a good idea for the entire society, they are unrealistic and may even do more harm to the society than good, yet these laws may get passed, regardless of their approval by the majority or not.

The President has to be one of the smartest people on the planet, and he must be more than human and non-human at the same time because of the choices he must make for millions of people and his decisions not only affect the United States, but they can have a major impact on the world; so his decisions can extend to affect the lives of billions of people. The President must be able to show compassion and empathy while knowing how to lack compassion for the millions of people who he cannot help. Whoever applies for this job willingly knows this and yet, the goal of President is in their mind, and this just confirms the psychopathic and sociopathic tendencies which are highly seen in people running for President.

Running for President

People who run for President are usually the ones who have arrogant, ignorant, and egoistic behaviors. Seen in their campaigns, even with careful consideration and overlooking past recorded history, very rarely will you find a Congressman or Congresswoman without some type of “dirt”. There is always something to dig up, but it is a considerable amount of what that particular dirt is that can make or break a potential candidate for Presidency. On top of that, it is also current behavior within the public realm that can define whether a candidate is fit or not.

Unfortunately, there have been some candidates who have made statements, maybe not realizing their mistake, and it has cost them everything. A potential candidate must be extremely cautious about what he or she says because all eyes and ears from the media are on them. The views of a candidate are also weighed in heavily on whether a person is a good fit for a candidate or not. These views are among many, because the candidate must state their views on foreign policies, terrorism, the economy, the workforce, the programs of the United States, and everything they have done up to this point in their lives and what they are going to do, on top of having many investigations into their backgrounds from candidates hiring investigative companies to try and pull up as much dirt on their competition as possible.

With this comes the campaign ads, many of which target every candidate, so that the best candidate can try to gain the edge to win votes, whether these ads are true or not. The ads are mostly filled with lies, half-truths, or ideas, and they will say or do just about anything to win the edge of becoming the President of the United States. They will lie to anyone and everyone in order to win the vote. Whether they have good intentions or not, the majority of them make promises they cannot keep. In most cases, if it sounds too good to be true, it is most likely not true, no matter what they tell you or how influential they think they are.

The people running for President know there will be no privacy for them or their family, and a guaranteed spotlight will remain on them until the candidacy is over, and there is a new President. Everything a candidate does now makes them a target for their opponents and the media. Everything they say and do can and will be held against them in the act of winning votes. The stress already begins in the candidacy and yet, politicians run for President as if they need to develop a certain ignorance of what they are going through.

It must be the same for the candidates who got into politics, as mayors, governors, senators, and Congressman, who are used to the spotlight, and understand the situation. It still does not excuse them from psychopathic and sociopathic tendencies, as they too, must have a certain disassociation with society and humanity. No ordinary person could really ever do what they do because it does require that they have split personalities of caring and not caring, doing and not doing, or simply figuring out how to manipulate people in order to obtain their goals in politics.

Knowing all that they know, candidates still run for President, knowing full well there is going to be assassination attempts on their lives, knowing that they are going to receive information they cannot share with the world, knowing there is going to be information they cannot share with their families, and all the lives that, in one way or another, actually depend on the decisions of the President. This is a lot of job responsibility.

I remember when I was a child in school and it was said that:

1. A child in this classroom could be President one day.
2. A child in this classroom could be going to Mars.

Both those jobs require a lot of stressful situations and both carry a risk of dying, but the less stressful of the two is probably choosing to be the astronaut. You may live a lot longer as the President of the United States if everything goes right, but it is the same outcome for the astronaut. Either way, once an astronaut goes to Mars, which he may or may not return, but if he does return, his life can go semi-back to normal. Sure, he would be known as the first human being to touch foot upon Mars, and he would gain celebrity status, but his stresses do not run parallel to being President of the United States.

With all that knowledge before even becoming President, the candidates are insanely willing to go forth to accept becoming and being the President of the United States. For that, I give my respect to them for believing they could be President, as it was never a thought that even crossed my own mind. I have been the President of a club at a college I attended and that was a lot of work. I cannot even imagine what it is like to be the President of the United States. I could not possibly list everything the President of the United States does, nor do I even think the President could explain everything he does or has done, but now that you have an idea of what the job of the President is, would you ever want the job responsibility of being the President of the United States?

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