The United States media has done stellar work in not only trying to convince the US public that President Bush is a fool and to blame for all the country's problems but also trying to convince people outside the country of the same. I have met many people over here who are convinced of his foolishness because of the one sided information they have heard. This portrayal of our leader abroad promotes disrespect not only for the President but the government that he represents. It undermines the authority of our government and its ability to function already in the United States and will have the same result abroad if this portrayal is allowed to continue.

I remember as a senior in high school learning about our government and the three branches of government that are designed to balance one another. When I see the news or hear the arguments made against the President it is so clear that the structure of the government is neglectfully forgotten. United States society and world society has grown to love scapegoats. When people's lives are failing or their decision making is on par with a child's they look to blame their DNA, or their parents, or in this case the government when many people don't even exercise their right to vote and are completely unaware of what the government is doing. I would hate to be in the President's shoes right now because the attention span of the people is so short. One minute I hear people stupidly saying they want our government to go after anyone in a turban and supporting the war to the next when they hate the President and cannot understand why we ever went to war. When I was a teenager for a while I loved the WWF because of the drama of it. The hero one show is the arch enemy the next and it goes back and forth constantly. Our media presents the news in this fashion now and it seems the public eats it up like candy. Many people rely purely on what they hear in the media and that information is so jaded by a desire for ratings. We want our news to be like our movies and never mind if all the while especially young people and the rest of the world are adopting an attitude of disrespect towards our leaders and our government as a whole.

Any country that maintains the attitude that "All politicians are crooks" and allows the media to turn the executive leader into a jester is promoting poor leadership. It is the responsibility of the people in a democracy to bring about change in their government. Sitting at home watching television and bitching about the government does nothing. It is when the people in a democracy neglect their role that incredible problems emerge. Our next generation of "leaders" (frightening thought) have grown up, many of them, with the attitude that leadership needs not to be respected. Why would they think any differently when they turn on the news or open a newspaper? I know that I have probably said more than enough but it was so sad to me to know that such disrespect is filtering out to the rest of the world. I believe that at points in history other nations looked to ours as somewhat of a standard but I could hardly think this is the case now or will be in the future.