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Re:George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on... by noobermin on Wednesday January 25, 2017 @01:08AM (#13479066)
Going to take off the objective hat and talk as a liberal. The answer I give to this is for the US, the President is both the head of state and the head of government. As is clear from recent articles about Trump's manner in the white house, his team is very much making many of the small policy decisions while Trump gets to strut out as the figurehead.

So yes, Trump stepping down wouldn't mean much difference when it comes to his role as a head of government since his team seems to be handling that, but the head of state is still a very important role. Don't forget, he said,

"I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait. And when you're a star they let you do it. You can do anything ... Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything[,]"

essentially describing sexual assault, emphasized by me. Not to mention his poor demeanor, his lack of likeability, his unpopularity, the fact he was a reality-TV star. Having such an individual represent the nation is an embarrassment and does not inspire confidence in the nation nor does it abroad. Understand, no international body would respect Trump if he weren't the President. He does not prop us up as a country, he receives respect because we prop him up, and even then, he still depreciates his image by trying to project and strengthen his fragile pride and by involving himself in frivolous engagements on Twitter.

So yes, having a different head of state would be beneficial for us, at least in our view. It would not make much of a difference in terms of actual policy, but it would give us with a better representative, which isn't a difficult bar to exceed.

EDIT: I almost forgot, despite the politics of it, I do personally feel that a conflict of interest as a President is detrimental to the role as the head of government. We have already seen for example his orders on DAPL, which he still owns some shares of, a direct conflict of interest. And worse, of course, there are his foreign investments, which is worse from a national security standpoint. Sorry, but a head of government should represent us, not their own personal financial interests. You don't even need all my feeling about Trump as a figurehead, although that is important, but his conflicts of interests are a significant issue with him as an elected official.

Re:George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on... by jupiter90000 on Wednesday January 25, 2017 @01:21AM (#13479154)
I hear what you're saying. For me, actively working to make someone president (Pence) who has a proven track record in politics doing things for many years I disagree with seems even less desirable to me. Hard to say what the 'lesser of two evils' is here.
Re:George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on... by PretzelFisch on Wednesday January 25, 2017 @01:38AM (#13479239)
Perception of the country and international policy and diplomacy.
Re:George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on... by dsfyu404ed on Wednesday January 25, 2017 @01:25AM (#13479175)
his team is very much making many of the small policy decisions while Trump gets to strut out as the figurehead.

Which is pretty much exactly how you would expect a "I have no idea what I'm doing but I don't want to fuck it up so I'll fill my cabinet with people who know what they're doing and let them do their thing" administration to work.

>Not to mention his poor demeanor, his lack of likeability, his unpopularity, the fact he was a reality-TV star. Having such an individual represent the nation is an embarrassment and does not inspire confidence in the nation nor does it abroad.

Are these seriously that much more important than how well the job gets done. On some level I don't care if the president is a member of the goddamn KKK if the job gets done well enough.

Re:George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on... by enraged_camel on Wednesday January 25, 2017 @02:45AM (#13479541)
>>Which is pretty much exactly how you would expect a "I have no idea what I'm doing but I don't want to fuck it up so I'll fill my cabinet with people who know what they're doing and let them do their thing" administration to work.

Sorry, but have to actually seen his cabinet? Ben Carson heading Housing and Urban Development. Betsy Davis heading Department of Education. Rick Perry, a guy with a bachelors degree in animal science, heading the Department of Energy... these people are some of the least qualified people on the planet.

Re:George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on... by rat87 on Wednesday January 25, 2017 @02:52AM (#13479573)
> Are these seriously that much more important than how well the job gets done. On some level I don't care if the president is a member of the goddamn KKK if the job gets done well enough.

You should

The fact that he is openly racist is one of the biggest marks against him

Re:George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on... by NeutronBoy on Wednesday January 25, 2017 @04:19AM (#13479960)
> Are these seriously that much more important than how well the job gets done. On some level I don't care if the president is a member of the goddamn KKK if the job gets done well enough.

That's very true, if they're the sort of person you trust to put their personal feelings and opinions aside when they make decisions. If you don't feel they're that sort of person, you better hope their values align to your own.

Re:George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on... by the_cat_kittles on Wednesday January 25, 2017 @01:40AM (#13479250)
i think some of those things are part of the job, right? is your country getting rich really worth it if it means you cross every moral boundary and inflict continual psychological trauma on half the people in it?