Why do Americans vote for presidents that support war and then protest against them? Paradox or not?
398057
because most americans are stupid and cant see past the end of there noses..
644684
Well, isn't asking questions like you ask a way of looking for debate? I happen to agree with your viewpoint, but when I see a question like "Why can't we all be good Americans & just support our great President Bush?", I get pretty hot under the collar myself. People like to argue, and hope to somehow "convince" you that you are wrong. Human nature. Keep asking questions, not just here, but everywhere.
565308
He meant 'I think this is what the public believes and therefore it is what I'll say I believe to help me get elected.'  Besides, if he changed his mind later, he could always try to appease both sides by saying 'Well, I supported the war before I opposed it.'  What a deal, huh?\n\nLeaders are people who can make a decision and then follow through with the action to make things happen rather than asking what others think and then telling them they agree.
569962
Becouse as a student you loose faith in the goverment/politics/law etc.  After the people that we vote to protect us are the ones who create the wars.\n\nPlus politicians do as they please.  No one listens to the people.
1138528
It's a respectable opinion, but realize that America already has a long history of being reluctant to go to war.  This is not something that we take lightly.  Your mindset seems like a better way to approach the issue, but many of our enemies will continue with their agenda regardless of what becomes of our actions.\n\n9/11 happened for this reason.  Being defensive and passive through the 90s did not work.  Taking the fight to anyone who sponsors or harbors terrorism is proving to be the best deterrent to future attacks.\n\n\nPresident Lincoln was ridiculed to the same extent as Bush in the media.  You can't even begin to imagine the number of casualties that mounted each day.  Though the war was unpopular at home and across the globe, Lincoln persevered. \n\nBush is no Lincoln and this is a different war, but the atmospheres the two presidents had to confront are hauntingly similar.  It shows that even though popular opinion might be dissenting against leadership during wartime, those that endure will succeed.
944716
That's a great question.  When Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act, I opposed it.  When he did nothing about Rwanda, I spoke out against it.  When he signed welfare reform, I objected.  Was that enough for me to vote him out?  Well it was his second term so I guess we'll never know.\n\nI'll tell you one thing - I will NEVER vote for a Democratic candidate who voted in favor of the Iraq war.
792794
I generally concur with your observation,I see it as the majority of the American public frustrated with and administration who tried to dictate a war and a plan that the populous disagreed with, and furthermore wanted to decrease our individual rights as citizens. \nI am and Independent and voted very heavily for Democrats this time around.
824479
Without any doubt was this a referendum on the Iraq War and George Bush. That has always been the case. If a president is in the second term, the mid term elections within the second term are nearly always a vote up or down on the president. \n\nAnd since Bush has made Iraq the cornerstone of his administration, the people who are discontented with the war (around 65%) voted against Bush the only way they could - against the Republican Senate and House members running for re-election.
1109044
I disagree with his war and I can't stand him. I am Democratic and proud of it! I vote straight Democrat in every election. This past May in my voting district, all the Republicans switch to a Democrat ticket. They were running out of Democrat Ballots and had to call for more. Americans are tired of seeing our military being killed for his stupid war!!
785705
I think it is a civic duty for every American citizen to vote. But you are very right that an ignorant vote may defeat your own purpose, because when you randomly vote for anyone on the ballot that somehow seems at the moment to possibly be the better choice, even though you know absolutely nothing about that persons history or views, you may actually help elect someone who does not have your best interest in mind. Even voting blindly straight down for one particular party, but you really don't know if some of them do not represent you political views, you may be making a mistake.\n\nHaving said that, I urge that all Americans start caring to research the candidates before any election and become INFORMED and there fore be an informed voter for a better America. I am Republican because I believe in Republican values in general, and I vote mostly Republican, but I will vote Democrat or Independent or Green, too, if I like that candidate better for his or her voting history or moral outlook over the Republican alternative. I voted for Bush and I stand by him now even when there is so much Bush bashing going on all around me, because I have done my homework and I see that he is an honest man who is doing his best and has the right ideas. I do also resent that there are so many stupid people who want to undermine our leadership in a terribly dangerous time of war which weakens our position and makes all the other countries laugh at us. And, I don't believe in blindly following a trend that hates one candidate or loves another just to be popular not really understanding all there is to it. So, before you vote, please study all of the issues in depth and know what your candidate really stands for, and don't listen to partisan propaganda to form your opinions.
784376
No, we shouldn't, and it pisses me off when people claim that those of us who oppose the war also oppose the troops. It simply isn't true, because we support the troops so much that we want them to come home.
1055870
You ask a very good question, and I believe ignorance is your answer. I believe that many people do not spend the time to actually research who they vote for, and then when the president (or any elected official) turn out to be bad, they complain about it even though they voted for him/her. The other reason is that people, more often than they should, vote along party lines. "If you're a Christian, you should vote Republican because of their views on abortion." That's the backwards logic some people believe. You have to vote the issues you agree with most, not the party lines. That happened in the last election, too.\n\nI don't know if this really answered your question, but it's a little of what I think is wrong with people and politics.
949775
Your question is out of date. It's really the president that people don't like and the fact that so many voted against him has already helped dissipate anti-Americanism among most people I know
1033929
Many of them are frustrated with being told they don't support the troops.\n\nThis war is a pointless war. And, its a war that can't be won. Someday, the US will leave Iraq, just like they left Vietnam. But, it will return to the chaos that was there when the British left (just like Vietnam returned to the chaos that was there when the French left.)\n\nThe world does not want to be like the US, and some people know that. They are tired, frustrated, and angry that some other pinhead can sacrifice their kin, spend their wealth, and blemish their good name by forcing US values on people who don't want it -- all under the guise of lies like "WMD's" and "Saddham's partnership with Bin Laden."\n\nThe US is the wealthiest country in the world. The financial influence lead to Cuba's revolt. Cuba didn't want to be the United State's prostitute - they had higher values than making a buck at any moral cost.\n\nSouth East Asia had their values - North Korea, Vietnam, China didn't want to be like the US - they had other values and morals.\n\nNow, the US is forcing its values on the Middle East.\n\nWhy can't the US learn? The anti-war people are just tired of closed-minded, arrogant, religious zealots using their good names in a pointless war against Arabs.\n\nThis is not a war against terrorism. Its a war to make rich americans richer, and poor americans soldiers.
366116
The United States of American fighting men and women are never brain washed. We are never sent to a school or anything telling us the party line, such as the German soldiers in WWII or the Japenese in WWII.\n\nWe are encouraged to vote by absentee ballot even when we are overseas, never telling us what party or person to vote for.\n\nWe are a military under civilian control as oppose to military under military control, which make a huge difference.\n\nIt does not really matter what the people say about the military back in the United States about why we are fighting what ever war or conflict the US military might be in we see the results by being with the people we are helping and see the hope in their eyes as we go about doing our jobs.\n\nPeople in America are a free people, do what they want, when they want, have enough food to feed their families, have running water, cars to get back and forth to work even if it is only 4 blocks from the house.\n\nThe people we are helping and fighting for have little or no freedom, have to walk more miles in one day than the average American walk in a month, no running water, little or no food for their families, because their government is not like ours, they can not vote, if they do there is only one name on the ballot. They don't have a welfare system or even a postal system that work to mail the simplist mail envelope.\n\nSo when you ask if the American fighting person is fighting for the correct cause also remember that we are not fighting on American soil, so your house is not burning, your kid has clothes to wear, parents to take care of them and are not orphans because they can not find their mothers and fathers.\n\nI know that this might be hard for you to understand, since it sounds as if you have never been in a war zone or been in a country where there are few freedoms. When you go from  Alabama to Georgia you do not need a permit nor do you need a permit to be out after midnight. I have been assigned to countries where there is a curfew from midnight till 6AM the next morning, because the government is afraid someone will blow something up.\n\nBefore we even leave the United States to an overseas assignment even in peace time we are given information about the country we are assigned, some of their customs. We are encouraged to take courses in their language, we are also,once we arrive engouraged to teach them english, go to the local schools, along with our wifes, if they are with us in our assinged area on Christmas to carry toys and food stuff to orphanages.\n\nYou don't normally see us before the TV camera like the demonstrators here in the Unites States because we are doing our job and not grand standing. Of course we see the demonstrators as we get same day news coverage where ever we are, but we just suck it up, go about doing our jobs so we can return home to our families.\n\nWe fight for freedom and democracy as dictated by the President of the United States who is elected by the majority of the electoral college. We can not go to war as the military. The President is the only person that can send US forces to a war zone.\n\nI hope this has been helpful to you, good luck
812766
I must have missed the war vote on my ballot. People voted for change because they were not very happy with Mr. Bush's and his congress's policies. The war was the main policy people were voting against, there were many others. His spending for one. Corruption was another, four republican congressmen resigned in less than a year. The shadow of Jack Abramoff was everywhere. Gasoline hitting three bucks. Illegal immigration into our country. His dismissal of the constitution. Torture, and on and on. There were many reasons, the war was the big one.
657968
I think you should answer your own question...Why can't the US learn from it's past WAR mistakes? In other words, WHY did we get into this war and how do we get out of it?\n\nBut you're truly amazing.....I guess you're not too sure of what it means to be an American citizen...And lest you think I'm just another liberal that is anti-military, think again. I served for 15 years '79 ~ '94 and fought in the first gulf war..a war that incidentally, was pretty well supported by American citizens..\n\nBut what you haven't learned is what we've fought to protect...not just our people and our lives, but OUR RIGHTS under the constitution and our freedoms. Hundreds of thousands have died to protect these rights, including the RIGHT to dissent.\n\nAs a former solider, I can also tell you that we knew that American citizens supported the troops, even if they didn't support the administration's direction. As because of this, they wanted to make sure they let the politicians KNOW they didn't agree in the hopes of changing bad policy decisions...they're HARDLY gutless as it takes a great deal of courage to stand up and make yourself heard, especially when you know that your opinion may be controversial....but as Americans, we HAVE THAT RIGHT! Not only that, but it our DUTY!\n\nBut for you to say that protests are demoralizing our troops, giving aid to the enemy or leading to the deaths of our servicemen is absurd...they know we have their back, and what we're protesting is the incompetent management of this war because of their flawed policies.