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Here’s a letter that I sent on Wednesday to the Boston Globe:
I’m both deeply saddened and deeply disturbed by the letter in your pages today from Jane Powers [2] who, writing about Pres. Obama’s speech to schoolchildren, declared that “Before I even listened to the speech, I felt that the office of the president of the United States commands respect regardless of who occupies it.”
In a free society, not even the loftiest office should command respect “regardless of who occupies it.” And the notion that the U.S. presidency is lofty or respectable in any ethically significant sense is ludicrous. As Saul Bellow said about politicians [3], “they’re a bunch of yo-yos. The presidency is now a cross between a popularity contest and a high school debate, with an encyclopedia of cliches the first prize.”
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux