Why do Americans like presidents so much?

The presidency of the United States is taken seriously in a way no other world leader is. Why is that?

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HASHTAGS: #presidents #history #USA

[adanactnomew]

There is definitely an issue with people thinking the President has this Supreme power, which sets high expectations despite the President only being as powerful as his control of congress. People also think the President has complete control over the economy despite this not being the case.

[petergryphonO]

I remember being confused why MLK was so important because he wasn't a president, I would often ask if he was one. I think this shows how centralized figures in history are around presidents.

[PikeProductions]

I think it is in part that America doesn't have a mythological origin story. Since we don't have a King Arthur, Romelus, or Tenochtitlán, we rely more on our presidents as a source of national origin.

[anthonyroach]

FDR is really when the president culture really started. Before that the president was viewed primarily as an executive, but FDR’s use of the radio made him more personable with the public.

[Vlasov]

I remember that the first Japanese embassy to America in the 19th century were amazed and shocked that people didn't have any idea of what the descendants of George Washington were up to.

[Clepston]

I think there’s no understating how important Washington was to the presidency’s status. Your point about the early “Founding Father” presidents hits at this somewhat, but George Washington was absolutely legendary both historically and in his own time, and the office was tailor-made for him. He was (and is) so well-loved that the office is made sacred just by its association with him.

[shantellsquire]

As an American I have never really thought about our president culture. I love watching your videos because they always inspire deeper thought and new questions. Keep up the good work!

[carsonswitalski]

Can I just say how much I love JJ’s little stylized caricatures that he adds to his videos like this?

[mrttripz]

I think the idea of the president of the USA really speaks to the American dream in a weird way.

[guthriebarrett]

I think another reason would have to do with how we think of any "celebrity". We sort of idolize them as if they were just characters on a political TV show. You can see this if you ever spend much time on social media where there's large corners of it dedicated to specific musicians or actors. An extreme example I can think of is with Hamilton where people would actually make fanart and fanfiction about the characters in the play, who were of course real people.

[michaldrabek]

I think another important factor is that in the US, the president is "the most important guy" both de facto and de iure. In my country, for example, the official head of state is the president, but the most influencial office is actually the one of the prime minister. So if you wanted to have a US-style "president cult" here, you'd stumbled upon a dilema which one of them to pick. Whereas in the US, this dilema is not present.

[TheGhostOf]

I feel like I’ve learned so much from your content as an American on my own country’s culture in a far more fair and balanced way through the years. Not willing to pull punches when something is absolutely broken, but doesn’t chop it up to “America bad” but rather “and this is how we got here.

[almightycinder]

Another thing to consider: the US only has two prominent political parties. There are some others, but they never actually get much traction. Because of this, the president is generally going to be supported by half the country, either conservatives or liberals. If we had six or seven big parties, we could have a president that's supported by only like 15% of the country.

[robotchicken]

I just think the US presidents themselves are a really interesting, colorful bunch. Also because elections are every 4 years, it's an easy way to mark the passage of time, and it makes it easier to learn history, in my opinion.

[gkky-xxmc]

Another factor is also how big of a deal elections are in American society. They're consistently every four years and are therefore a good way to mark the passage of time, unlike in parliamentary systems when snap elections can be called any time. They're also a lot more publicized and drag on for a lot longer than most other democracies. In countries like Canada and the UK, campaigning is restricted to a few weeks before the election--in the US, party nominees start bombarding you with ads a full two years before the national election. It's hard not to care about the President when you're constantly reading about them and seeing the on the news for over a year, every four years.

[charlieputzel]

I honestly feel like a big part of it is because they're elected at regular intervals, the presidents, particularly charismatic ones like Jackson, Teddy Roosevelt, or Kennedy, tend to be a good representation of the social and political movements of the day, with stark contrasts between two presidents who serve back to back (like John Quincy Adams and Jackson, or more recently Obama and Trump) signalling a dramatic shift in cultural norms and/or political movements.

[bananacat]

I guess i never wondered this but it is a weird feature of American patriotism

[p]

Didn't the founders explicitly NOT want the president to be a "big deal"? They didn't want a king, so they purposefully gave their chief executive a bland name - one who merely "presides" - the name they gave to facilitators of large meetings (e.g., "president of the senate"). Definitely no "royal highness" or "his majesty".

[bellcorrz]

I think part of the idolization stems from the idea that ~anyone, even you~ can be president in america (if youre american at least 😅) so the position of president is seen as aspirational from a very young age. on top of that because no president has inherited their title we also see them as being 'self made' which fits perfectly with the american dream narrative that anyone can become anything with enough hard work.

[LucasBenderChannel]

I'm definetly making a series of videos about each of the German chancellors next year, where I might explore this topic. It's curious. Us Germans apparently really want our leaders to be as un-charismatic as possible.

An Obama-like figure could not work here, at least for now. It's seen as dubious, if a politician is too entertaining. Neither the public, nor the media really want to hear about a chancellor's spouse or private life.


Whereas the US president has to be able to give a rousing speech, that can unite the country in the face of an invading alien army 😉 the German one needs to be a human pocket calculator, that happens outside of pop culture. Again, anything else is seen as dubious. Weird.