i don’t actually know this, this isn’t a rhetorical question, but, like, do other representative democracies expect that their heads of state maintain 14-16 hour a day, 7 day a week schedules, or is that just specific to our national obsession with looking busy?
I don't think it's entirely new. I remember hearing someone defend George W Bush taking a vacation by saying that a vacation for the President meant working an 8 hour day rather than a 14 hour day.
Of course not. Nor do the Austrians or the Swiss. 25 years ago I saw the Swiss President get on the public bus in Bern. The passengers greeted her with "Grüessech Frau Dreifuss" and then politely ignored her so she could quietly ride to Parliament. There were evening engagements, but not nightly.1/
European politicians are allowed to have lives, and like most Europeans don't have the insane American ethos that if you aren't emailing/texting your colleagues at 9pm weeknights as well as on weekends that you're somehow unproductive. END/
Churchill famously got by on fairly little sleep, but he also once gave a legendary bollicking to the aide who dared wake him up just because Hitler had invaded another country, since there was nothing he could do about it at 5AM anyway..
Also for all those representetive things like handing out medals and stuff we have a president who doesn't have much power . Not sure why the VP doesn't do more of the representive functions the US president still does.
Like i know americans make fun of the UK monarchy but it's useful to a post that handles all the stuff that doesn't require actual political decisions. Brits just really overpay for theirs.
