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?
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/
