Why I never say “my president”
Why I never say “My president”
By Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D.
I never say, “My Speaker of the House” or “My Supreme Court justice”, either. The Speaker is the Speaker, not of Lucas J. Mather. He’s the (it’s a SHE!) He’s the Speaker of the U.S. *House of Representatives*, not of me.
Let’s slow down a tad.
There’s the United States government. The United States has a House of Representatives, one branch of the federal Congress, which is called a “house.” Congress has a House of Representatives. And that House of Representatives is what has a Speaker. That’s why he’s called the “Speaker of the House” of Representatives.
Similarly, the Supreme Court is not the Supreme Court *of me*. It’s *of the United States of America.* It’s not mine. It’s the government’s. It’s the United States’ Supreme Court.
It’s very important to remember this basic distinction in American Politics and Public Law. There’s your stuff, and there’s the Government’s stuff.
The Government would love for you to forget that distinction. And at least one political party often forgets it, too.
The President is not of me, Lucas J. Mather. I don’t have a president. Trump isn’t the President *of Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D.* I’m just a human being, a person. An American citizen, sure.
Trump is the President *of the United States of America.*1 That’s what has a president, not me. The United States does. Sake mense ?
Go and do likewise.And how about that creepy tag.2 I didn’t even say anything. What’d I say ? The name of the president.
Footnotes:
1 The original publication was December 2020.
2 There was a tag on the post generated by Facebook indicating that there was something in the post that needed additional context. That tag has been removed by Facebook as of this republication, December 2021.
Professor Mather’s Facebook Classics (Fall 2020)
[First published to Professor Mather’s Facebook Tuesday December 8, 2020 at 9:27 pm]
Copyright Lucas J. Mather, 2020
All Rights Reserved
