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They’re Not Life-Long Titles

BigDumbJerk
@BigDumbJerk
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Minor rant here, sorrynotsorry:

Can we please stop calling individuals by their former, temporary office title once they leave office? It's not Presidents Carter, Clinton, Bush, Obama and Trump...they are former Presidents. Their titles don't follow them out of office.

Same goes for every other elected and appointed post: It's neither Senator nor Secretary of State Hillary Clinton...she's neither right now.

The most recent Ricochet Podcast is advertised as having Governor Scott Walker as a guest....but, trust me, living in Wisconsin I know full well that he's no longer the Governor.

This is a new phenomenon, apparently; Jimmy Carter, I believe, once stated that he was looking forward to going from Mr. President to simply Mr. Carter. This honorific lasting beyond holding the office started with Reagan, I understand, which is too bad. It needs to stop.

Now.... don't get me started on sitting Presidents saluting members of the military....

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Discussion (64)

  • Ekosj@Ekosj

    Whatever the custom, it has rarely applies to Donald Trump… I usually hear him referred to as “Trump”… thinking back this was true even when he was President.

  • kedavis@kedavis

    I think it's mostly the media who wants to keep the titles attached to THEIR people. The people at CNN et al don't seem to refer to Trump as Mr President the way they do with Obama and even Carter.

    Meanwhile, something I've mentioned before, it seems to me that many people who "run for President" (maybe even just for one day) seem to do so because they want CNN et al to call them "Presidential Candidate" for the rest of their lives.

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