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Quote Snace Doktor: So you're saying that in countries with a parliamentary form of government, you vote for a party and not for a person? And because of this there's less of the cult of personality on one side (those who worship Obama, or Reagan, etc) and less of the hatred on the other side?
So it's more a function of the American system of government than it is American culture?
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Yes, having lived on both sides of the Atlantic, in several states and multiple European countries I'd say that the European parties are larger than any one party leader. It becomes less person specific, and thus not opening up so much for personal attacks. There are of course exceptions, I'm just trying to speak broadly. Margret Thatcher in England one example which springs to mind, she formed a cult which probably could be equalled to the one around President Ronald Reagan. But the general European party leader never get that status. You're hot as long as you're the party leader, but when out you cool off pretty quickly. It's so different in the US, look at the reception President Clinton received when entering the podium at Obama's inauguration. Clinton still, eight years after leaving office is considered a super star and the applause where just as heavy for him as for President Elect Obama when he entered minutes later. Few Europeans would remember their Prime minister from eight years ago. Most could probably figure out a name by counting backwards, but there would be no crowd waiting, no fancy speech tours like old ex-Presidents usually go on, and no immidiate rememberance of you. No invitations to TV shows, VIP events or similar.
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