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Looking back, was Palin the real pre-Trump? (self.EnoughTrumpSpam)

MyCommentIsSarcasm が 投稿

I'm interested in the similarities and differences between those two infamous individuals. Obviously, one a VP picked by McCain, the other a presidential candidate picked by himself and his uncomfortably ardent believers. But what about the core of anti-government sentiment "put me in charge of the government and I promise to destroy it?" The anti-intellectualism passing for candor and "plain speaking"? Large segments of the US voting populace willing to ignore qualifications in favor of "guts" to support a candidate who "speaks for me"?

To me, the most glaring distinctions are the level of anger, and where it's directed. Palin campaigned on a disgust for Washington -- Trump's only excuse for a platform is hatred for the "other" people both within and without our national borders. And say what you want about Palin (God knows I did): she was at least pretty stable in her peurile viewpoints -- Trump is pathologically volatile.

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[–]Ozamataz_BuckshankSUMcDonald's - I'm cuckin' it 2ポイント3ポイント  (1子コメント)

But what about the core of anti-government sentiment "put me in charge of the government and I promise to destroy it?" The anti-intellectualism passing for candor and "plain speaking"? Large segments of the US voting populace willing to ignore qualifications in favor of "guts" to support a candidate who "speaks for me"?

If that's the case, Trump and Palin are just a continuation of the mindset that elected George W. Bush.

[–]MyCommentIsSarcasm[S] 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

That's the kind of answer I was looking for -- enlightenment as to the abyssal continuum we find ourselves staring at. Bush was the pre-Palin? Then who was the pre-Bush? I guess Bush....

[–]Wowbagger1 2ポイント3ポイント  (2子コメント)

Newt Gingrich 2012 though.

dude was saying ridiculous shit and drove Romney hard-right.

[–]MyCommentIsSarcasm[S] 0ポイント1ポイント  (1子コメント)

Did he push the fringe out further than it already resided, then? I honestly can't recall much other than sliminess connected with his name.

[–]Wowbagger1 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

Well he wanted to build a moonbase. He was the voice of the Tea Party type of people despite being very establishment.

He stuck it out in race that clearly was Romney's and won enough that Romney had to cater to the Tea Party. 04 Romney may have actually had a chance to beat Obama but the 2012 edition was programmed far-right.

[–]princessnymphiaMake Crimea Russia Again 1ポイント2ポイント  (1子コメント)

It goes way back. There are certain voters who are more concerned about being able to "have a beer" with someone than how experienced they are, and they resent people who can be considered experts on foreign policy and economics. We saw this with Brexit, too. Economists said, "don't vote to leave, this would be a disaster" and a UKIP politician essentially shot back with, "we're tired of experts telling us how to do things."

[–]MyCommentIsSarcasm[S] 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

Thanks for reminding me of the beer. It's the appalling dichotomy between "my president should be just like me!" and "the president should be the best person the country has for the job".

[–]ajswdf 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

Trump is Palin on steroids. Palin, if you remember, started out in politics by becoming the mayor of a small town (I believe it had 20k people, maybe less) then managed to become governor. She wasn't well known, but she was actually well liked as governor. Nobody knows for sure, but McCain likely picked her not just because she was a popular governor but because he was facing a tough challenge and needed to be aggressive.

Initially it worked out well, she did indeed give him a bit of a boost. But because he had not vetted her well enough her lack of knowledge started to show. After a couple embarrassing interviews the McCain campaign began to protect her and she spent a lot of time studying. She did poorly in the VP debate, but it could have been a lot worse.

In the end Palin probably hurt McCain, but he didn't stand much of a chance anyway. He was facing a very popular guy in Obama who had a large and innovative campaign while McCain had the weight of Bush around his neck (Bush was the most unpopular exiting president in over 50 years).

Trump is much different, and in a much different situation. The only real commonalities is that they are both horribly ignorant and both Republicans. The Republicans could hide Palin, but with Trump at the top of the ticket they are forced to either repudiate their own presidential nominee (which is extremely rare, I don't know if this has happened in US history) or back a guy who could destroy their careers.

But even more than that, Palin at least knew she didn't know enough and worked to fix it. For all her faults she wasn't a narcissist. Trump is 100% convinced that he's the smartest guy in the room and won't even try to correct his deficiencies. He'll blindly stumble around and then wonder why people are making fun of him.

As for voters, being a "typical politician" has always been a negative. This was a large part of the appeal of Obama in 2008. When you combine that with voters who don't know much about the issues themselves and are tired of "intellectuals" telling them they're wrong, a person like Palin or Trump that they can identify with is attractive.