03-17-2022, 07:05 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-17-2022, 07:08 PM by Eric the Green.)
(03-14-2022, 09:01 AM)JasonBlack Wrote:(03-14-2022, 08:42 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: Donald Trump is also vulgar. Think of two of the most odious models of the Common Man on TV of the last fifty years: Archie Bunker for his politics, superstition, at least and bigotry (All in the Family) and Al Bundy (Married With Children), meld their worst traits, and add a huge amount of money, and you get Donald Trump. Archie Bunker at least is loyal to his wife even if he is a male-chauvinist pig; Al Bundy may be apolitical, but he is a horrible role model for his son, taking the boy to strip clubs. Both are models of both male chauvinism, if in very different ways.
Many people find in Donald Trump the rarity if a pol who not only tolerates their vulgarity, but also actively endorses it. Of course, many also despise the vulgarity that Trump is.
As an entertainer and businessmen, I find his vulgarity amusing and funny. As a politician, I find it concerning. I am not a Catholic school nun when it comes to foul language, but we need too much vulgarity gets in the way of projecting an image which is authoritative and gets people to want to follow you. I will say this though...it is infinitely better to be too blunt and vulgar than to exhibit the fake, stale, flaccid presentation style which dominate both sides of politics since the 90s. You'll notice that, after 4 years of Trump, the nation has grown tired of the fake, obsequious communication style that Biden returned to when taking office.
Side note: one reason I think we haven't had many Xer presidents (just one cusper in Obama) is that their generation-of-rebels, school-of-hard-knocks personal style doesn't lend itself well to top bureaucratic positions (Trump is not Gen X, but his bad boy image tends to sit well with them). Gen X are more comfortable projecting the authority of an entrepreneur, a field commander or tough love sports coach, not a head of state. In terms of conservatives as a whole, I think we need to be steering in a direction that restores a sense calm, steady-hand authority coming from a place of strength. Something FDR was amazing at in spite of being downright evil on a policy level.
Beyond the obvious evils of putting Japanese in camps and planning to attack them* with the first nuclear bombs, how were FDR's policies "downright evil", except from a neoliberal point of view which itself is downright evil?
*of course the original reason for developing the atom bomb was because Hitler was known to be developing one. Imagine nuclear blackmail of humanity by Hitler.