03-20-2017, 01:15 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-20-2017, 01:17 PM by Eric the Green.)
(03-14-2017, 03:02 PM)pbrower2a Wrote:(03-14-2017, 02:10 PM)Kinser79 Wrote:(03-14-2017, 12:18 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: I would argue that 1980 was a fluke election, and the handsome actor beat the "malaise" president just because he was charming. But the fluke has lasted 40 years.
A "fluke" that lasts that long is not a fluke.
Even I can agree with that. 1976 was the fluke because one of the weakest campaigners ran against an even weaker campaigner.
Demographic trends can work against President Trump. Bait-and-switch is bad policy. But we shall see in 2020, right?
...I have no idea of to what I can compare the 2016 election.
Jimmy Carter was not a weak campaigner. He ran a good campaign in 1976, and won. But by focusing on "the national malaise" while in office, and seemingly unable to control events, he was not as convincing as a speaker and communicator as the charming actor was. The fluke was in 1980, because an unqualified, charming actor-candidate (Reagan) was able to convince a gullible public to vote for image and style and a phony ideology over substance. Unfortunately, that fluke has yet to be corrected.
You could say that the "fluke" is an American public that has been dumbed-down and made gullible in the last 40 years (counting up to 2020 by including the biggest phony, unqualified TV-star-president of them all, who just continues the Reagan flukery).