Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues Politics In General Is it too soon to be talking 2020?

Thoughts on Cult Leaders. We know genuine charisma has elements of morality in it. Pseudo-charisma is the combination of personality traits that mimic true charisma and therefore can be very dangerous for a leader to possess (PSY, 533). Cult leaders have very typical traits: a grandiose idea of who they are and what they can achieve; demand blind unquestioned obedience; require excessive admiration; have a sense of entitlement; are exploitive of others and put others at risk frequently – financially, physically, and mentally; are arrogant and haughty in behavior and attitude; have exaggerated sense of power that frequently results in breaking laws; they take sexual advantage of cult members; they humiliate and devalue members to deliberately make them feel inferior, incapable and not worthy; they ignore the needs of others, including biological, physical, and emotional; and they treat people as though they are objects to be used, manipulated or exploited for personal gain (Navarro, 2012).

Your acting smug and condescending that I don’t agree with your assessment of the problem. Fine. Have at it.

Something about the presidential politics has just not been adding up for me. The recurring root question is, “Why does anybody fall for the obvious con that is the substance of Trump?” All those lies, the divisive, self-serving rhetoric, the complete absence of ethics and honesty.

Apparently, the answer is charisma, which functions independently of facts and rational thinking. That’s why FARTs (facts and rational thinking) are like the proverbial farts in the wind when it comes to analyzing the enigma that is Trump.

There are many forms of charisma, and varying levels. Obama has a good measure of the good kind, I think. Reagan had quite a bit, good mixed with bad (in my opinion). The Bush boys were near zero, but their opponents were were charismatic black holes of policy wonkery. B. Clinton had it, H. Clinton did not. It has been said here that the masses vote for who they like emotionally, but most of us here are of the wonkish and intellectual breed (elitists, according to the charismatics?) and while we can acknowledge the power of charisma, we don’t really believe it.

Summing up this election, I’d say that the only reason Biden is narrowly on top is that he has a bit of fatherly and nice charisma, doing battle against Trump’s dark and fearful kind. I’ll go out on a limb here (but not far enough to engage in argument) and speculate that Bernie may have done better against Trump because he has more charisma and wields it with some power.

I’ll post a couple of links when I get on my real computer.

I know of no one who reads the platforms of the parties or bases their vote on what the two party's platform says. I would say 90% of Americans don't know what a political party platform is outside of political junkies.

I'm still trying to get my head around the idea Trump is charismatic. He isn't in my definition of the word, but may be with others. He's a rude, obnoxious, third grade schoolyard bully. If that is how being charismatic is described, so be it.

Yeah, Biden was a total, old, bland white guy with no charisma. That was enough. It's just a matter of time before it's official. Bland vs. Obnoxious, Bland won.

I think it should be one takeaway. Do you think there is only one takeaway?

[quote=logtroll]Something about the presidential politics has just not been adding up for me. The recurring root question is, “Why does anybody fall for the obvious con that is the substance of Trump?” All those lies, the divisive, self-serving rhetoric, the complete absence of ethics and honesty.

Yeah, Id agree that most people are not as nerdy on politics and only start paying attention a few weeks out from election day.

Think it's safe to say Trump was different. People are not happy with the status quo and are hunting for something else. Both parties were very satisfied with the status quo and while one candidate in 2016 was able to overcome it's parties resistance to change the other parties change candidate was effectively blocked by them. Ditto of course 2020.

What will be interesting is how much of a lasting effect Trump will have on the Republican party? Will it realign with working class voters in a real and sincere way? Or will it revert back to a business party built on a coalition of culture grievance and austerity economics. Something the other party has in common as well,IMO.