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.

You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model that makes the old model obsolete.
R. Buckminster Fuller