Trump and The Cult of Personality
- Thread starter Ms_Ann
- Start date
Conager
¿Que? Cornelius!
- Joined
- Dec 2, 2014
- Posts
- 18,282
Bill had it. Reagan had it. Kennedy had it. Hitler had it....
Hillary never had it. Not sure she even knows what it is.
Social media. Trump swims in it. If Jesus had Twitter he'd be alive today.
I don't do Twitter so it's possible that I just don't get his Twitter Brilliance but I've read his tweets and they don't seem to be particularly flattering to him or persuasive towards selling his ideas.
He does a pretty good job of trolling people though. I do see sparks of genius there sometimes.
His trolling about how there oughta be a law about flag burning was epic. The left completely lapped that up and castigated him...having forgotten that Hillary co-sponsored just such a bill.
phrodeau
Literotica Guru
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2002
- Posts
- 78,588
His flag-burning tweet wasn't trolling. It was idiotic.
Trump is shallow and proud of it. Have a look:
http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/01/politics/how-donald-trump-sees-himself/
Trump is shallow and proud of it. Have a look:
http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/01/politics/how-donald-trump-sees-himself/
Ms_Ann
Circus McGurkus
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2016
- Posts
- 7,045
I remember when Iacocca's name was floating around...or Forbes...or Perot thinking gee maybe we could give a business guy a chance. Forbes was a wet blankey and Perot was a maniac. Well, let the experiment begin.
renard_ruse
Break up Amazon
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2007
- Posts
- 16,094
Conager
¿Que? Cornelius!
- Joined
- Dec 2, 2014
- Posts
- 18,282
He is kind of the anti-obama. He's got nothing but executive experience decades of it. He's failed at more enterprises then most people have even idly mused about starting. Hopefully his final one will be a success.
Most new businesses fail within the first year. We gave Obama 8 years of on-the-job training on the first entity he's ever run. Hell of a lemonade stand for a neophyte.
renard_ruse
Break up Amazon
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2007
- Posts
- 16,094
Trump hasn't failed at anything. Temporary setbacks aren't failures for the ubermensch they are learning experiences and springboards to greater achievements.
Ms_Ann
Circus McGurkus
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2016
- Posts
- 7,045
GiaCat
Gia Cat
- Joined
- Oct 12, 2007
- Posts
- 3,890
Bill had it. Reagan had it. Kennedy had it. Hitler had it....
Hillary never had it. Not sure she even knows what it is.
Social media. Trump swims in it. If Jesus had Twitter he'd be alive today.
I think you are confusing cult of personality with the more general definition of charisma. A cult involves a critical mass of mindless followers who are ultimately kept in line by social pressures or crisis-fed rules, as opposed to people simply being inspired by someone who has a vision they share.
The jury is still out on the orange man, but circumstantial evidence does not look good.
Ms_Ann
Circus McGurkus
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2016
- Posts
- 7,045
Wrong Element
Sentient Onion
- Joined
- May 5, 2002
- Posts
- 24,909
Bill had it. Reagan had it. Kennedy had it. Hitler had it....
Hillary never had it. Not sure she even knows what it is.
Social media. Trump swims in it. If Jesus had Twitter he'd be alive today.
I don't think Clinton, Reagan, and Kennedy ever had personality cults in the strict sense of the word. For starters, both Clinton and Reagan had periods where their popularity suffered. Cults of personality are built to prevent such a thing from happening.
Reagan probably came closest because he understood persuasive techniques, he obviously had a popularity that transcended his beliefs, and he's still cited today by a generation too young to have been personally influenced by him. But I don't think he ever promoted a messianic sense of his own importance, or claimed he was indispensable for fixing what was wrong with the United States, unlike a certain successor of his.
Business experience ain't any kind of qualifications for public office. Running the USG is nothing like running a real estate business, nothing like running a hospitality business, nothing like running a television show, nothing like running an election campaign, nothing like anything Trump has ever done before in his life.
Please tell us you are using that word ironically. Please.
screwulibz
Loves Spam
- Joined
- Nov 21, 2016
- Posts
- 910
When NIGGER was AXED in 08 what qualifications NIGGER had to be Pres
NIGGER answered teh question AXED that
RUNNING for OFFICE and managing that and winning is QUALIFICATION
NIGGER RULES say Dee STRONG HORSE Trump is UBER QUALIFIED
Conager
¿Que? Cornelius!
- Joined
- Dec 2, 2014
- Posts
- 18,282
What experience did Obama have tat is "like running tbe USG?"
Illinois State Senate, U.S. Senate -- legislative experience, not executive, but still far more relevant than business experience.
pensivepoet
Love dangerously
- Joined
- May 21, 2014
- Posts
- 7,667
If Twitter had been around, Charlie Manson might've become President
Nothing would surprise me anymore
Nothing would surprise me anymore
Conager
¿Que? Cornelius!
- Joined
- Dec 2, 2014
- Posts
- 18,282
Being a business executive does not prepare you for being a government executive? Why not? What's different about the executive decision making process in government as opposed to the executive decision making process in business?
So why did Obama use a pen and a phone instead of working with the legislature? How did voting present prepare him for making executive decisions?
Having come with the legislature, why did Obama not use that experience to help in the process of crafting the Affordable Care Act? Why did he leave that entirely and Pelosi and Reid hands?
Last edited:
The purposes. Governments and businesses have entirely different purposes and entirely different metrics of success.
You sound like someone who has no business experience.
Queertag45
Loves Spam
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2016
- Posts
- 756
Any links to any of these sparks of genius, queerbag?
What is the purpose of government and how is their success measured?
Queertag45
Loves Spam
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2016
- Posts
- 756
In America it's successful if it pisses off the opposition.
The purpose of any commercial business is to make a profit. That is simple -- not always easy to achieve, but always a simple goal. Effects on society are not a business executive's concern. E.g., no business executive has a responsibility to "create jobs" -- to the contrary, his responsibility, to his shareholders, is to keep a number of people on the payroll that is the very minimum necessary to get all the work done, and to pay them as little as he can get away with.
The purpose of government is to promote the general welfare and safety of the people. That is complicated. Success is measured by a multitude of metrics, some of them intangible and immeasurable, the relative importance of which is endlessly debatable -- the crime rate, the incarceration rate, the unemployment rate, the poverty rate, the literacy rate, the infant mortality rate, the distribution of wealth/income in society, innumerable health statistics, the health and cleanliness of the natural environment, the Gross Domestic Product, the balance of trade, the inflation rate, the general level of peace and civility in society, civil rights and civil liberties and personal freedom and privacy, etc., etc., etc. None of which a business exec need bother about except insofar as it directly affects his company's profits.
Similar threads
