The U.S. election and British house prices

Conrad

I've taken some extracts from this piece, highlighting how 'clowns' can be underestimated.






http://www.vice.com/read/what-ronald-reagan-teaches-us-about-donald-trump-925


What Ronald Reagan Teaches Us About Donald Trump.


In 1940, the world's greatest movie clown, Charlie Chaplin, starred in The Great Dictator, a film about a funny little man with a toothbrush mustache named Adenoid Hynkel.
It's hilarious. Everyone loved the movie, including then-president Franklin D. Roosevelt, who, after learning years earlier that the studio was trying to scrap the project, sent a representative to Chaplin to encourage him to persist.


The president's judgment was poor, however. As the writer Ron Rosenbaum has pointed out, Chaplin "did nothing but help Hitler because he made him seem like an unthreatening clown just at a time, 1940, when the world needed to take Hitler's threat seriously." Chaplin agreed


Obviously, Donald Trump is not Adolph Hitler—his insanity is not of the homicidal sort. But this essay is not about Donald Trump. It is about us, and our longing to dismiss politicians who scare us as unthreatening clowns—or to pretend the threat does not exist at all.


Like Trump, Reagan, the 800-pound gorilla of Republican politics, was once dismissed as a joke as well. This was, after all, the guy who starred in a movie with a chimpanzee. And we all know how that story ends


Reagan's 1966 Republican primary opponent was judged a political superstar by the New York Times, easily "matching oratorical skill" with the former actor. When Reagan visited Redwoods National Park, and reporters quoted his immortal words, "a tree is a tree, how many more do you need to look at?", the San Francisco Chronicle reported his campaign would soon "bottom out."


But the jokes only continued. When Reagan entered the 1968 presidential race, the TV comedy revue Laugh-In made "Ronald Reagan is running for president," an unadorned punchline—that was the whole gag. He ran again in 1976, challenging an incumbent president in his own party, and taking for the nominating contest all the way to the convention, an almost unheard of feat in modern American politics. That this was a historic accomplishment largely escaped the media, however; it didn't matter, for instance, to the author of the syndicated comic strip Dunagin's People, who depicted a TV announcer explaining, "Now that the conventions are over, we can get back to our regular program—old Ronald Reagan movies."

As preparations began for the 1980 race, Lyn Nofziger, Reagan's late advisor, noted that Team Reagan didn't discourage the belittlement.


In fact, they came to rely on it as part of their campaign strategy: being underestimated only made their man stronger. Liberals fell right into the trap: in the week running up to the election against Jimmy Carter, Doonesbury ran a series where the strip's indefatigable TV reporter, nature documentary-style, took "a fantastic voyage through...the brain of Ronald Reagan."


"Unhappily, the brain stops growing at age 20, and thereafter, neurons die off by the millions every year," the comic reported. "What this means is that the brain of Ronald Reagan's has been shrinking ever since 1931."


This was a fairly accurate portrayal of how Carter's aides saw their opponent. Carter speechwriter Hendrik Hertzberg has related that the campaign's strategists were confident that if they only could get Reagan side by side on the debate stage with the incumbent, the public would finally realize that the Republican candidate and former star of Bedtime for Bonzo was just stupid.

Thrugelmir

Generali wrote: »

I'm not sure that Trump would be the nutter that people think.

He says this nutty stuff and then just backtracks and claims he never said it or that people misunderstood. I think this is all just a part of the getting elected process for him and rule would be a very different thing.

I hope he doesn't win but at least our toasty friend would get someone from outside the political establishment in power.

Trump is like Corbyn. He has the support of the party faithfull. The wider electorate may be more savvy when it comes to the actual election.

antrobus

Hilary wins big in South Carolina; 76.5% to 26.0%.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Some degree of sanity appears to be returning....

Bring on Super Tuesday.

Generali

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Some degree of sanity appears to be returning....

Bring on Super Tuesday.

Refer my other post but I suspect it all ends for The Bern on Tuesday.

michaels

With no dog in the fight I would probably prefer to see saunders vs trump...



...with victory going to Bloomberg

antrobus

Generali wrote: »

Refer my other post but I suspect it all ends for The Bern on Tuesday.

Here is some guy who disagrees. He thinks Sanders will be president.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/h-a-goodman/bernie-sanders-will-becom_b_9289066.html

I strongly suspect he's wrong, mind you. Sanders got thumped by 50 points in SC. Which is a lot.

Sanders will, of course, win big in Vermont. But I suspect that once they've counted the votes in Georgia and Texas, he'll be dead in the water.

ging84

I don't think trump would be the nutter people think he would be either.
Having one of the worlds most successful business men as president is a fairly good idea.

But just not one who is a complete tit who is almost universally hated.
Just because that worked for Cameron doesn't meant it will work for anyone else.

Thrugelmir

ging84 wrote: »

Having one of the worlds most successful business men as president is a fairly good idea.

Trump inherited his fortune from his father. Alan Sugar is more successful given where he started in life.

SnooksNJ

padington wrote: »

First thoughts. Should Bernie or trump win, what do you think would happen to the price of UK house prices.

Maybe some capital flight to London per chance ?

Here is a educational video created for pre-schoolers that might answer your question on the roll of the President. I'll give you a hint. That first building isn't the White House.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyeJ55o3El0