Possibly Ron Paul.
this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2024
195 points (97.1% liked)
Ask Lemmy
27623 readers
1580 users here now
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected].
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try [email protected] or [email protected]
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
As a non-US person, it blows my fucking mind how frequently y'all haul out a goddamn Ouija board to channel the founding fathers on any issue. What would George Washington think about ChatGPT? Uh probably that it comes out of a box possessed by the a demon and then he'd ask if you owned a comfort girl he could borrow for the night? What a valuable exercise. Much wow.
Spaceman pointing a gun at other Spaceman "wait it's all a cult?"
It helps to realize that most of the people "defending" the Constitution have literally never read it, and they even admit that.
Like religion, "God" is whatever the TV (and radio) people say that He is - he's so strong, he's so precious, he rides around shirtless on horseback and wrestles bears, literally barehanded, and so forth.
Such people don't care one bit what the founding fathers have to say - heck, they don't even listen to Trump Himself when he said to take the vaccine (which he invented ofc). On the other hand, May The Founding Fathers Be Praised (and other chants that sound nice).
load more comments
(4 replies)
Oh yes. As a US person it blows my mind as well. We have an unhealthy fear of changing the Constitution, despite its many amendments. Of course that also precludes changing portions of it that were clearly designed under different pretenses than currently exist (e.g. 2A, but that's a whole can of worms I'm just tired of opening at this point).
The main issue there in my view isn't actually the Constitution but the sheer division at every decision. Nothing can be changed anywhere if people can't even agree on the same facts anymore. It ultimately means the US is at a constant government standstill. Fun times.
In many ways we now feel like two different countries. The blue country with dense populations centered around either coast, and the red country with sparser population in the middle.
Nothing can be changed anywhere if people can’t even agree on the same facts anymore
the "change" republicans want is to tear the whole thing down and turn it into a dictatorship
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(5 replies)
Other posters have already come up with Huey Long, Charles Coughlin, Joe McCarthy, Lyndon LaRouche...
No American Presidential candidate before Trump has been so widely popular whilst also having a cult following of people who basically believe in an entirely different reality whilst also being so brash and brazen about it.
There have been demagogues before, with cultish followings, but they've not been anywhere near as popular as Trump.
To attempt to add a few:
Technically, Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism, attempted to run for President back when Mormons were basically what we would now call a domestic terrorist group, and when most non Mormons viewed them as a dangerous cult.
He was assassinated by a mob, who stormed the jail he was in whilst awaiting trial for treason and other charges, before the election took place.
Also, you might be able to consider the fairly brief existence of the Anti-Masonic party at least somewhat akin to the living in a totally different reality attribute of MAGA people.
Basically, following the inciting incident of the Morgan Affair, where a William Morgan was apparently planning to publish a book outlining the evils of a Freemason conspiracy to control government and business in the US, but he was jailed, a bit of a circus trial ensued, and then he disappeared.
The Anti Masonic party was the US's first third-party and basically it was built off of what we'd now call conspiracy theories stemming from the Morgan Affair, and called for Masons to renounce their fraternity or to be uprooted from positions of prominence.
Much like the modern MAGA movement, it was full of highly religious conspiracy theorists, but it didn't really coalesce into also being a cult of personality around any of their more prominent members the way such reverence exists for Trump.
load more comments
(9 replies)
It may not be an exact comparison, given changes in both popular media and US culture, but Huey Long (1893-1935) is possibly one of the closer comparisons.
A wildly popular populist demagogue, Long similarly set about expelling political opponents from the government system following his election and engaging in political maneuvering and strongarming which ultimately got him impeached (though, like Trump, the effort collapsed before before long). His efforts included setting up Louisiana state boards which directed the distribution of state money to political allies, a move to deny hostile newspapers "official printer" status, worked with a businessman to create an oil company which profited from public lands allotted to it, produced his own newspaper which published positive stories, and other similarly totalitarian moves.
However, it must also be noted that unlike Trump, Long actually achieved many populist goals, such as dramatically expanding the road system and increasing school enrollment. He was hostile to Roosevelt's New Deal, claiming it was actually insufficiently populist and overly friendly to businesses, but also was highly isolationist and opposed to US involvement leading up to World War II.
Long was assassinated in 1935 by the son of a political opponent. Most believe he was shot by the assassin, though some believe his bodyguards accidentally shot him in confusion after the assassin missed.
Long is an interesting example, since he definitely did strongman Louisiana politics, but he did seem to have the working class interests at heart, where as Trump only pretends to. We didn't get to see what he would do long term, but its been argued that his presidential run, and more specifically his 'share our wealth' program forced Roosevelt even farther left in his policy.
Share the wealth proposed to put into federal law a wealth cap of 5 million for every American, with the excess used to fund what amounts to a universal basic income back in the 1930's, and didn't discriminate against minorities. It also advocated for free education, free healthcare, and a 30-hour work week.
From all the information I've seen, including the excellent Ken Burns documentary, the poor and working class of Louisiana loved Huey for legitimate reasons, while the rich and politically corrupt, who were targeted by him, absolutely hated his guts.
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(3 replies)
Maybe not exactly what you asked for, but I think these two might be close contenders:
load more comments
(1 replies)
Lyndon LaRouche. I'd occasionally run across a few of his minions out leafletting and they oozed that culty wacko vibe.
I had heard this name before, but for some reason I thought he was mostly a religious figure. Maybe that's the cultiness. Interesting that he shifted from left to right.
People still talk about Reagan like he was some kind of god-king. He never had the kind of rabid violent followers like Trump does but that's the closest one I know of
I was pretty young when Reagan was a thing, so I wasn't quite sure how intense his original supporters were (modulo his election results).
But, I guess it's also worth noting that he's been glorified by the GOP over and over again.
load more comments
(1 replies)