kinda disingenuous since 1992, bill clinton was a relative unknown governor and 2000, george bush was a relative unknown governor, and 2008, was bidens first real presence on a ticket
this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2024
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Showerthoughts
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They say “anyone can become president”,
Anyone that believes that probably also believes that a glass slipper can magically turn you into royalty.
Yeah cuz Barry came from.such political royalty
Overall kind of a lot of turnover actually...only one Clinton became president, and he was never VP. The other Clinton got beat out by the first black president for the nomination in 08, and then she lost to some guy who had zero political experience.
If anything, we learned that being black doesn't exclude you from being president, being female doesn't exclude you from being a major party nominee, and you can still become president even running for office for the first time at age 70. The promise of the statement is more true than ever.
Tbh I feel like trump counts in your list. The trumps may not be a wealthy political dynasty but trump managed to manipulate the media for decades and that works too.
It's not true that anyone can get elected president, but anyone with enough money and recognition has a good chance.
I thought so too. Until I saw Bloomberg try.
Jeb! is a hole in the theory, not every major states governor who is the son of a former president can become president themselves.
Except that, in my several decades, literally no one ever said that. if someone did say that, they're ignorant or selling something.
Um did you forget Obama? Lol How was he not a rags to riches example of how anyone could become president?
People said that about Obama, in fact it was a large part of his appeal. Kamala as well. Trump dynasty... Not so much
Well I was raised in a world where at least a few public school teachers and grownups said, inter alia, that:
- “[The United States of] America’s the best country on Earth”, and that
- “In [the United States of] America, any citizen can become president”.
- “In [the United States of] America, any citizen can become president”.
So long as they are natural born, 35 years of age and can convince enough schmucks to vote for them, yeah. Of course, the demonstration of that being true is that we got Trump, a lifetime grifter with no political experience.
On the upside, he proves one of my go to sayings true: "There are two kinds of people I don't trust, salesmen and politicians. And politicians are just salesmen selling that they should be in charge."
"Anyone can become President."
Me, thinking about Abraham Lincoln or Bill Clinton: "Yeah!"
"Anyone can become President."
Me, aware of Donald Trump, with Tucker Carlson waiting in the wings: "Oh no!"
This isn't a shower thought, it's half baked both sides propaganda. It only works if you include VP slots and completely ignore the fact that Obama/Biden was an outsider ticket.
It not a 'both sides' thing. It's a 'fuck the rich' thing.
INB4 people try to tell me that their rich politicians are good actually.
Carter, Clinton, Obama, and Biden did not come from riches.
So then you'd be interested in looking up the background of Biden, Obama, and the Clintons. They're hardly from the elite. The stupid truth is we've destroyed social mobility so badly we can't conceive of a USA with good schooling and cheap college so that making it on your merit really is a thing. But their entire generation benefited from heavily subsidized college and schools. I'm not going to say they were good politicians but this idea of a dynasty on the left really doesn't track. Biden, and both Clintons worked in politics for decades before they got a shot at the highest office.
Bush on the other hand comes from a family of political elite that goes back to a World War 2 era pro fascist senator that tried (badly) to mount a coup against FDR. He spent Vietnam barely keeping his slot as a national guard pilot who never deployed because he was a bad pilot and a worse officer. Then he worked family jobs until he was airdropped in by the GOP to run for governor of Texas. And from there he ran for the Presidency.
But yeah tell me more about this attempt to conflate people who had to work their ass off with a trust fund party boy that got funded.
I think a huge misstep of the original argument is "career politician bad". Biden is seen as a one man "dynasty" because he has ~50 years of experience. Obama and Clinton are only seen as dynasties because they had active First Ladies so there's a "power couple" image.
I think it's fair to say there are political dynasties- the Kennedy's, the Bushes- and it makes sense that they will tend to happen naturally. If my dad was president of the United States, at the age of 12 I'd have a much better understanding of the Washington Political Machine than most people.
Usually when we think of "Outsider" candidates, we think of people who have 0 government experience who enter the arena. Notice that Trump isn't mentioned in the post. Ofc Trump was as embedded in the Washington establishment as much as anyone else when he ran in 2016, having ran for president previously and using the ol' "wine and dine" method generously to help him get a leg up in business.
I personally don't think it's a bad thing to have a ton of experience in getting a lot of people to do one thing together- oddly enough that's an INCREDIBLY HARD THING TO DO. We need all sorts of people in politics in order to represent the people accurately. The Tim Walz's and AOC's in congress brought so much to the table- they know what it's like to grow up as the everyday American. The Biden's and the Pelosi's have been removed from that world for so long it's understandable they might not have the most accurate picture of modern American life, but they do have the deep understanding for how to get things done. In Biden's single term, he has outpaced most presidents in getting legislation passed. I remember being optimistic in 2020 hoping Biden would be a modern LBJ, and by gum I think ol' Joe did it.
And Trump is the very definition of rich elite.
Yup
It pays to have an electorate that can't think their way past a brand name.
I saw a quote the other week that stuck with me.
It was from the widow of the guy who got shot at that Trump rally. Biden had apparently offered to speak to her, but she didn't want to because her husband was "a devout republican".
Politics and religion have merged over there. People are making this shit their whole identity.
If you don’t think there is a concerning religiosity on the left, you’re part of the problem. The right is a significantly more serious problem in the near term, but the growing treatment of political thought as doctrinal and highly internalized belief among leftists and (to a lesser extent) progressives has all the makings of something can cause serious issues to the march of progress.
That 11x election cycles with at least one of three last names on the ballot is only a record tie.
We had John Adams x4, George Clinton x2, DeWitt Clinton x1, James Monroe x2, John Quincy Adams x2 also a total of 11x.
Roosevelts were on the ballot 8x election cycles but the gap years screwed them. And they were close to uniting with the Nixon 5x streak also with some gaps. And then after one cycle right into the Bush Sr streak. If things shook out just a bit different there was a 19x streak in the cards.
No George Clinton was in parliament.
I think that someone who actually reached the top, being president, should not be allowed anymore. They suceeded, and can brage about, be happy. There is no need for a second turn. You did your best right? This avoids corruption.
A. We already have a term limit.
B. It was put in place to prevent another FDR, someone who was re-elected so much because he spent most of his political capital on actually helping Americans and then using the looming European and Pacific conflicts to build a middle class manufacturing economy. Which we promptly started selling for parts once the the rest of the world recovered enough to host our factories.
You could very easily argue that term limits were put in place to make sure no President could stay around long enough to prevent worker centric policies from being watered down or destroyed before they can have an impact.
We already have a presidential term limit.
For two periods. I am talking about only allow one period.
Two seems pretty good.
Everyone is anyone, but some are anyoner. Or something, idk
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