Will anything be more important than 'likeability/personality' in future national elections?

[Begabig]

Last edited Wed Dec 7, 2016, 04:11 PM - Edit history (1)

In the last 25 years, we have seen every Presidential election go to the person who is more relatable and more 'genuine'.

Policy, experience etc... All seem to fade to a distant second in the modern media age.

Any chance it can ever change or is it just something that has to be accepted and worked with?

[marybourg]

1. We used to ask whether a candidate was of

"presidential timber" or timbre. Now we ask "who would you rather have a beer with".

[Begabig]

2. We talk about this for years before the event...

... And it's the easiest thing to fill time with and the most open to opinion.

[Hamlette]

3. it goes back further than that, remember Stevenson?

You can't be bald either.

[Begabig]

4. I've only got my adult voting life to go off of...

I personally have hope for a bald president one day. Followed by an atheist...

[Hamlette]

5. and a woman

[Begabig]

9. A bald, atheist, woman president...

Any day now, I'm sure...

[BlueStater]

11. Um, his opponent...

I see some hair in the back, but his head is otherwise as bare as a baby's ass.

[kskiska]

13. Ike was an exception

because he ran only a few years after WWII, in which he was considered a national hero. Not that generals were particularly good presidents.

[Yo_Mama]

6. WTH is "relatable" about Donald Trump?

Nothing.

Voters didn't mostly like him, you know.

I don't think Trump generally was more liked than Clinton in this election - I think it was his positions that some liked - mostly about the jobs, partly about immigration, although that is also job-related.

[Begabig]

8. Maybe likeable isn't the best word for this specific election...

Trump was an ass but he was perceived as a genuine ass. IOW, his public personal likely matched his private.

The Clintons have traditionally played the long game and kept things close to the chest and waited problems out. The price for that was a hit to their transparency and ability to appear genuine.

I don't think most people liked either candidate but in the end one beat the other.

I was thinking more about Obama vs Romney or Bush vs Gore.

[Yo_Mama]

12. Yes, I think people who voted for him believed Trump meant what he had said.

Maybe not so much true for Hillary.

But I don't get the sense that Trump's victory was due to personality/charisma/etc. Hillary is a much better speaker, a much better debater, and in general just a much more admirable public figure.

I think it was his positions. Certainly it was the immigration/trade planks that got him the Republican nomination, and from there I think it was those two positions that gave him the electoral college victory.

Even the people who voted for him often seemed skeptical of Trump's personality.

[Begabig]

15. I always thought she was an awkward speaker...

Everything came across as scripted and fresh from a focus group.

I don't even know how to compare debates this last cycle. It's like they were playing different sports on the same field.

[Yo_Mama]

17. More awkward than Trump????

I thought he was not good in the debates at all.

Maybe you saw more what many saw. My perceptions might be filtered through my Trump allergy. You could be right.

After all, it doesn't matter what's true, what matters is what his voters received and how they felt.

[Hamlette]

14. I think it is charisma which is different from likability

One of the most charismatic people I ever met was a polygamist with 5 wives.

[Yo_Mama]

16. You might be very right about that!!!!

Obviously my own reactions to the two are colored by my feelings.

[Hamlette]

18. Trump is the Pied Piper, leading our children into the sea.

[alarimer]

7. Ironically, most of that "genuine-ness" is fake.

There is nothing more fake than the way politicians are sold to us, like soap or toothpaste.

"They sell us the president the same way
They sell us our clothes and our cars
They sell us everything from youth to religion
The same time they sell us our wars"- "Lives in the Balance", Jackson Browne

[Cosmocat]

10. No, and it now is only going to get worse

right wing populism has fully infected the masses in this country.

[Skittles]

19. it has been that way for some time

I don't see it changing

we are simply not getting the presidents we could have

[KamaAina]

20. The question is, will there be future national elections?