Herschel Walker, tfg, Reagan, Schwarztenaegger: USA's bias toward celebrities as officials

[lindysalsagal]

We never learn our lesson. There's a reason someone should start small and work their way up: If your local town doesn't elect or re-elect you, that should stop your progress to the county and state and national levels. Politicians should develop a legislative record before attempting higher office.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but do they always seem to be gqp party candidates?

[brooklynite]

1. Zelensky...

FWIW, Reagan wasn’t a “celebrity” when he ran for President. He was a popular two term Governor of the largest State in the nation.

[Demsrule86]

12. He was always a movie star and got elected on this...and he was a terrible president.

[brooklynite]

14. The majority of voters disagreed.

He won in 1984 by 17 million votes and 512 EVs. And voters in 1980 DIDN'T see him as a former actor (he hadn't acted since 1964). He had turned himself into a political commentator (not unlike Al Franken) and had been elected as CA Governor twice.

[Demsrule86]

22. The majority of voters were wrong. The things he did shutting down mental hospitals, his Aids

policy, his tax cuts that stripped deductions from the middle class, his welfare queen scam- I could go on and on. But the thing that he did that caused so much continuing damage was the idea that the government was evil an incompetent and and actively wanted to hurt you. 'I am from the government and I am here to help you...Reagan said those words were terrifying.

He was acting every day. I doubt he would have been Governor or president if he had not been an actor...very much like Trump, And consider he handled the Aids crisis much like Trump as well.

[Thomas Hurt]

2. Al Franken, is the only Democrat celeb that comes to mind for me.

Could be others though.

[ZonkerHarris]

21. and I can think of Gofer from Love Boat for the GOP

[Aristus]

3. For all of their blithering about "liberal Hollywood", it's always the right-wingers who run

for office. Fred Grandy, Sonny Bono, all of those named above, etc.

[Retrograde]

10. Bono at least started small

in Palm Springs politics, and reportedly took his job as mayor seriously. Couldn't stand his voice, but I heard him interviewed when he was trying to win the GOP primary for senator (he was a congressman at the time) and he did have some idea of what he was talking about.

Entertainment is one of California's main industries, and one could expect a large number of candidates to be in the business in the LA area - just like many of the people running for office here in Silicon Valley are in tech.

[Ocelot II]

4. They aren't always GOPers.

Americans are fascinated by celebrities and accord them more respect than they often deserve. Remember when Oprah was the latest shiny object on DU? She gave an inspiring speech and all of a sudden it was OMG, she should run for president!!! The Democrats also had Bill Bradley and Al Franken, who turned out to be very capable politicians. Here in Minnesota we got Governor Jesse Ventura, a libertarian sort, who started out pretty good but then got all tangled up in his own ego. I agree with the general premise that anyone who wants to go into politics should start small, but celebrity politicians turn up on both sides of the aisle and they keep getting elected, too often because of name recognition and celebrity worship.

[Ptah]

5. Mark Kelly is not GOP

[brooklynite]

15. Mark Kelly isn't a celebrity. He was an astronaut.

[Ptah]

16. He isn't a career politician, as the OP suggests US Senators should be.

I think he was elected because of his celebrity.

[Ptah]

17. Thank you for conceding the point.

[sop]

6. Part of the blame goes to corporate media.

No sooner does someone acquire any fame or notoriety, they start up with the potential POTUS nonsense. I remember back when they were talking up John Avenatti, Stormy Daniels' crooked lawyer, as having "presidential timber."

[Retrograde]

11. Part? I'd say most

Like many of us, corporate media are under a lot of pressure to produce. It seems easier to write about someone momentarily famous or notorious, where there's some background material they can borrow than do all the background research themselves to write about some local candidates in a city council race - or even a state assembly one.

[Kaleva]

13. What media isn't corporate?

[TheBeam19]

7. Jerry Springer (of all people), Al Franken,

George Takei, Clay Aiken, Cynthia Nixon. Probably others.

[tulipsandroses]

8. Rep Colin Allred is a former NFL player, Bill Bradley

NBA all time great. Both democrats. Kal Penn served in the Obama administration. In some ways, I agree that anyone that wants to serve in Govt should start at the local level. On the other hand, celebrities pay taxes too and have a right to serve the country if they choose to. I don’t think it’s the celebrity status that is the main problem, it’s that the GOP has done such a great job of promoting being dumb as a virtue. It speaks to their base being against educated, elite liberals. There was an excellent article I read recently, I will post in a separate thread.

[Sneederbunk]

9. Still rooting for Weird Al Yankovic. Draft him!

[moondust]

18. Is Bozo the Clown available

to take over a GQP Senate seat? Big name recognition and fan base! Big success!!!!



He'll fit right in:

[former9thward]

19. Over the years the Senate has had many members who did not start out local.

Both parties. Some celebrities, some just rich people.

[ZonkerHarris]

20. Republicans bias toward celebrities as officials

Fixed it