Even Americans who can't see the wood for the trees must know by now how totally fucking weird their political process must look to the rest of the World: two clearly senile and unhinged old men being rolled out as the voters' only choices in November, with all the grim inevitability of rats in a plague year or diarrhoea in a dysentery ward.
One reason for this, in my view, is the sheer size of America (due to a lack of history), and therefore the difficulty of building up name recognition in such a vast, undifferentiated, and, let's face it, deeply low information society.
By the time you're a big enough name to have "Presidential reach," you're also ready for the knacker's yard.
This rule became clear to me from my familiarity with the rock n' roll world. In the UK, bands could become overnight sensations by storming London in a fortnight.
In the USA, by contrast, storming New York or Los Angeles wasn't worth shit in the rest of the country. Long tours of hick towns, like Detroit, Chicago, or Beaver's Arse, Idaho, were still required, lasting several years and numerous drug habits. The Beatles got round some of this by dissing Jesus. The Sex Pistols, by contrast, like complete wimps, just imploded.
By the time you're a big enough name to have "Presidential reach," you're also ready for the knacker's yard.
This rule became clear to me from my familiarity with the rock n' roll world. In the UK, bands could become overnight sensations by storming London in a fortnight.
In the USA, by contrast, storming New York or Los Angeles wasn't worth shit in the rest of the country. Long tours of hick towns, like Detroit, Chicago, or Beaver's Arse, Idaho, were still required, lasting several years and numerous drug habits. The Beatles got round some of this by dissing Jesus. The Sex Pistols, by contrast, like complete wimps, just imploded.
Sales masterclass: gotta buy it to burn it!
However, another factor, highlighted by Steve Sailer, is what can be termed "The Diversity Changeover." Naturally this effects the Dems slightly more than the slightly less diverse GOP.
Sailer focuses in particular on California, where most trends start, and where diversity and old doddery White politicians have long gone hand-in-hand:
Sailer focuses in particular on California, where most trends start, and where diversity and old doddery White politicians have long gone hand-in-hand:
"Why did antique white Democrats cling to power so long in California? I suspect they didn’t have much trouble convincing themselves that the new and multitudinous Diverse Democrats of California were not ready for prime time.And were they wrong? The most celebrated of the next generation, Kamala Harris, was rocketed into the Vice Presidency, where she quickly made herself an unpopular dud. At this point, many Democrats would apparently prefer to run her very white Bay Area rival Gavin Newsom instead of her in November."
Seems legit!
This is effectively a "yes" to diversity, but with "later" tagged on. Kind of reminds me of St Augustine's "Please God, make me good, but not just yet."
This is effectively a "yes" to diversity, but with "later" tagged on. Kind of reminds me of St Augustine's "Please God, make me good, but not just yet."
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Colin Liddell is the Chief Editor of Neokrat and the author of Interviews & Obituaries, a collection of encounters with the dead and the famous. Support his work by buying it here (USA), here (UK), and here (Australia).
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