In many ways I think people are becoming less stupid. Not just for the Flynn effect, but due to media saturation too. When the democratic party started standing up for civil rights in the 50s it took several decades for southern whites to abandon the party, for it to sink into their collective consciousness that the democratic party didn’t represent their interests anymore. With people like Palin and the tea party it only took 2-3 years for the public to realize how bad they are. Approval ratings for them are around 20-30% now after being really high in 2008 and 2009.
So the problem with professional politicians is we keep electing them?
Well, actually Washington was quite involved as both a revolutionary leader AND a politician before becoming prez. Remember, after the revolution we had the Articles of Confederaton period for some years, followed by the Constitutional Convention of 1787-88. Washington was heavily involved in all of that. Only after the ratification of the Constitution did he get elected president.
Washington wasn’t much of a political figure in this period. He served as a delegate to the First and Second Continental Congresses but his membership only lasted for about a combined ten weeks.
His role under the Articles of Confederation was serving as commander of the Continental Army. When the war ended in 1783, he resigned his commission and went home.
Four years later, he was sent as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. But he didn’t really take an active role in the convention.
I support President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho. Leadership you can identify and trust. Either that or a strong executive in Zod. He’d clear up that gridlock pretty quick!
Seriously, as easy as it is to throw stones at politicians, the question remains: Can it be changed? What’s that old saying, the only people who want to be President are the ones you wouldn’t want to be President? And The Founding Fathers were not saints, either.
Pretty much, although the “professional politicians” discussion applies more to lower offices than the presidency. I make no claim as to whether the celebrity president will be better or worse than what we’ve ended up with the past few elections. Schwarzenegger acted like he was going to use his personal popularity as a mandate to clean things up in California, but he didn’t or couldn’t, and the same might happen if, for instance, Al Roker became president. Some years you could pick a name at random out of the phone book and get a better person.
Reagan was the first.
No, Reagan was governor of CA first.
I think the OP is looking in the wrong direction anyway. Presidents are a type of celebrity. That was probably already true, but it’s become more obvious over the years.
True. These days they are scrutinized like any other celebrity. What do they read? What do they eat? What goes on behind closed doors? Etc. When I hear things about FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt that the public at the time never knew, I think to myself “There was a time when the privacy of the President of the United States was respected, when the office was respected and the man who held the job was judged by what he did in the job and not his personal life.” Too bad the “Good ol’ days” had their own flies in the cream.
So who was the first general elected POTUS on his record as a general alone? Grant?
Assuming you don’t count Washington, it would probably be Zachary Taylor. He certainly had no political experience prior to be President and the evidence is he had never belonged to a political party or even voted.
William Henry Harrison and Andrew Jackson became famous as generals but both had also been elected to office before becoming President.
Someone who has played the President on film or on TV. Harrison Ford. Morgan Freeman. Martin Sheen. Michael Douglas.
Just wanted to hijack this with quick mention of Charlie Sheen’s SNL monologue, where he takes a question from the audience: “I enjoy your father’s work on the TV show ‘West Wing’. Do you think you’d like to play the part of the president someday?” His reply: “Thank you for the question, but I could never be the president. I mean, think about it: I’ve abused cocaine, I’ve been arrested, I’m not a very smart guy – I mean, it’s a big joke to think people would want someone like me, just because his dad was president.”
He was a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses before that.
First celebrity gov. then celebrity prez.
We need to distinguish between government experience and electoral experience. Hoover, Grant and Eisenhower had high-level government experience relevant to being President. Wesley Clark was a recent candidate in the same vein and I am sure there will be more. It’s quite possible someone like that could become President again.
For someone with no government experience whatsoever to become US President is another story altogether and I don’t see that happening. What we could potentially see is a celebrity who wins a state-wide election and becomes President quickly, say 4 years later. But those few years of high-level government experience remain absolutely necessary to be a plausible presidential candidate.
What I really meant in the OP was someone with no identifiable talents at all other than image, a “Chance the Gardener” type. To take Herman Cain for example, he’s never run for office but he has experience running a large company that could conceivably be applicable to the challenges of being president. So he wouldn’t count. I’m talking about people like Kozmik listed; in fact, they’re exactly what I had in mind.
You may think the process would somehow weed out an empty suit, and in the past it certainly would have. But things are changing.
Pah. You’re just being cynical for cynicism’s sake.
That was both Reagan and W.