# Could someone as unqualified as Trump get elected in any other modern, wealthy developed nation **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [December 12, 2016, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someone-as-unqualified-as-trump-get-elected-in-any-other-modern-wealthy-developed-nation/774567 "2016-12-12T23:25:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2017, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someone-as-unqualified-as-trump-get-elected-in-any-other-modern-wealthy-developed-nation/774567/81 "2017-01-09T01:16:48Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > We were talking about qualifications, not personality. If being a jackass was disqualifying for being President, then LBJ, Nixon, Grant and a half dozen other people would never have gotten near the oval office. You were the one who brought up bad behavior. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2017, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someone-as-unqualified-as-trump-get-elected-in-any-other-modern-wealthy-developed-nation/774567/82 "2017-01-09T01:29:00Z")
In a country that gave elected positions to Gopher, Arnie, Jesse Ventura and Al Franken? No, I’m not shocked. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2017, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someone-as-unqualified-as-trump-get-elected-in-any-other-modern-wealthy-developed-nation/774567/83 "2017-01-09T02:08:35Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > Ooh… ‘critic for youth and multiculturalism’! If you think that’s better experience fo leading a country than decades of experience as CEO of a major corporation, I don’t know what to say. The Trump Organization is a closely-held family business, and one with a rocky history. Not a major corporation, nor any good training for politics and the level of cooperation that requires. However low down the totem pole J. Trudeau may have been, he was at least in Parliament and thus has some experience with its culture and workings. By contrast, D. Trump Sr. never deigned to run for\* any \*elective office that wasn’t US President. Not even Mayor of NYC nor Governor of New York. He is devoid of humility and devoid of perspective. Trump has run for chief criminal, in the party of the Bushes. The elder George Bush preemptively pardoned Cap Weinberger, lest a trial embarrass him, and the younger George Bush sent his Sec’y of State to bald-facedly lie to Congress. They are of the Nixonian belief that the President is above the law itself; and Trump took their party’s banner, that he might occupy that enviable seat. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2017, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someone-as-unqualified-as-trump-get-elected-in-any-other-modern-wealthy-developed-nation/774567/84 "2017-01-09T02:13:14Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > We were talking about qualifications, not personality. If being a jackass was disqualifying for being President, then LBJ, Nixon, Grant and a half dozen other people would never have gotten near the oval office. So, the ones who _embarrassed_ themselves in the office. Yeah, that’s our point! I admire things about Grant and LBJ; they really tried to make this country better. But they went down in flames of scandal, as did Nixon. They were good guys brought down by jackassery. Being jackass-like was their flaw, not their selling point. Does Trump have even the redeeming virtues of Grant, LBJ, or even Nixon? I don’t see it. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2017, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someone-as-unqualified-as-trump-get-elected-in-any-other-modern-wealthy-developed-nation/774567/85 "2017-01-09T02:15:35Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > You know who Trump reminds me of? Napoleon. Like Napoleon, Trump has been very successful in his field - he’s fought on the field of commerce rather than the martial battlefield - and now he’s jumped to politics. That’s understandable, but to me it seems to insult Corsica’s most notorious son to compare him to the rust under my pinto. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2017, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someone-as-unqualified-as-trump-get-elected-in-any-other-modern-wealthy-developed-nation/774567/86 "2017-01-15T07:30:28Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > But in the U.S., we’ve never had anything close to this bad. This colon-hammer makes James Buchanan, Andrew Jackson, Richard Nixon, and GWB look decent in comparison. [Aside] What was wrong with Buchanan? Not that he was particularly great, but I didn’t know he was considered particularly bad in any way. Granted, he couldn’t stop the southern states from seceding, but I doubt if anyone could have done so under the circumstances. [/Aside] ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2017, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someone-as-unqualified-as-trump-get-elected-in-any-other-modern-wealthy-developed-nation/774567/87 "2017-01-16T11:18:17Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > [Aside] > What was wrong with Buchanan? Not that he was particularly great, but I didn’t know he was considered particularly bad in any way. Granted, he couldn’t stop the southern states from seceding, but I doubt if anyone could have done so under the circumstances. > > [/Aside] I think the short answer is that his attempts to deal with the lead-up to the Civil War resulted in him alienating absolutely everybody. He neither took a principled stand on one side or the other, nor worked to identify a common ground upon which to establish peaceful resolution. As a result, everything went rapidly to hell. He may not have been able to stop secession but he definitely made things worse. ---
**Author:** ![Grim\_Render](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@Grim\_Render](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grim_Render)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2017, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someone-as-unqualified-as-trump-get-elected-in-any-other-modern-wealthy-developed-nation/774567/88 "2017-01-16T12:42:11Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > I’m not sure what connection there is with the GINI coefficent. Interesting hypothesis. Well, I am just speculating, but I think two factors will heavily influence the election prospects of candidates of Trumps mold. 1. The country in question must be a real democracy, where the voters determine the outcome of elections. Populist appeal is less valuable if the population doesn’t get a say. 2. And… the bigger the inequality in a nation, the more appealing someone who promises to sweep it all away will be to the have-nots. Who are normally the majority in high-inequality places. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2017, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someone-as-unqualified-as-trump-get-elected-in-any-other-modern-wealthy-developed-nation/774567/89 "2017-01-16T14:34:04Z")
Brian Mulroney served as Canada’s Prime Minister from 1984 to 1993, winning two majority governments, despite having never held elected office before. He did have extensive experience working as an advisor to politicians, though. That’s the closest example I can come up with here, anyway. Mulroney’s record was mediocre; to his credit he had some major policy successes, but his government was dogged by scandals and poor fiscal policy, and ended badly. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2017, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someone-as-unqualified-as-trump-get-elected-in-any-other-modern-wealthy-developed-nation/774567/90 "2017-01-16T14:41:36Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > We were talking about qualifications, not personality. If being a jackass was disqualifying for being President, then LBJ, Nixon, Grant and a half dozen other people would never have gotten near the oval office. Grant wasn’t a jackass at all. He wasn’t a good President and was a weirdly terrible judge of other people’s character in any context other than a military one, but I don’t think I have ever read anything indicating he was anything like a jackass. If anything, his reputation was of being a quiet, thoughtful person who was a good family man. His personality was that of a math teacher, which is in fact what he’d always wanted to be. LBJ and Nixon were certainly major league jackasses. Andrew Jackson was, too. Coolidge was kind of a passive-aggressive jackass. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2017, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someone-as-unqualified-as-trump-get-elected-in-any-other-modern-wealthy-developed-nation/774567/91 "2017-01-16T14:53:23Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > but to me it seems to insult Corsica’s most notorious son to compare him to the rust under my pinto. As a Briton, I’m not sure you’ve got the right way around. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2017, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someone-as-unqualified-as-trump-get-elected-in-any-other-modern-wealthy-developed-nation/774567/92 "2017-01-16T19:17:56Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Brian Mulroney served as Canada’s Prime Minister from 1984 to 1993, winning two majority governments, despite having never held elected office before. He did have extensive experience working as an advisor to politicians, though. You’re forgetting his year as Leader of the Opposition and MP for Central Nova. 😉 > [@](#): > > That’s the closest example I can come up with here, anyway. Mulroney’s record was mediocre; to his credit he had some major policy successes, but his government was dogged by scandals and poor fiscal policy, and ended badly. I agree, he’s the closest example, but he was the consummate backroom boy, starting as a campaign worker for Bob Stanfield in the 1950s, when he was SFX, with a previous run at the leadership in 1976. He was always doing politics until he got the Tories to dump Clark, which was no mean feat - getting the Tories at that time to agree on _anything_ was an accomplishment! I always thought of him as a politician from the earliest I heard of him; he just was a politician who managed to get to the top early. Not like Trump, who didn’t put in real any effort at politics before. But even then, Mulroney did it by his backroom political skills, which was the point I was making in my much-earlier post: our party system forces wannabes to work the party to advance. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2017, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someone-as-unqualified-as-trump-get-elected-in-any-other-modern-wealthy-developed-nation/774567/93 "2017-01-16T20:30:43Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > I always thought of him as a politician from the earliest I heard of him; he just was a politician who managed to get to the top early. Not like Trump, who didn’t put in real any effort at politics before. It’s not just that Trump is hopelessly ignorant of the job he just got; he’s also really old, which makes his lack of experience and ignorance more striking. He is the oldest person ever elected President for the first time. Brian Mulroney, by comparison, was 45 years old when he became PM - just a little older than Justin Trudeau (who was 43) and a few years younger than Stephen Harper (who was 47.) ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2017, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someone-as-unqualified-as-trump-get-elected-in-any-other-modern-wealthy-developed-nation/774567/94 "2017-01-17T05:53:02Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > As a Briton, I’m not sure you’ve got the right way around. 🙂 Bonaparte was ten times the man Donald Trump is, and I’ll fight you if you say otherwise. Don’t make me come all the way across the pond to whip your smug English backside. Oh, and whoever makes a short joke gets a piece of this. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2017, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someone-as-unqualified-as-trump-get-elected-in-any-other-modern-wealthy-developed-nation/774567/95 "2017-04-27T12:28:58Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Following up on the Canadian leadership process, there’s been a development since I made that post about the need for a leadership candidate to be bilingual. > > Andrew Scheer, one of the other candidates, has challenged O’Leary to enter the race before the French language debate in two weeks time. Says that if O’Leary doesn’t do so, he’s showing disrespect to Quebec voters. O’Leary has responded that he doesn’t need to be able to speak French to be a viable candidate for Quebec Conservatives. > > No idea how this is going to shake out, but it does illustrate one of the hurdles leadership candidates have to face in our system which is absent in the US system. > > ['Fish or cut bait': Andrew Scheer calls on Kevin O'Leary to join race before Conservative all-French debate | CBC News](http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/politics/scheer-oleary-french-1.3919611) And there’s been a development on this front. Yesterday, O’Leary dropped out of the leadership race, because of the Quebec issue. He said that he’s confident he could win the leadership, but admitted that his unilingualism meant that he likely couldn’t win Quebec in a general election, and thus wouldn’t win the general election. [Kevin O’Leary drops out of Conservative leadership race, endorses Maxime Bernier](http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/kevin-oleary-drops-out-endorses-bernier-1.4086583) > [@](#): > > O’Leary said Wednesday he was confident he could win the Conservative race, but raised doubts he could defeat Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the next election. He cited his failure to gain traction in Quebec and his poor French-language skills as reasons for dropping out of the leadership race. > > “The Liberals politically own Quebec. Without growing the Conservative base in Quebec, beating Trudeau in 2019 would be a huge challenge,” O’Leary said at press conference with reporters in Toronto. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2017, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someone-as-unqualified-as-trump-get-elected-in-any-other-modern-wealthy-developed-nation/774567/96 "2017-04-27T14:22:47Z")
And I just want to do a little brag: called it, three months ago! > [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Mr O’Leary is apparently unilingual, so I don’t rate his chances high at getting elected leader. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someone-as-unqualified-as-trump-get-elected-in-any-other-modern-wealthy-developed-nation/774567.md?page=4)