# Has anyone ever been elected by delivering a hard message no one wanted to hear? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 16, 2016, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-elected-by-delivering-a-hard-message-no-one-wanted-to-hear/772194 "2016-11-16T19:43:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [November 17, 2016, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-elected-by-delivering-a-hard-message-no-one-wanted-to-hear/772194/21 "2016-11-17T14:38:51Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > Er, no. Er, yes. I said _in part_, remember? > [@](#): > > The country is not clamouring for more austerity. Now is not then. ---
**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:** [November 17, 2016, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-elected-by-delivering-a-hard-message-no-one-wanted-to-hear/772194/22 "2016-11-17T20:24:32Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > The obvious situation would be wartime situations. Perhaps Churchill in World War II? Anyone know the details of his election? What about Lincoln in 1864? His campaign was that the war would continue until the South was defeated. The Democrats, although badly split, tried to campaign on an “end the war by negotiations” platform. Lincoln himself thought he would lose, until Sherman won the Battle of Atlanta. In Canada, the 1917 federal election was fought over conscription and staying in the war in Europe. Voluntary enlistment had dried up and to maintain its position in the war in support of Britain, the Borden government decided to institute conscription. The conscription issue wracked the country and caused a tremendous French-English split, but Borden won the campaign on a platform of conscripting young men to go off to the meat grinder of the western front. ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2016, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-elected-by-delivering-a-hard-message-no-one-wanted-to-hear/772194/23 "2016-11-17T21:54:27Z")
Could a candidate survive by telling the hard truth that we have to dramatically slash military spending? ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2016, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-elected-by-delivering-a-hard-message-no-one-wanted-to-hear/772194/24 "2016-11-17T22:38:40Z")
> [@Fiveyearlurker](#): > > Could a candidate survive by telling the hard truth that we have to dramatically slash military spending? Maybe if they frame it as eliminating waste and inefficiency. It seems to me that slashing military spending means either doing this, or weakening your military; and even if I thought the latter were necessary, I’m not sure I’d want to announce my plans to do so to the rest of the world. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2016, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-elected-by-delivering-a-hard-message-no-one-wanted-to-hear/772194/25 "2016-11-17T23:17:48Z")
> [@Fiveyearlurker](#): > > Could a candidate survive by telling the hard truth that we \*\*have to \*\*dramatically slash military spending? In what sense do we “have to”? It’s certainly not a requirement for solvency. It _might_ be a darn good idea to slash such spending; what we’re doing now \*might \*be a poor use of our money. But “have to” implies something is a fact. Please support your assertion of this fact. As a matter of fact, our economy could easily support double the current military budget. Many countries over the years have spent that higher percentage, often for years. Again I’m \*not \*suggesting that we should do that. I’m merely asserting that your saying we have to do anything to reduce military spending is unsupported by fact. ---
**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:** [November 18, 2016, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-elected-by-delivering-a-hard-message-no-one-wanted-to-hear/772194/26 "2016-11-18T11:15:20Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Now is not then. Okay, the country **was** not clamouring for more austerity. Happy now? There really was no credible alternative for anti-austerity folks at the 2015 election outside Scotland. The Greens, sure, and they got a tiny bump but they’re not very good at campaigning at all and generally not taken seriously (which IMO is their own damn fault). The LibDems as noted were a spent force and Labour wasn’t challenging austerity. Corbyn’s election happened not that long afterward. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2016, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-elected-by-delivering-a-hard-message-no-one-wanted-to-hear/772194/27 "2016-11-18T12:51:07Z")
\*“When you people reproduce, you’re not sending us your best. You’re sending us people with lots of problems. You’re bringing drugs. You’re bringing crime. And some of you, I assume, are good people.” \* – A candidate yet to be named in August of 2027. And in August of the following year, the crowd chanted “Lock us up! Lock us up!” “That’s right, folks! Lock you up – you deserve it, you worthless thugs.” And in October of that year, the candidate yet to be named retorted with “'Cause you’d all be in jail” and the crowd howled! And in November of 2016, they elected him in a stunning defeat of democratic challenger Jesus Lincoln who promised free schools, free healthcare, and obligatory pensions. ---
**Author:** ![Stanislaus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stanislaus/32/3391_2.png) [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2016, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-elected-by-delivering-a-hard-message-no-one-wanted-to-hear/772194/28 "2016-11-18T15:30:50Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Politicians always try to put the best light on things, don’t they? Anyone with half a brain cell saw that everyone would be affected. And yet the cuts to tax credits for the low paid were so unpopular Osborne [had to scrap them](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34915218) in the 2015 autumn statement. Conclusion: many people who voted Conservative didn’t realise that they were in the frame for austerity-driven cuts. ---
**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:** [November 18, 2016, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-elected-by-delivering-a-hard-message-no-one-wanted-to-hear/772194/29 "2016-11-18T16:52:59Z")
Well, sure. It’s always the _other_ people who are getting undeserved benefits and thus ought to have them taken away. _My_ benefits are entirely deserved. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-elected-by-delivering-a-hard-message-no-one-wanted-to-hear/772194.md?page=1)