In terms of being a corrupt, self serving, arrogant, self aggrandizing and myopic pathological liar, has there ever been a poltician who displayed such a rare combination of negative traits?
I am attempting to find someone from the other side of the aisle that is as vile of a human being as Trump.
Hated? - likely Hillary (I believe if ANYONE on Earth not named Clinton ran in 2016, we would have the clown we have now in office).
Lies? - I guess Clinton and even Kennedy might get close but they had great charisma and fall far short of vile in my opinion (Carter was likely the most honest and we see how that went in office).
Self serving/Myopic - Maxine Waters comes to mind but she falls far short in other facets of vile/Trump.
Maybe Rod Blagojevich? Definitely corrupt but not sure if he is as vile a human as our Commander in Chief.
Lots of general scumbags in folks like Larry Craig, Robert Packwood and Dennis Hastert but they are all republican :dubious:
So… I am falling short here, someone enlighten me.
Remember, Hillary wasnt hated until the GOP and Kremlin lie machine turned on her. They could have done the same to anyone else- remember “swiftboating”? If it had been Sanders, I could just imagine what they’d make up about him- card carrying commie? You dont think that the SVR RF could make a legit looking Communist Party card with bernies name on it? Find pictures of him at a rally in his youth?
I would not call either Clinton or JFK liars even close to trumps level- lies constantly, every day all day.
We could add Willie Brown,Gregory Meeks,Harrison Arlington “Pete” Williams Jr., James Traficant and a few others, but none have reached trump levels.
The problem with your question is you are thinking of the current two sides of USA politics as some natural line of symmetry. There have been lots of threads on this, it isn’t an “other side” thing.
Trump’s rise to power is a product of the failure of US democratic process (small d important).
We had a couple in NC. One guy ,Jimmy Green, was a Lt. governor and a very connected Dem told me Green would sell his grandmother for a vote. He only lasted 1 term. Another guy John Ingram was sleazy , his claim to fame is he lost to Helms first time Jesse was up for re-election in 78. Jim Black speaker of the NC house went to jail for taking bribes. All 3 were bad but not nearly as bad as Trump.
You’d have to go way back to find a major figure in the Democratic Party who approaches Trump’s level and unique blend of scumbaggery and buffoonery.
I think Pappy O’Daniel, who was governor of Texas and a Senator in the '40s, comes close. If you’ve ever read anything about him, he comes across very much as a proto-Trump.
He was a businessman who became a c-list celebrity by sponsoring and then hosting a country music radio show. He even had a popular catchphrase, “Pass the biscuits, Pappy.” Considered a joke by the political establishment, he nonetheless beat out a dozen opponents for the governorship in his first try for office, running on a populist platform.
Like Trump, he overpromised and underdelivered. He was also a big time racist, even by the standards of his day. Believing that the media and elites in general were hostile to him (and they were, often for good reason), he would often take to the radio, in attempt to bring his message directly to the people. You get the feeling that if social media were around in his day, he would have been tapping out tweets by the gross.
Also, the governor in “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” was based on him.
Here’s what a write up a few years ago in the Houston Chronicle said about him:
I’d say the closest person the Democratic Party has to a Donald Trump is Al Sharpton.
But Sharpton has never been elected to any of the offices he has sought. Democrats seem to do a better job at filtering out people like this (as they did with Trump when he tried to run as a Democrat).
Which may be the point. If you’re seeking a career in self-serving corrupt politics, you’re going to go where you see your best opportunities. Which for the last few decades has been the Republican Party.
corrupt, self serving, arrogant, self aggrandizing and myopic pathological liar
President Lyndon B. Johnson
His methods of persuasion were awful, his motivation questionable, his personal behavior legendary for being uncouth and his quest for power maniacal. But once he actually got the highest level of power he used those traits to accomplish some of the most important legislative changes in US history. He abused his power to bully and belittle dissenters but if he were around he might say the end justified the means in terms of what he signed into law for Civil Rights and Social Security which set the pathway to change the lives for the better of millions of people. Trump abuses his power to bully and belittle dissenters but it’s entirely all for his own consolidation of power. Vietnam killed Johnson’s legacy in terms of going down in history as a popular president but at least he was for a period a popular president.
Huey Long, the Governor, then Senator, of Louisiana from 1928 to 1935.
The mud eaters loved him because he stuck it to Standard Oil, which was pretty much running the state, and spent funds lavishly on hospitals, schools, and decent roads. Although he seems to be a jerk racist typical of his period, he also did lots of good things for the Black population, so they loved him too.
Like Trump he was self-aggrandizing, preening, and obsessed with lining his own pockets. He was quite a bit smarter, though, which had Fed level pols scared he would challenge FDR in 1936 with his “Every Man a King!” rhetoric. Fortunately, he was shot dead in Baton Rouge by a disgruntled young physician in 1935.
Anthony Weiner. While his big headlines have focused on his sexual offenses, he also racked up several thousand dollars in unpaid parking tickets, had a reputation for berating his staff, and lied about lobbying after he left Congress, until the paperwork caught up with him.
None in the past century on the national level that I can think of.
But Illinois has a long tradition of sleazy politicians. In addition to Blago (mentioned in the OP) i would suggest Paul Powell, Illinois Secretary of State in the late 1960’s. Powell is known for having said, “There’s only one thing worse than a defeated politician, and that’s a broke one.”
After his death, huge quantities of cash were found in his residence, some in shoe boxes. By huge, I mean something like $800,000 (in 1970 dollars – not sure what they would be worth today, but I think you can say it’s a shitload).
Nobody’s quite like Trump in buffoonery, but ugly populism has a long tradition: Andrew Jackson, Huey Long, and there’s some overlap between Trump supporters and Bernie supporters. Plus a weird group of anti-anti Trump leftists like Michael Tracey and Glenn Greenwald who don’t agree with Trump’s politics but bridle at attacks on his populism(the left version of which they like).
You’re right. I was thinking in personal terms: his use of the n-word as his default term for blacks, the only blacks let into the governor’s mansion were there to wash dishes and shine shoes, etc. — typical of Louisiana in the 1930s-40s.
Along policy lines, there’s the great anecdote about the prominent African-American preacher who came to see Huey about a situation at the new public hospitals that were going up: Black nurses were being turned down flat when they applied for positions. Huey said, “I’ll fix that, but you ain’t gonna like it.” Then he did one of his barn burner speeches, yelling that he was SHOCKED to see WHITE NURSES tending to COLORED MEN at the new hospitals!
Suddenly a raft of new career situations opened up for nurses-of-color.
Sharpton was my first thought when I read the question.
It’s hard to find someone on the left who is a mirror of Trump, but not because leftists are inherently better human beings. Trump is a perfect storm of wealth, narcissism, brazenness, cruelty, and luck, and while I don’t think he is terrifically intelligent in most areas, he does possess a certain craftiness. Plenty of assholes of all political stripes simply don’t have that same mix of characteristics, especially the all-important wealth and luck that have contributed to his rise.
Actually, I used to work for a guy who was, the more I think about it, a lot like a leftist Trump. He was similarly delusional about the power of his own intellect, and his political ideas were equally simplistic. He also incited and inspired some people who were angry about being left out of the American Dream. However, he wasn’t wealthy, and as an African American man he faced all kinds of barriers Trump could never dream of. He also didn’t have Trump’s gratuitously cruel streak.
Ted Kennedy, he was well known to sexually harass women and cheat on his wife. He got kicked out of college for cheating. Continued to drive drunk for decades after killing a girl while driving drunk. Sexually assaulted a woman in public. Numerous public affairs with lobbyists and people who worked for him.