Sure, it’s an old column from The Onion. But what is it about politicians that seek to emulate people and lifestyles they know little about? Why do people have the expectation their candidate should enjoy grits or cheesesteak, kiss babies, use regional slang or dress up in cowboy garb? You gonna vote for the guy who proves he is just like you because he says he enjoys listening to Creed^? It’s not like politicians aren’t inviting comment, or people are unaware of such shallow tactics… yet most of ‘em do it.
It all comes down to trying to convince voters that the candidate is a normal person, who does the sort of things that their constituents do, and isn’t out of touch with them and their interests.
The issue is that it frequently comes off as forced, and less than genuine.
If they were better at it, I could see your point. But they usually don’t seem to come off as authentic. “We must move forwards, not backwards, upwards, not forward, and always twirling twirling twirling towards freedom!”
My suspicion is that it’s a combination of (a) ego on the part of the politician that they can pull off seeming to be authentic, and (b) ambitious but clueless staffers who arrange the photo opportunity.
The conviction that you should vote for the candidate whom you’d like to have a beer with . . . I think that arises from working class fear of/anger toward the sophisticated intelligentsia who seem to have all the power. The folksiness factor that evokes trust. In the gullible anyway.
George Bush The Less played that string well, and he did so few things well.
I think Biden actually is folksy by nature. He isn’t putting it on. Don’t know about the trans am and shirtlessness though. To me that’s just tacky but then who cares what the VP does.
As the OP noted, that’s an article from The Onion, which is a parody site; when Biden was VP, they had a long-running series of fake articles about him generally acting like a party animal. Here’s one from 2017, just as he was leaving office as VP, about him scrambling to clean up the trashed Vice-President’s residence before the new occupant, a “total tightass,” moves in.
This is the whole story right here. And very pithily said.
Trump’s early 2015 / 2016 schtick was very similar. Not that he was a common man, but that he was a self-made guy who “got” the working class person and hated the same elites they did for the same reasons they did. And so Trump would be an effective champion of those working class folks who very quickly became the MAGAts.
And once hooked Trump very quickly amped up the crazy until we got what we got.
As to why politicians try to put on a “one of y’all” show – I think people want to have some sense from a politician that they understand their lives and circumstances in more than just an academic sense. Politicians can put out lots of policy paper and talking points to try to appeal working class voters’ interests, but voters know that a President will come under lots of pressure from other interests. They want the guy or gal who understands them and will fight for them – or at least the one they believe more likely to do so than the other politician on the ballot.
Sure, lots of politicians are bad at it but Bill Clinton was a master of the form. Smart politicians tailor their “one of y’all” pitch in ways that don’t require them to act patently at odds with who they are. Trump is an interesting example. He never tried to clear brush or wear a bolo tie, but he demonstrated he was “one of y’all” through his rejection by and burning resentment of political and economic elites.
I understand (but strongly disagree with) people communing with Trump over burning resentment of so-called elites. What I don’t get is the delusion that he has any empathy or understanding of their situation or has even shown he cares about anything else other than himself or his immediate family. Is this like the delusion that beautiful people always have many great other qualities (although we sometimes do)?
To be fair, Trump was often outrageous but rarely seemed to act in an inauthentic way, except possibly when his handlers told him to behave. But it’s not like I know him personally.
When it comes down to it, as with most things, it’s what we the people want. Not that that’s a good thing.
People want leaders who are massively qualified, helps if they’ve been in the military, are outsiders yet understand how to get things done in Washington, are super smart but also understand the common man.
No such animal exists. But it’s what we demand, so politicians are forced to put on condescending shows of how they are normal folks at heart. They’re not. The last “normal” person to be president was perhaps Harry Truman, and event that’s debatable.
I’ve never understood this. I want a president to be smart. Super smart. Much smarter than me, so I don’t expect them to be like me or understand me at any serious level. I don’t understand my neighbor who’s really into hockey, so I wouldn’t pretend to know about hockey to curry favor with him.
I wish we voted for policies rather than individual people.
This is good in theory, but in practice can still lead to disastrous policies like Brexit. Although I can grok the appeal of drinking a beer, I’d ultimately rather have someone pass sound policy than be very charismatic.
People want leaders who are competent, but they also want leaders who understand them and their lives and their situations. They don’t want some elitist who doesn’t know or care about the common man.
I trust the average voter to pick good policies even less than I trust them to pick people who will, in turn, pick good policies. Heck, I’m not smart enough or knowledgeable enough to know which policies will work best.
I think voting for policies rather than people would in some way seem more connected to reality and bypass the sham of policy personified by an individual. But as you say, it might also be a quicker ticket to terrible policy. Trump’s term certainly shows us that a lot of people would leap to vote for terrible things.
I’m reminded of a scene from Veep where they are discussing typical voters in the south…
Selina Meyer: What do they want?
Kent Davidson: Well, my polling shows their main wants are jobs, education, and an adequate safety net…
Selina: Okay, not gonna speak to that…
Kent: I’m not finished, ma’am… to be denied to African Americans.
The same sorts of pressure here in the UK, with sometimes farcical results, usually from the right-wing press to Labour leaders, where it’s a case of damned if you do, damned if you don’t, when it comes to their cultural tastes. Gordon Brown got into a minor storm over his favourite biscuit, and his successor fell foul of a bacon sandwich.