# Who Is The Left's Equivalent Of Donald Trump? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 9, 2017, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137 "2017-11-09T19:30:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2017, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137/41 "2017-11-10T11:48:10Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > I was thinking of Oprah … but she lacks the brash obnoxiousness that typifies Trump. Not if you care about evidence-based–well–_anything_. ---
**Author:** ![snoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@snoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoe)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2017, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137/42 "2017-11-10T15:23:52Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > I say that Sean Penn is the right answer. Yes, this is correct. A Trump of the left must have pretensions of\* being an intellectual. (Is it pretentions OF or pretensions TO? I hate aging.) ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2017, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137/43 "2017-11-10T16:43:42Z")
Y’all are short-sighted and locked into the past. Look at the names being thrown out: Oprah, Paltrow, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton. Fuck those has-beens. To fight Trump at the polls, there’s really only one Democratic candidate that could kick his fat ass back to reality TV: **Lady Gaga**. We get her to run with Johnny Knoxville as her Veep candidate (for the lovable, “aw shucks that didn’t hurt” “fuck you; I’ll goddammed do it” idiot companion factor so prevalent in Veeps in modern times (and let’s face it, who is more _American_ than Johnny Knoxville?)) and BAM! (Margera) we got us a Democratic POTUS again! ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2017, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137/44 "2017-11-10T17:00:24Z")
Jill Stein. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2017, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137/45 "2017-11-10T17:20:54Z")
It would have to be someone who embodies everything the right hates. Vehemently unpatriotic, anti-theist, friendly to street criminals. Probably a drug advocate. Definitely someone who regularly makes statements about taking away everyone’s guns. But it would also have to be someone profoundly incompetent and proudly, openly corrupt. And a sizeable number of liberals would have to hate that person, too. This is no small feat. The closest thing I can come up with is Michael Moore. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2017, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137/46 "2017-11-10T20:36:54Z")
Trump’s not right-wing. Trump is _Trump_-wing, pursuing whatever policies and principles are of greatest benefit to Trump. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2017, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137/47 "2017-11-10T20:40:36Z")
> [@Toxgoddess](#): > > I think we did this once before and the winning answer was “Kanye West.” Who has, I believe, announced he is planning on running for President. Well, this week. Next week he may decide to be something else. This is a solid contribution. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2017, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137/48 "2017-11-10T21:54:32Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Jill Stein. Phyllis Stein. For the Anti-Christian vote. Devangelics. ---
**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 10, 2017, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137/49 "2017-11-10T23:40:51Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Trump’s not right-wing. Trump is _Trump_-wing, pursuing whatever policies and principles are of greatest benefit to Trump. This. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2017, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137/50 "2017-11-11T16:51:30Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > I’m gonna go with Gwyneth Paltrow for the A-list celeb with a total lack of self-awareness, and an inflated sense of importance. Other Trumpian attributes: Paltrow has a shitload of Twitter followers, she’s [“wrong about everything”](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/11591936/Is-Gwyneth-Paltrow-wrong-about-everything.html), and she peddles [a bunch of loony health quackery](https://respectfulinsolence.com/2017/07/14/gwyneth-paltrows-quack-empire-strikes-back-against-dr-jen-gunter/). Probably not Presidential material, but potentially in the running for Secretary of Woo (if that gets to be a cabinet-level position). ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2017, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137/51 "2017-11-11T17:28:43Z")
Here’s a list of Leftside propagandic websites: [https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/?s=Propaganda+left](https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/?s=Propaganda+left) Anyone famous who is known for reading any of those? - Note: they only have a search for political leaning not content quality, so the search picks up a few things that it shouldn’t have. ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2017, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137/52 "2017-11-11T17:42:27Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Trump’s not right-wing. Trump is _Trump_-wing, pursuing whatever policies and principles are of greatest benefit to Trump. Exactly. You would hope people might have gotten that far by now. Out of desperation, working poor and non-working poor - mostly whites - have abandoned the red/blue allegiances. Hell, a chunk of them, generationally, familially, abandoned the electoral system over recent decades. They are re/registering and voting Trump, not Republican, in sufficient numbers to tip the balance in enough races. If Trump had represented the Dems he’d have got a better result than this. It is literally desperation for change - together with considered abstention- that’s at the core of Trump’s eelctoral success. I’ll post these again: Photos of Trump’s new core: [Virginians visited by mobile clinic – in pictures | Art and design | The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2017/oct/10/virginia-remote-area-medical-mobile-clinic-in-pictures) ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2017, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137/53 "2017-11-11T18:41:18Z")
> [@up\_the\_junction](#): > > Exactly. You would hope people might have gotten that far by now. > > Out of desperation, working poor and non-working poor - mostly whites - have abandoned the red/blue allegiances. Hell, a chunk of them, generationally, familially, abandoned the electoral system over recent decades. > > They are re/registering and voting Trump, not Republican, in sufficient numbers to tip the balance in enough races. > > If Trump had represented the Dems he’d have got a better result than this. > > It is literally desperation for change - together with considered abstention- that’s at the core of Trump’s eelctoral success. > > I’ll post these again: Photos of Trump’s new core: [Virginians visited by mobile clinic – in pictures | Art and design | The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2017/oct/10/virginia-remote-area-medical-mobile-clinic-in-pictures) I certainly think the promise of change was a big factor in Trump’s popularity the first time around, but as [this article](https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/08/donald-trump-johnstown-pennsylvania-supporters-215800) on Trump supporters in the Rust Belt attests, whether Trump actually fulfills his promises of change is irrelevant to his core supporters. They see him as venting their own anger, and as long as he does that, they’re solidly behind him. ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2017, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137/54 "2017-11-11T18:54:16Z")
Oh sure, it’s not change in the sense of the Obama strap line - that didn’t appeal to the desperate and disenfranchised, it’s genuine drain the swamp change. They are happy for Trump to properly smash the DC system. There is nothing in it for the already abandoned. For example, metro liberals can pompously mock his Twitter stuff - for not being sufficiently ‘presidential’, but it just points up even more their own disconnection and arrogance. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2017, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137/55 "2017-11-11T19:32:39Z")
> [@up\_the\_junction](#): > > Oh sure, it’s not change in the sense of the Obama strap line - that didn’t appeal to the desperate and disenfranchised, it’s genuine drain the swamp change. They are happy for Trump to properly smash the DC system. There is nothing in it for the already abandoned. > > For example, metro liberals can pompously mock his Twitter stuff - for not being sufficiently ‘presidential’, but it just points up even more their own disconnection and arrogance. Well, that’s a pretty grim notion, that some reasoning ability (all you would need to sense the wrongness of Trump’s tweets) “disconnects” you from America. ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2017, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137/56 "2017-11-11T20:03:04Z")
I’m sure by now you will have grasped the Mueller imvestigation will be perceived as an attempt to preserve the same status quo that disenfranchised these people in the first place. He’s angry at the swamp (they have to believe), and that’s enough for his voters. The disconnection is the failure to grasp how DC and the political class has failed so very many people so very badly. You look at those photos, and others from RAM volunteer group, and you see dystopian communities not in some big budget Hollywood movie but in actuality. Less than 200 miles from the White House. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2017, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137/57 "2017-11-11T20:12:23Z")
Please don’t misuse an important word like 'disenfranchise", especially in the context of then expressing their discontent though their votes, which disenfranchised people by definition cannot do. And if their discontent causes them to embrace \*Trump \*of all people, it’s not a Washington swamp problem you have, it’s a historical awareness one. ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2017, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137/58 "2017-11-11T22:07:09Z")
I’ve used the word as I intended; if your voting options don’t come close to addressing your concerns and issues, you are de facto excluded. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2017, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137/59 "2017-11-11T22:20:12Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > I’m gonna go with Gwyneth Paltrow for the A-list celeb with a total lack of self-awareness, and an inflated sense of importance. She’s not exactly Donald Trump but she lives in the leftist’s version of that kind of cultural bubble. I would look forward to the congressional hearings on Jade Vagina Egg University. But there are droves of A-list celebs with those qualities. But are they fascist demagogues? Are they narcissistic sociopaths? Do they lack all morals? Are they sexual predators? Are they kleptocrats? Are they suffering from senile dementia? Then you don’t have a candidate, sorry. Shit, you can’t even find an equivalent on the Right, much less the Left. ---
**Author:** ![AI\_Proofreader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@AI\_Proofreader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AI_Proofreader)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2017, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137/60 "2017-11-11T22:30:20Z")
They could always just endorse [Vermin Supreme](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermin_Supreme), who already runs in every Presidential election. At least we’d be getting what’s advertised. And we’d all get a pony. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137.md?page=4)