# 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:** 4
**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, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137/61 "2017-11-11T22:47:40Z")
> [@up\_the\_junction](#): > > I’ve used the word as I intended You and Humpty Dumpty, bub. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2017, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137/62 "2017-11-11T23:23:40Z")
Gwyneth Paltrow … or maybe Tom Cruise … I’m surprised no one but me would bring up Moonbeam, or have Democrats come to accept him now-a-day? … > [@nelliebly](#): > > Are we looking for people who meet the constitutional requirements to become President? If so, Barack Obama is out … [snip] A bit of a nitpick here, Barack Obama cannot _run_ for President again … the 22nd Amendment is specific: “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice …” which doesn’t necessarily prohibit Obama from _being_ President again … Let Nancy Pelosi have the nomination, have her name Obama as the Vice Presidential candidate with the promise to promptly resign the presidency if elected … thus Obama would serve a third term without violating the above mentioned Constitutional provision … [wolfish grin] … ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2017, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137/63 "2017-11-11T23:35:17Z")
> [@watchwolf49](#): > > A bit of a nitpick here, Barack Obama cannot _run_ for President again … the 22nd Amendment is specific: “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice …” which doesn’t necessarily prohibit Obama from _being_ President again … This isn’t a decided matter, but most people interpret the 12th Amendment (no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice President of the United States) as prohibiting that. The former president is ineligible to be on the ballot as President, therefore they are ineligible to be on the ballot as VP. ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2017, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137/64 "2017-11-11T23:42:36Z")
There is no correct answer to this question, and that fact speaks volumes. Whoever the left equivalent of Trump is, he or she has not been elevated past crazy blogger who says crazy shit status. ---
**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 12, 2017, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137/65 "2017-11-12T00:26:05Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > 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? Okay, but let’s look at it a different way. All these things you listed are things that horrify liberals, clearly if they horrified his supporters he never would have received the votes. We have to reframe this in a way where the qualities of the Democratic candidate are anathema to _Trump voters,_ or in the very least, conservatives as a whole. I’ve still got Kanye in the lead. Okay, maybe R. Kelly? That adds the sexual predator bit back in. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2017, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137/66 "2017-11-12T01:10:44Z")
> [@up\_the\_junction](#): > > … 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. Twitter is _ipso facto_ unpresidential. Why should the President feel compelled to blort out trivial nonsense on a regular basis? It plays out as whining, which is, ahem, for _lusers_. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2017, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137/67 "2017-11-12T02:00:33Z")
> [@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. Except that he _didn’t_ drain the swamp. His cabinet is full of the same insiders (from Goldman Sachs, for example) that previous cabinets had. And as for Twitter, why does he need it as a means to communicate? He already has the ear of every form of media and world leader. He can issue a statement, talk directly to the press or have his spokesperson say whatever he wants. ---
**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 12, 2017, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137/68 "2017-11-12T02:38:07Z")
> [@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. But he’s not smashing the “DC system,” and his supporters don’t care if he does: they only care if he continues to spout and sputter, via Twitter or anywhere else, and I think that’s noteworthy: actual change no longer matters to them; only the bluster. Maybe they see it as catharsis-by-proxy. Case in point: Trump hasn’t in fact drained the swamp. In fact, lobbyists say business has never been better. > [@](#): > > In the first half of 2017, spending hit nearly $1.7 billion, the highest since 2012. 'I don’t think that anything’s really changed," Republican lobbyist Brian Wild told Politico. “If anything, the lobbying business is booming right now. ” ([Cite](https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/10/the-lobbying-business-is-booming-under-swamp-king-trump)) But to Trump’s core supporters, that doesn’t matter. Nothing he has promised and hasn’t accomplished matters. > [@](#): > > Over the course of three rainy, dreary days last week, I revisited and shook hands with the president’s base—that thirtysomething percent of the electorate who resolutely approve of the job he is doing, the segment of voters who share his view that the Russia investigation is a “witch hunt” that “has nothing to do with him,” and who applaud his judicial nominees and his determination to gut the federal regulatory apparatus. But what I wasn’t prepared for was how readily these same people had abandoned the contract he had made with them. Their satisfaction with Trump now seems untethered to the things they once said mattered to them the most. > > …as I compared this year’s answers to last year’s responses it seemed clear that the basis of people’s support had morphed. Johnstown voters do not intend to hold the president accountable for the nonnegotiable pledges he made to them. It’s not that the people who made Trump president have generously moved the goalposts for him. It’s that they have eliminated the goalposts altogether. ([Cite](https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/08/donald-trump-johnstown-pennsylvania-supporters-215800)) There is no equivalent to Donald Trump, liberal or otherwise, but one day, after either four or eight years in office, he’ll no longer be President. What kind of candidate is likely to succeed him given the changed expectations of the electorate would be an interesting debate. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2017, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137/69 "2017-11-12T02:42:41Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > I’ll go with Jessie Jackson. He seems to have mellowed down in recent years, but once his goal in life was to never rest as long as there was a TV screen not showing Jessie Jackson. I was going to pretty much say the same thing. ---
**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 12, 2017, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137/70 "2017-11-12T04:53:36Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![Chisquirrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6bbea6/32.png) [@Chisquirrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chisquirrel)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2017, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137/71 "2017-11-12T10:00:23Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > Okay, maybe R. Kelly? That adds the sexual predator bit back in. Maybe, but - > [@](#): > > anathema to _Trump voters,_ Sexual predation is a feature, not a bug. You need someone like the Pope, but with an excess of melatonin. ---
**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 12, 2017, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137/72 "2017-11-12T10:22:33Z")
> **[Jeff Boss](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Boss)** > > Jeffrey Harlan Boss (born May 20, 1963) is an American conspiracy theorist. He was an independent candidate for President of the United States in the 2008 and 2012 elections, a Democratic candidate in the 2016 election, and a Democratic candidate in the 2020 election. > In 2008, he was an independent candidate for President of the United States as well as a candidate for the U.S. Senate in New Jersey, running under the slogan "Vote Here". He received 639 votes as a presidential candidate and 9,877... > **[Goodspaceguy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodspaceguy)** > > Michael George Goodspaceguy Nelson (born Michael George Nelson) is an American perennial candidate from Washington state. > Born Michael George Nelson in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Goodspaceguy received a B.A. from the University of Maryland and a M.S. from the University of Minnesota. He legally added "Goodspaceguy" to his name in 2006, becoming Michael George Goodspaceguy Nelson. > > Outside of politics, Goodspaceguy describes himself as "an amateur economist and astronomer." In his 2010 campaign p... > **[Stan Lippmann](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Lippmann)** > > Stanley Irving Lippmann is a disbarred lawyer, anti-vaccination activist and a perennial candidate from the U.S. state of Washington. > Lippmann was born in Brooklyn, New York and received his undergraduate degree in physics from New York University. In 1995 he moved to Seattle from his then home in California to attend law school, taking a JD from the University of Washington School of Law in 1998.\[dead link\] > Lippmann has unsuccessfully run for public office more than a dozen times, standing... > **[Jenny McCarthy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenny_McCarthy)** > > Jennifer McCarthy Wahlberg (née Jennifer Ann McCarthy; born November 1, 1972) is an American actress, model, and television personality. She began her career in 1993 as a nude model for Playboy magazine and was later named their Playmate of the Year. McCarthy then had a television and film acting career, beginning as a co-host on the MTV game show Singled Out (1995–1997) and afterwards starring in the eponymous sitcom Jenny (1997–1998), as well as films including BASEketball (1998), Scream 3 ... > **[Jim Carrey](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Carrey)** > > James Eugene Carrey (/ˈkæri/; born January 17, 1962) is a Canadian-American actor, comedian and artist. Known for his energetic slapstick performances, Carrey first gained recognition in 1990, after landing a role in the American sketch comedy television series In Living Color (1990–1994). He broke out as a star in motion pictures with Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask and Dumb and Dumber (all 1994). This was followed up with Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, Batman Forever (both In the 200... > **[Charlie Sheen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Sheen)** > > Carlos Irwin Estévez (born September 3, 1965), known professionally as Charlie Sheen, is an American actor. He has appeared in films such as Platoon (1986), Wall Street (1987), Young Guns (1988), The Rookie (1990), The Three Musketeers (1993), and The Arrival (1996). In the 2000s, when Sheen replaced Michael J. Fox as the star of ABC's Spin City, his portrayal of Charlie Crawford earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor. He then starred as Charlie Harper on the CBS sitcom Two and a Half ... > **[Alicia Silverstone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alicia_Silverstone)** > > Alicia Silverstone (/əˈliːsiə/ ə-LEE-see-ə; born October 4, 1976) is an American actress. She made her film debut in the thriller The Crush (1993), earning the 1994 MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance, and gained further prominence as a teen idol when she appeared in the music video for Aerosmith's "Cryin'". She went on to star as Cher Horowitz in the teen comedy film Clueless (1995), which earned her a multi-million dollar deal with Columbia Pictures. In 1997, she starred in Sil... ---
**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 12, 2017, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137/73 "2017-11-12T11:12:00Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Except that he _didn’t_ drain the swamp. His cabinet is full of the same insiders (from Goldman Sachs, for example) that previous cabinets had. > [@nelliebly](#): > > Case in point: Trump hasn’t in fact drained the swamp. Of course he didn’t. They re/registered and voted in 2016 out of emotionally based desperation, as I said generational and familial and community desperation. The political system has failed working and non working poor for decades, the abject cruelty is he encouraged them to hope, which some still cling on to. ---
**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 12, 2017, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137/74 "2017-11-12T11:20:57Z")
Make your own minds up, is this the third world: [Remote Area Medical: Serving the Underserved - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=st5mo4siHJ8) ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2017, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137/75 "2017-11-13T01:12:44Z")
> [@](#): > > WillFarnaby > This message is hidden because WillFarnaby is on your ignore list. > [@Procrustus](#): > > No, on all counts. > [@Lemur866](#): > > Uh huh. What a great idea that was! ---
**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:** [November 13, 2017, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137/76 "2017-11-13T01:16:46Z")
You actually want to win? Dennis Kucinich. He’s weird but _apparently_ harmless, and he was doing the “no strings” bit before Trump showed up and crashed the GOP. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2017, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137/77 "2017-11-13T01:28:11Z")
> [@watchwolf49](#): > > Gwyneth Paltrow … or maybe Tom Cruise … I’m surprised no one but me would bring up Moonbeam, or have Democrats come to accept him now-a-day? … The term “Moonbeam” seems to imply some disconnect from REALITY (defined here as a description of the way the universe actually exists). Please be so good as to make your case for how this applies (and has EVER applied) to Gov. Brown. In the unlikely event that I am mistaken about whom the term “Moonbeam” is in reference to, please identify the subject of your scorn by name, and answer the same question. TIA 🙂 ---
**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:** [November 13, 2017, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137/78 "2017-11-13T01:29:06Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > 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! I would consider voting for this ticket. I mean, there’s no likelihood Gaga would do it, but I would consider it. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2017, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137/79 "2017-11-13T01:30:49Z")
> [@watchwolf49](#): > > A bit of a nitpick here, Barack Obama cannot _run_ for President again … the 22nd Amendment is specific: “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice …” which doesn’t necessarily prohibit Obama from _being_ President again … Double nitpick. He is constitutionally barred from _being elected_ again. Nothing in there to stop him from running. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2017, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-lefts-equivalent-of-donald-trump/801137/80 "2017-11-13T02:07:47Z")
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