Comments by "Tony Wilson" (@tonywilson4713) on "Republicans turning on Trump after disastrous 2nd arrest" video.

I'm Australian but went to college in America (late 80s). I was there for the 87 campaign season and it was bonkers. So I have seen American politics as an outside observer for many years. IT DID NOT SURPRISE ME DONALD TRUMP BECAME PRESIDENT. Its not like it hadn't happened before. Back in the 1970s the rest of the world could barely believe that Ronald Reagan was elected as President. All anyone really knew of him was that he was a b-grade actor from 1950s Westerns. No one could believe it. One day we are all watching Americans go to the moon and do the most amazing things. The next day America hands control of nuclear weapons to a b-grade actor. The rest of the world mostly saw it as the EVENTUAL outcome of American society behaving as it does. If it wasn't going to be Trump then it would be someone else just as bonkers. Before Trump announced the 2 main picks were Hilary Clinton versus Jeb Bush. Friends who knew I'd studied in America asked me at the time "WTF, can't America find anyone who's not a Clinton or a Bush." Further if you look at how stupidly Hilary's campaign was run its even less surprising that Trump won. Her campaign people really were a pack of idiots. Politically it was like that Superbowl where Atlanta had that huge lead and then forgot they were playing against Tom Brady. Hilary forgot that the game was decided on election day and that Trump from his wrestling days and TV experience knew how to wind up a crowd.
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@kegsofvomitspit You are spot on, except its not an American thing. It happens everywhere. I'm Australian but was in Canada a few years ago. Go ask them if Justin Trudeau would be PM if he had a different family name? Go ask the French if Marine Le Pen would be taken seriously if she had another family name. What do you think would happen if someone with the last name Churchill popped up in Britain? Politics hasn't been about credibility for a while. Its about the appearance of credibility and about the "appearance of doing stuff.* Like so many aspects of life these days its not a matter of who does what its about who ahs the best PR and media coverage. Business and the Stock Markets are the same. Share prices are more influenced by PR than they are by returns. Companies like Tesla, Uber and Meta are proof of that.
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@gerardmackay8909 You are absolutely right Trump's howlers in 2016 would have sunk any other politician in any other country EXCEPT America. Sorry for the long explanation. When I was there during the 1987 season a guy named Gary Hart was the front runner for the Dems. it was his second run but this time he was out front and then came claims of extramarital affairs and it was over in a blink. At one point his wife mentioned words to the effect: "Yes, their marriage had been in trouble but they had worked it out. But what is more important is that Gary is the best man for the job." I can remember being quit impressed with her and how she spoke. When I mentioned that to my coach (I was on a sports scholarship) he went nuts at me in front of the entire squad, telling me I had no clue. He said (paraphrasing) "The Russians will send one of the blond floosies and suck our secrets out of a man like him." He was normally a quiet sort of guy but that set him completely off the rails. When I asked others, they said it was all due to him being part of "that generation" who grew up with the bomb. I hadn't thought about this for years until about a year ago when I could not see why people still followed him. Then I realised there's an incredibly weird thing in politics. Its like following a sports team. We will forgive our players and coaches of almost anything SO LONG AS THEY WIN. We wont care if our club hires a player with a horrible past so long as he helps us win. Trump realised that better than any other politician in recent history and maybe more than anyone in democratic politics ever has. He knew that irrespective of anything he'd ever done so long as he gave them a way to win and get what they wanted that NOBODY would care. This is sort of present in most countries but it seems to be amped up in America. So long as you give the people something that they feel is important they will not care about other things. Go look on the YT channel Secular Talk. A while back Kyle & Krystal interviewed Jesse Ventura and there's a couple of excerpts available. In one of them Jesse talks about Trump and how he won. There was a year JV could not wrestle because of injury and Vince McMahon asked him to commentate. At that time all wrestling commentators had sided with the "good guy" and not the "heel" (bad boy in wrestling terminology). JV said there had never been a "heel" in the commentary booth. He was concerned about it and then Vince McMahon told him just to stick to character and "If you say it then its true." It utterly split the wrestling fan base, but it kept that fan base ENGAGED. Think about how wrestling promotion works and then consider Trumps rallies. he just says things he knows that will hit various people right between the eyes and they will love it and NOT CARE about anything else. Just like wrestling fans they wont care if its all theatre its what they want to see and hear. Interestingly Wrestling promoters stand in the ring with the audience all around them. Normal politicians have supporters behind and the crowd in front. Trump (like a wrestling promoter) stands in the middle with the crowd all around. I highly recommend people go and look up that interview if they want to understand how Trump works. Sorry for the long answer. Tell me what you think after watching that interview with Jesse V.
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