SpudNutimus
I make maps and things.
- Pronouns
- he/him
Many people wish to believe that the presidency of Donald John Trump Jr. was an unforeseeable fluke, a happenstance conjunction of all the worst possible circumstances in American politics coming together to cause an unprecedented whirlwind of chaos at the highest levels of government within the world's foremost geopolitical power (for the time being). However, while the Trump years may very well have been chaotic and avoidable, I don't believe that the rise of the most talked-about manchild in the free world was down to dumb luck. The Republican Party and the right-wing end of the US political spectrum have arguably been building towards this, in some form or another, through nearly fifty years of escalating rhetoric, increasingly overt dogwhistling, and radicalization.
That said, under different circumstances it may well have not been the Orange Man we all know and despise. Someone else could very well have become the standard-bearer of American right-wing populism of the 21st century, and I feel there is an underabundance of talk about who else it could have been here. So with all that said: who are your favorite not-Trumps? Who else do you think could have become the face of nationalistic insanity in the US of A?
I'll start off by giving two relatively unorthodox opinions: I think Ted Cruz would fail to fill this niche spectacularly, and that Ben Carson might have just succeeded under the right circumstances. The former has the right mindset but also the populist charisma of a wet blanket, while I think the latter's scariness is often underestimated in terms of his possible appeal to Christian nationalists and religious types in the US. I could very well see an alternate timeline's Carsonism replacing our QAnon and 4chan types with the insane ramblings of Facebook bible study groups and young Earth creationists as its Plymouth Rock of delusional conspiracy theories.
That said, under different circumstances it may well have not been the Orange Man we all know and despise. Someone else could very well have become the standard-bearer of American right-wing populism of the 21st century, and I feel there is an underabundance of talk about who else it could have been here. So with all that said: who are your favorite not-Trumps? Who else do you think could have become the face of nationalistic insanity in the US of A?
I'll start off by giving two relatively unorthodox opinions: I think Ted Cruz would fail to fill this niche spectacularly, and that Ben Carson might have just succeeded under the right circumstances. The former has the right mindset but also the populist charisma of a wet blanket, while I think the latter's scariness is often underestimated in terms of his possible appeal to Christian nationalists and religious types in the US. I could very well see an alternate timeline's Carsonism replacing our QAnon and 4chan types with the insane ramblings of Facebook bible study groups and young Earth creationists as its Plymouth Rock of delusional conspiracy theories.
