The Waldo Moment is a pessimist's view of a not so distant future. Politics are corrupt to the core as we all know at this point. Nearly all politicians have their hands deep in other’s pocket books. Trump and Waldo are examples of those that don’t. The two are under qualified for their positions, but this doesn't mean that they shouldn’t be allowed to try to fix what’s broken. There are extreme similarities between the pre-leader faces of these candidates. Waldo and Trump took a more explosive, exposing route through the bulk of their campaign while neglecting to talk about serious solutions to fix the broken system. Which fueled the people and gave the candidates votes for being the person behind the exposing. This shows us that you do not have to be a good person to be a great person.
The personal beliefs of candidates may be deplorable, but this doesn’t mean that their actions as leaders will be based off of their personal beliefs. Most leaders do a great job of separating their personal life and profession. Bill Clinton had a huge scandal going during his campaign and did some very awful acts. He managed to keep his approval rating above 60% even in the thickest parts of his trail. Trump had the most freedom of all the candidates that could have been elected. By no means am I saying that he held the best personal values for a candidate, but at least he was real. Waldo wasn't real, but at least he didn't pretend to be. Voters across the boards, in both realities, were fed up with the rigged system and decided their vote should go towards something new. This is why people voted for Waldo and for Trump.
Many call Trump a “joke” candidate, but how can one with a sound conscience call him a joke when other candidates such as Vermin Supreme are still around? Even a crazy man like Vermin understands the separation of politics and personal feelings. Trump may call for some fairly off the wall sort of things to happen, but we shouldn’t write him off because of it. Are we actually going to build a wall? No. Are we actually going to ban immigration from predominantly Muslim countries? No, again. It’s to raise awareness that we are living in a liberal country in a bipartisan world. Not every country is like us and we should keep that in mind. It’s a classic case of damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
2 comments:
In your second paragraph, I like how you point out the differences between the personal life and profession. I never thought about that when it came to the candidates because I assumed they would be one and the same. The ability to separate personal and professional life is something most of us are able to do. Maybe since Trump was in such a big position, I did not think about his professional life.
This is not the first time I have heard about Vermin Supreme. He has said some of the most ridiculous things ever, making Trump seem like he can speak like Ben Franklin. But, like Trump, people gave Vermin attention because, like you mentioned, its something different. Even though it is completely unorthodox and odd, it is still different than the old fashion two party system we have been stuck with so long. People are getting tired of the same names popping up in voter ballets, and extremely generalized titles such as Republican or Democrat. As John Adams has said, the two party system is "the greatest political evil under our Constitution."
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