Political Stars
Posted at 9:50 am on Monday, July 27, 2009, in Politics, and tagged bush, jon stewart, obama, palin, reagan, schwarzenegger.
This is a post a long time in the making.1 The content of this post has been on my mind for quite some time. I have thought long and hard on this topic — too hard for too long. This is my culminating effort. This is the post that will make me famous. No pressure.
Republicans elect stars; democrats make them. Okay, you catch my drift.
I’ve always wondered why the democrats haven’t courted the famous liberals and drafted them to run for Congress (and beyond): George Clooney, Paul Newman, Jon Stewart, Al Franken (alright, that is not the best example anymore). Republicans look for stars, well-known individuals, and in a way, Sarah Palin is setting herself up perfectly.2 On the other hand, the democrats have largely adopted lesser-known politicians and have made stars out of them.
Here are some examples: Ronald Reagan, Sonny Bono, Arnold Schwarzenegger, even George W. Bush, a son of a president; John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton, and now, Barack Obama. An argument may be made that democrats elected Obama after he became a “star,” but what made Obama a star was strictly his appeal as a politician, whereas Reagan, the Governator and, yes, Dubya, were well known before they became politicians. Clinton and Kennedy were young up-and-comers before being crowned as the next great thing in politics from the party faithful.
The line is quite clear between the two. It must be psychological or physiological, Freudal or something; I don’t know. I’m not an expert, I only play one on the internet.
Notes- I started this post in 2005; it went nowhere. I picked it up again in 2007, changed some names, changed the order; it went nowhere. And now, with little time to spare, here we are. ↩
- Palin’s run would arguably not be well received by American voters, in general, but republican voters, sure. Maybe not in 2012, but 2016 or beyond, definitely. It’d be silly to write her off this early in her career as a known politician. The GOP will be looking to “draft” her for election cycles to come. ↩
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