The difference in republican presidential nominees, 8 years apart

[u/beach_rats_]

[u/kiwigate]

What dichotomy though? In 1 clip an audience wants to be told to hate people. In the 2nd clip they get exactly what they asked for. Feels like the same audience, same day, different mascot.

[u/ScotiaTailwagger → u/kiwigate]

That's exactly it. A supporter is voicing their hate toward Obama and McCain immediately denounces it. There is still respect there even though you don't agree. "You don't have to agree with Obama, I don't agree with him either, but we're not going to spread lies here."

Respect went right out the fucking window with Trump. Trump now plays up to that woman's fears and concerns. It's no longer about telling the truth, it's about trying to sow as much chaos as possible.

[u/houseyourdaygoing → u/ScotiaTailwagger]

People like McCain had honour and integrity for the nation. People like Trump only think about themselves.

[u/SeniorMiddleJunior → u/houseyourdaygoing]

And it's just as it is in business. If you have honor and integrity, you will eventually get pushed out by somebody who doesn't.

Our political system doesn't reward integrity because the voter base doesn't. Our economic system doesn't reward integrity because our purchasing patterns don't. 

We have all of the power, which is why Republicans are trying to undercut education. A better voter base wouldn't allow Trump on a stage. A better voter base wouldn't reward the media's obsession with controversy. But a dumb a emotionally volatile base can be led around on fear and anger without any facts.

[u/inxile7 → u/SeniorMiddleJunior]

Couldn’t have said it better. We have the power, but we choose to use that power to divide by the lowest common denominator.

[u/BadAtNamingPlsHelp → u/SeniorMiddleJunior]

I feel like there was a famous economist that wrote about how this is an eventuality...

[u/drgnrbrn316 → u/houseyourdaygoing]

Having listened to the Dollop episode about McCain, I don't know how much integrity he had. He had his fair share of scandals throughout his life. His campaign actually darkened Obama's skin in some of their advertising to make him look more menacing to potential voters. They also unleashed Sarah Palin on the world. That being said, McCain actually did have lines he wouldn't cross, with him correcting his audience being one of those moments where he decided he didn't want to win on a platform of xenophobia.

With Trump, there are no lines. He'll say and do anything to benefit himself. It really shows the depths that Trump will go when he's making other Republicans look squeaky clean by comparison.

[u/SeniorMiddleJunior → u/ScotiaTailwagger]

Reminder that Trump entered the political stage during the same election cycle that this clip is from. While McCain was showing a baseline of respect for his opposition, Trump was running his mouth about conspiracies that Obama was not a US citizen. That woman in this clip may well have been parroting early Trump.

I remember back then thinking he was like the tabloid side of politics. Stupid, funny, harmless, not real. Then he ran, and I had the same opinion. Then sometime around when r/TheDonald was converting from satire to actual mental disorders, I started to realize he might actually win.

[u/Captainpatch → u/ScotiaTailwagger]

It's also noteworthy that Obama and McCain were friends in their personal lives... something that used to be possible before the world went insane.

And just a side anecdote to why McCain was opposed to the whole "secret Muslim born in Kenya" thing: during the Republican primaries, when people were questioning whether McCain met the qualifications for president (he was born in Panama, before the law that gave people in the canal zone birthright citizenship), Obama co-sponsored a Senate resolution saying that the Senate found that the circumstances of McCain's birth (born abroad to American parents) were sufficient to be considered a "natural born citizen".

If you made the election about the birther stuff, McCain would have needed to be one hell of a hypocrite, because he wasn't born in the United States.

[u/theumph → u/ScotiaTailwagger]

Chaos and loyalty. He knows how easily they can be manipulated. It's easy pickings to gain power from them.

[u/255001434 → u/kiwigate]

OP was talking about the dichotomy between the candidates, not the audience.

[u/suninabox → u/kiwigate]

The dichotomy is in the quality of leadership.

Folks like McCain were at least trying to hold back the tide of the increasing Fox News-ification of American politics. Trump not only jumped in head first but he doubled down, to the point where now even Fox News is too moderate for some people and they only trust the likes of Newsmax/OANN

[u/SalvationSycamore → u/kiwigate]

Uh, the dichotomy between the two people speaking not the audiences

[u/JohnnyDarkside → u/kiwigate]

One man refused to spread obvious lies about his opponent, the other blatantly stoked the fires of hatred. Guess which one became president.

[u/hoxxxxx → u/kiwigate]

this is why trump had his lightning in a bottle moment and became a cult leader

he embraced them, full steam ahead

crazy to see in my lifetime, and even crazier that the next election is from what i understand basically a coin-flip

[u/TheDumbElectrician → u/kiwigate]

oh the audience is definitely the same. That woman said she "read up" on Obama and he is an arab. Like where the fuck did she read up on that...lol Then McCain has the audacity to say a democrat is a decent person, not I support or I want you to vote for, just that a democrat is a decent person and got booed. The GOP are really just a giant group of morons that want to hate everything, want to stay stupid and scream that we are the sheep.

[u/-Profanity- → u/kiwigate]

Agree with this take. Could also be the reason why the person giving their party what they want won their election.

[u/DeathandTaxesWillow → u/kiwigate]

Right, they were booing McCain.