Let's face it Carlin had a brilliant mind and wasn't afraid to say what was on it. So what if someone convinced him to run for President and he actually won?
WI: George Carlin becomes President in 1988 or 1992
- Thread starter putasidedevil
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Carlin as president is, to put it mildly extremely unlikely. Someone who was as dismissive of broadcasting decency standards, disparaging of organized religion, willing to use drugs and contemptuous of the American political system as Carlin (rightly or wrongly) was is fundamentally unelectable even now, when the nation is far more open to all of these things than it was in the late 1980's or early 1990's.
Now, getting past the implausibility aspect, a hypothetical Carlin presidency would likely do (or try to do) the following things:
1) Get rid of the war on drugs
2) increase secularism-defend abortion rights, same-sex couples' rights, perhaps remove "under God" from currency/the Pledge, would not sign RFRA
3) campaign reform-Carlin OTL thought the entire political system was rigged, so if he were to get elected, odds are he'd try to make some changes, campaign finance reform and more open debates would likely be on the table, as would voter reform policies like instant-runoff or ranked-choice voting
4) embrace progressive economics-expanded welfare, universal healthcare, etc. would likely be favored by Carlin (given much of his commentary on economics is hostile or dismissive to right-wing economics)
Now, getting past the implausibility aspect, a hypothetical Carlin presidency would likely do (or try to do) the following things:
1) Get rid of the war on drugs
2) increase secularism-defend abortion rights, same-sex couples' rights, perhaps remove "under God" from currency/the Pledge, would not sign RFRA
3) campaign reform-Carlin OTL thought the entire political system was rigged, so if he were to get elected, odds are he'd try to make some changes, campaign finance reform and more open debates would likely be on the table, as would voter reform policies like instant-runoff or ranked-choice voting
4) embrace progressive economics-expanded welfare, universal healthcare, etc. would likely be favored by Carlin (given much of his commentary on economics is hostile or dismissive to right-wing economics)
More Americans would understand the difference between baseball and football.
Rosa Luxemburg
Banned
Yeah Carlin called elections an "illusion of choice" and before his death had last voted for McGovern.. in 1972
No chance of him getting elected. Only remote chance would be him somehow getting a cabinet spot way down that no one cares about and everyone above him on the succession list dies
His "voting is meaningless" bit is a classic, and would keep him from winning on the odd weird chance he ever did run.
I think Colbert could also have a shot, provided he ran a fairly serious campaign.
althisfan
Banned
Begging others not to make this into a current political debate about PresidentTrump, and letting my statement stand on its own- You understand everything you just listed as why Carlin would still be unelectable today... is the same as what they said about Mr Trump and is how he acted, right? So, I find it highly unlikely that Carlin couldn't be electable in the post-truth political era we are in. Yes, in the 6th Party Era, sure, totally unelectable.
I agree althisfan. I think it possible, implausible, but possible. We just need a succession of asshat politicians and overconfident party leadership to make it possible. TBH there are things I might not like that he would do, but the nation would probably be better off after having a non professional politician as president for awhile. Just as it was said "it is good to kill an admiral from time to time" I think its also good to put someone into the presidency to make the parties learn some restraint and co-operation. Carlin would have been great at that IMO, provided he didn't have an aneurysm from dealing with congress.
He would need to get elected to another office first, probably governor of a state where he gets elected as an independent or a third party candidate and then does a surprisingly good job and he then becomes a darling of the media and something of a national fascination and then he takes off from there.
The model is Jesse Ventura - after he was elected governor of Minnesota he was on all of the Sunday morning talk shows and his star was on the rise for a period of time in large part because he was different and something of a breath of fresh air. He then fell off quickly though, in part because I think he got bored and probably frustrated because state politicians in both parties refused to work with him.
althisfan
Banned
But that method didn't work for Ventura (and yeah, his ultimate goal was the presidency) and Mr Trump did make the jump without anything in between. Seriously- If Donald Trump did it the way he did, then Carlin could do it the same way. He'd have the same libertarian and disestablishment core, minus the racist supporters.