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Oddly enough, this map makes me think Trump is more intelligent than I thought. Educated urbanites made fun of the GOP for having a Duck Dynasty cast member as

Oddly enough, this map makes me think Trump is more intelligent than I thought. Educated urbanites made fun of the GOP for having a Duck Dynasty cast member as a convention speaker. In reality, that speaker probably had more appeal to the average Trump voter than any of the parade of elites that the Dems brought out for their convention.

pjc50 10y ago
So what did the Duck Dynasty guy have to say about policy?
- virtuabhi 10y ago
  So what did Sarah Silverman have to say about policy? Or any other celebrity endorsing a candidate? Looking for policy directives from celebrities is akin to taking medical advice from a barista.
- landryraccoon 10y ago
  Unfortunately, the Presidency is won by the most electoral college votes, not by the best policy. Optimizing a campaign for the best policy only wins to the extent that those gains translate to EC gains.
- coldtea 10y ago
  Their opinion? Which is what matters in a democracy.
pklausler 10y ago
You're right, but only because the E.C. gives disproportionate voting power to acreage. You can win the E.C. with only ~23% of the votes if you distribute them optimally.
- landryraccoon 10y ago
  That's evidence that Trump's strategy was correct. The right strategy is to maximize EC votes, not the popular vote. Clinton won the wrong game.
  - LyndsySimon 10y ago
    Exactly. He's said something to this effect as well - that he campaigned to win the EC, not the popular vote. If he had campaigned to win the popular vote he would have done so.
- brightball 10y ago
  Things like that get pretty important when it comes to national policy covering all that acreage. $15 minimum wage for example - sounds reasonable in high cost of living, densely populated areas. In rural areas it would be economically devastating. It's one of the biggest reasons why acreage needs to matter for the Presidency. City, County and State laws can handle everything for the densely populated areas just fine without imposing the desire for those policies on areas with entirely different economic conditions. One of the biggest dangers to the country is counting a high concentration of people in an area who have completely different life experiences and conditions, more than areas that are heavily spread out. Policy does not have equal effects in all places. It's not much different than saying if India became a US State for some reason that suddenly the 1.3 billion people there should be dictating policy that effected every other US state. It's also why federal policy for just about everything outside of common defense tends to be misguided.
  - pklausler 10y ago
    I prefer democracy, myself.
    - brightball 10y ago
      As it turns out, you probably have Democracy in your city, county and state...unless you're electing representatives that will be making the decisions on your behalf for the next few years. Then you just have democratic voting for representatives...assuming those representatives are perfectly evenly distributed across the population.
      - vaishaksuresh 10y ago
        >As it turns out, you probably have Democracy in your city, county and state but just not in the Country? We should just be upfront about it then and stop calling the USA a democracy.
        brightball 10y ago
- elastic_church 10y ago
  If the rules were different, the campaign would have been different.
Maascamp 10y ago
How come the millionaire Duck Dynasty cast member isn't an "elite," but everyone brought in by the Democrats was?
- stonogo 10y ago
  I'm confused. Who said he wasn't?
- coldtea 10y ago
  Because being an elite in this sense is not about one's net worth, but how inline are their views/etc with the general population.
- Dan_Nguyen 10y ago
  To me, something also worth noting is that prior to the Duck Dynasty show, none of the people behind the company had their well known "bearded outdoorsman" looks. There's a widely circulated photo where they look like your average upper middle class suburbanite. The point on the Democrats celebrity endorsement is true, but I'd argue that the GOP celebrities, including the Duck Dynasty people, are of the same vein and aren't the rural everyman they portray on the show.
  - LyndsySimon 10y ago
    I would actually argue that the opposite is true - that their previous personas were an act put on to meet social norms. They are certainly something of a caricature of themselves today, but is likely a lot closer to how they see themselves.
- LyndsySimon 10y ago
  The perception is that the Robertsons don't "fit in" with the leaders of the right, and they certainly don't fit in with those of the left. It isn't a matter of wealth, but of culture.
- 0x445442 10y ago
  Because he made his money making and selling duck calls versus giving talks at the CFR.
danso 10y ago
I would never argue that Trump wasn't intelligent when it came to showmanship. Not just because he just won the presidency, but because it doesn't seem like he was a stellar businessman. That is, he wasn't exceptional enough to have turned his starting position (there are plenty of other sons of real estate barons who we never hear about) into what it is now based on financial intellect alone, at least not in the same way that I perceive Warren Buffett to have achieved his fortune. At said, a case can be made that just as there is more than one "IQ", we don't know for certain if the kind of intelligence Trump exceeds at is the kind that will help or hurt in the role of the presidency.

pjc50 10y ago

So what did the Duck Dynasty guy have to say about policy?

virtuabhi 10y ago
So what did Sarah Silverman have to say about policy? Or any other celebrity endorsing a candidate? Looking for policy directives from celebrities is akin to taking medical advice from a barista.
landryraccoon 10y ago
Unfortunately, the Presidency is won by the most electoral college votes, not by the best policy. Optimizing a campaign for the best policy only wins to the extent that those gains translate to EC gains.
coldtea 10y ago
Their opinion? Which is what matters in a democracy.

pklausler 10y ago

You're right, but only because the E.C. gives disproportionate voting power to acreage. You can win the E.C. with only ~23% of the votes if you distribute them optimally.

landryraccoon 10y ago
That's evidence that Trump's strategy was correct. The right strategy is to maximize EC votes, not the popular vote. Clinton won the wrong game.
- LyndsySimon 10y ago
  Exactly. He's said something to this effect as well - that he campaigned to win the EC, not the popular vote. If he had campaigned to win the popular vote he would have done so.
brightball 10y ago
Things like that get pretty important when it comes to national policy covering all that acreage. $15 minimum wage for example - sounds reasonable in high cost of living, densely populated areas. In rural areas it would be economically devastating. It's one of the biggest reasons why acreage needs to matter for the Presidency. City, County and State laws can handle everything for the densely populated areas just fine without imposing the desire for those policies on areas with entirely different economic conditions. One of the biggest dangers to the country is counting a high concentration of people in an area who have completely different life experiences and conditions, more than areas that are heavily spread out. Policy does not have equal effects in all places. It's not much different than saying if India became a US State for some reason that suddenly the 1.3 billion people there should be dictating policy that effected every other US state. It's also why federal policy for just about everything outside of common defense tends to be misguided.
- pklausler 10y ago
  I prefer democracy, myself.
  - brightball 10y ago
    As it turns out, you probably have Democracy in your city, county and state...unless you're electing representatives that will be making the decisions on your behalf for the next few years. Then you just have democratic voting for representatives...assuming those representatives are perfectly evenly distributed across the population.
    - vaishaksuresh 10y ago
      >As it turns out, you probably have Democracy in your city, county and state but just not in the Country? We should just be upfront about it then and stop calling the USA a democracy.
      - brightball 10y ago
elastic_church 10y ago
If the rules were different, the campaign would have been different.

Maascamp 10y ago

How come the millionaire Duck Dynasty cast member isn't an "elite," but everyone brought in by the Democrats was?

stonogo 10y ago
I'm confused. Who said he wasn't?
coldtea 10y ago
Because being an elite in this sense is not about one's net worth, but how inline are their views/etc with the general population.
Dan_Nguyen 10y ago
To me, something also worth noting is that prior to the Duck Dynasty show, none of the people behind the company had their well known "bearded outdoorsman" looks. There's a widely circulated photo where they look like your average upper middle class suburbanite. The point on the Democrats celebrity endorsement is true, but I'd argue that the GOP celebrities, including the Duck Dynasty people, are of the same vein and aren't the rural everyman they portray on the show.
- LyndsySimon 10y ago
  I would actually argue that the opposite is true - that their previous personas were an act put on to meet social norms. They are certainly something of a caricature of themselves today, but is likely a lot closer to how they see themselves.
LyndsySimon 10y ago
The perception is that the Robertsons don't "fit in" with the leaders of the right, and they certainly don't fit in with those of the left. It isn't a matter of wealth, but of culture.
0x445442 10y ago
Because he made his money making and selling duck calls versus giving talks at the CFR.

danso 10y ago

I would never argue that Trump wasn't intelligent when it came to showmanship. Not just because he just won the presidency, but because it doesn't seem like he was a stellar businessman. That is, he wasn't exceptional enough to have turned his starting position (there are plenty of other sons of real estate barons who we never hear about) into what it is now based on financial intellect alone, at least not in the same way that I perceive Warren Buffett to have achieved his fortune. At said, a case can be made that just as there is more than one "IQ", we don't know for certain if the kind of intelligence Trump exceeds at is the kind that will help or hurt in the role of the presidency.