Regular guys have a problem with Bernie. Well, lots of problems, actually. He comes off kind of preachy, you know? He looks funny and he’s old. Really, really old.
The thing is, seems to me that regular guys just want a regular guy as president. How does that break down?
W (you remember W, right?) had a lot of support from RGs. Even now, even when it’s obvious that he fucked up, he still has their sympathy. I mean, it’s hard to be president. No regular guy could do it, although they should be allowed to.
And that’s the basic problem. As soon as someone shows the competency required for the job they stop being a regular guy. There’s nothing worse than some smarty pants becoming president.
So it’s almost better to have some fuck up in the office. He can go around being regular and let his people deal with the problems.
Since this is a proven recipe for disaster, why should anyone care what RGs want? They mostly don’t vote anyways. Unless it’s for a Reagan (or Trump?). Ah, there’s the problem.
As a democracy (and right here some RG said “So called!”) we have to let them vote if they want. We even have to consider their rather ill-formed point of view. And because some of my best friends are RGs, I think it’s worth the effort.
The most important thing to understand about RGs is something I call dog brain. Most RG’s will happily admit to having a thought process like this. How does dog brain work?
Dog Brain is simple. It is “find the solution that works for me now”. Analysis consists of cocking of the head to get a slightly different angle on the problem, or of shoving something in there to see if that fixes it.
This sounds really dumb, but if properly executed it works most of the time. In the odd times it doesn’t work, either some woman will come along and take pity on you, or people will laugh and you’ll just stop.
Which brings up the most fundamental aspect of Dog Brain, which is “stay with the pack”. No matter what else, if everyone is doing it, there will be no shame or dishonor in you doing it too. Plus, being in the pack just feels good. We’re wired up for it.
What does this mean for Sanders? He can primary well among RGs because if there’s one thing worse than a smarty pants running for president, it’s a you know what running for president. They will probably just not bother to vote in the primary, or will vote against you know who.
But in the general it gets interesting. Trump may seem like a regular guy in some ways (he says dumb stuff out loud) but he’s not getting it. Being a billionaire and a boss make him almost a smarty pants, and even though we admire his taste in trophy wives, he isn’t “pack”. Beta dogs will eagerly vote for him, but few RGs see themselves as betas. They will probably not be inspired to vote for him.
But that leaves voting against the other candidate. There’s a lot of talk about how the Republicans will destroy Sanders in the general, but remember, it’s the regular guy vote they are focusing on, so the difference between Sanders and you know who is that one of them was born with the proper equipment. You know, to be president.
Can I help my friends who are regular guys see that Bernie is a regular guy too? I don’t know how they can miss it, but they have to maybe cock their heads a little...