Why Kanye West will be Trump’s Successor in the White House
Posted on 03/02/2020 9:21:50 AM PST by EyesOfTX
Guest piece from America’s History Teacher, Larry Schweikart I know. I get outright laughter when I say this (which I first did in 2018 on Brandon Voght’s radio show in New Mexico when asked who would be the GOP nominee in 2024 assuming Trump wins in 2020. (First, there is no doubt in my mind that Trump not only will win in 2020, but will do so even far more convincingly than in 2016—perhaps between 320 and 340 electoral votes and win the popular vote. But it could be even better for Trump depending on who the Democrat nominee is).
Anyway, back to Kanye. “This is ridiculous. A rapper in the White House?” No, he likely would not have the electoral expertise of a Ronald Reagan, who had eight years as California governor to keep him from being “just an actor.” Nor does he have Trump’s decades of experience in physical construction, though he began his career as a music producer for Roc-a-Fella Records by producing stars such as Jay-Z, Ludacris, and Alicia Keys. But he also has been a fashion designer with his “Yeezy” collaboration with Adidas, founded the creative content company DONDA, founded the record label (in 2004) called GOOD Music (“Getting Out Our Dreams”).
In some ways, West has surpassed Reagan’s “second life” achievements. As an actor, Reagan never achieved greatness—in large part because he never really wanted to. As I showed in my recent biography, Reagan: The American President, he never put in the time of “method actors,” or immersed himself in a role to the extent that it changed his body (the way Matthew McConaughey or Christian Bale have), not to mention changing his mental stability as Heath Ledger did with the “Joker” role. Reagan said of himself, “You know that guy that grabs the phone and says, ‘Hold on! Have I got a story for you?’ That’s me!” He would not play a villain, finally agreeing to in his very last film, The Killers.
While Trump’s achievements dot the skyline, West’s dot the annals of pop culture. He has sold over 100 million records, won 21 Grammy Awards, and had three albums make the Rolling Stone top 500 albums of all time list. Twice Time magazine has called him one of the 500 most influential people in the world.
Probably most people know about West more through his controversies than through his music. In 2016 he was convinced to admit himself into UCLA Medical Center for depression, paranoia, and other undiagnosed issues. Many think he is bipolar, which he confirmed on David Letterman’s show in 2019. One thing is certain: anyone looking at photos of Kanye prior to his conversion to Christianity and since can only notice the change from angry and isolated to a man happy and full of life.
Daniel Boorstein, over 50 years ago, predicted that the future of American politics would be celebrity. In a study of the modern age, Olivia Laing noted that Andy Warhol perhaps embodied the shift from sexual desire as the most animating force to the desire for attention. “Keeping up With the Kardashians” was merely the inevitable outcome of that movement.
In politics, name recognition is no small thing. Take the 2018 Senate elections in Ohio or Michigan, for example: both Republican challengers (Jim Renaicci and John James) spent the vast bulk of their campaign trying to raise name awareness. Yesterday, Tom Steyer dropped out of the Democrat primary campaign because, despite spending over $200 million (!) in ads, the first word most people uttered when they watched a Steyer ad was “Who?” The collapse of political awareness (or historical knowledge for that matter) among modern young people exacerbates this. Any Jesse Watters’ man-on-the-street video in which he questions college students shows that the vast majority of them can’t name a single Supreme Court Justice, say what job Nancy Pelosi holds, or identify Mike Pence. But you can get they know Kanye. Does anyone seriously wish to argue that this situation will improve in the next 4.5 years? By 2024, celebrity will be a requirement for public office if only because it is the only way to get uneducated/ill-informed voters to the polls.
Reagan found that his celebrity Hollywood status still worked against him in 1980, making it hard for some people to take “an actor” seriously. But in the Greta Thunberg age, where children are viewed as deep-thinking saviors of the world, Reagan’s concern no longer exists. Quite the contrary, it is now a requirement.
Barack Obama dabbled at being the first celebrity president, leveraging a single national speech into the presidency (along with the trademarked “first African-American president”). But he never quite pulled it off. Obama did not dare put himself in the midst of too many celebrities who were bigger than he was, otherwise he would vanish. But Trump?
Trump thrives on celebrity. It’s his oxygen. Who needs press conferences when Trump can do his own? Need a photo-op? Just bring up the most beautiful first lady in history. If Trump needs to get his message out, it’s only a Tweet away. And if it’s a bigger message than Twitter can handle, he schedules an American pride celebration on the Mall complete with tanks and the Blue Angels. He is the celebrity president.
This will be the norm from now on, and explains in part why existing Democrat candidates are having difficulty getting traction against him (besides the fact that their policies are flat-out insane). Anyone who thinks Mike Pence, as good as he is, can capture this lightning in a bottle is sorely mistaken.
Oh, and did I mention Kanye said he would be president? He told the British tabloid the Sun he would be president, and later said “when I am president.” West has shown he can accomplish incredible things. His rehab and conversion to Christianity is a major step, as suddenly he has gone from the object of evangelicals’ ire to a redemption story like none other.
His ascent as a major GOP candidate (which seems his likely party of choice, given his friendship with President Trump) means that the only Democrat who could possibly defeat him would have to similarly be a celebrity. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson hasn’t announced his political leanings, but he is one of the few who could match Kanye’s omnipresence in culture. As strange as it may sound in 2020, the phrase “President West” may not seem nearly as odd in four years.
Larry Schweikart is the author of Reagan: The American President and the co-author of the New York Times #1 bestseller, A Patriot’s History of the United States. He currently runs the Wild World of History (www.wildworldofhistory.com) history curriculum business.
Indeed. Strange as it may sound, the Kardashians & Kanye have gone to church throughout their marriage.
As long as he chooses Vanilla Ice for SoS.
That’s not a great link, unfortunately, because it’s an excerpt of an old (2002) OpinionJournal article. But in the article, Michael Medved made the point that no bald man had been POTUS since Eisenhower - that is, since the advent of TV as a big-time influence.
And that since so many mature men are bald (I resemble that remark), TV has biased our politics against, presumptively, about half of the set of people who should be considered for the presidency.
Recall John Kerry and his running mate John Edwards, cheerfully boasting of how wonderful their hair was . . .
The point is that the Republic has been blessed with Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump, but there is no necessary correlation between attractiveness and executive ability.
Sorry, not reading anything by Medved, the amnesty apologist Bush League Republican propagandist.
Jon Edwards was called "the silky pony" for a reason.
Trump looks at least as good as he did when he took office. :-)
You expect Trump to win, based on personality and performance, and I agree. But it is also true that historically, senators (and/or VPs, same difference) don’t defeat sitting presidents’ reelection bids and don’t even defeat governors in a race for an open seat (sole exception: Warren G. Harding, in a wave election). And since Trump's November opponent won’t be a governor, a Trump victory in November seems likely indeed. I worry about Bloomberg’s hostile billions, but . . .I wouldn’t be too quick to assume that Mike Pence won’t win the ’24 nomination. Sitting VP’s do tend to win presidential nominations. But it is true that in the modern era only Andrew Jackson and Ronald Reagan have seen their sitting VPs win election to POTUS.
So a Pence victory in ’24 would hardly be a sure thing, unless people are wishing for a third Trump term by then. But assuming continued Trump effectiveness - and given that Mr. Pence is a former governor who attained national office within 5 years of attaining statewide office - I would assume that he would run very strongly against any Democrat in ’24.
In addition, as a former talk show host Pence is qualified to handle TV well.
Why Kanye West will be Trump’s Successor in the White House
I think people are getting thrown off a bit by the fact that Ronald Reagan was an actor and Donald Trump was a media celebrity. That’s NOT why they won, nor is it why they were (are) both successful conservative leaders.
Anyone old enough to have been an adult conservative during Ronald Reagan’s ascendency knows that it was his detractors who focused on the acting part of his background, and that it was his detractors who created the “great communicator” meme, which was a backhanded complement intended to suggest that he was all polish, no substance.
Ronald Reagan was a deeply rooted conservative thinker whose success had little if any to do with his having been in show biz.
Although less obvious, I have been convinced for several years now that the same can be said about Donald Trump. There’s a lot more substance there than meets the eye. He hides it on purpose, because he wants to connect with rural America, and he knows talking like William Buckley about conservative philosophy isn’t going to get the job done.
But if you look at old Trump videos from the 1980s - he exhibits a completely different persona. Quiet, thoughtful, articulate and well versed in history.
Here’s the thing. There is no way on Earth Donald Trump could possibly accomplish what he has accomplished, withstand what he has withstood, and remain such a straight and true arrow for the conservative movement, unless his governing philosophy was deeply rooted in conservative principles. He doesn’t show it, but I guarantee it’s there.
It has been a real eye-opener to watch people like Mark Levin and others transform from being virtual #neverTrumpers, all the way to comparing him to Ronald Reagan.
Maybe there is more to Kayne West than I am seeing, but if he is to be Trump’s successor, it will require more than his mass appeal as a celebrity - it will require a deep and unshakable foundation in conservative thought.
I don’t base any of this on history. I think we’re way beyond that. I base everything on Breitbart’s notion that politics is downstream of culture.
Pence isn’t even remotely plugged into the culture.
So what are you saying about Plugs Biden?
Also, surveys have shown that the right kind of bald man appearance (think Vin Diesel) gets points for virility. And I don’t think we’ve generally had that kind of appearance in bald men running for president.
Pence was a *radio* talk show host.
And there is something off about Pence, where his look and sound is just too ingratiating somehow to seem real and authentic.
At best he might squeak in on Trump’s coattails for one term, but he’d never make it on his own (putting him in the Poppy Bush bucket).
Unfortunately I think the ambitions of Trump’s Manhattan liberal daughter and SIL, who just now (I mean just now: https://www.google.com/search?q=ivanka+trump&oq=ivanka+trump&aqs=chrome..69i57.2645j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8) registered as Republicans, will enter Trump’s calculus.
I just don’t know how deluded and impatient Ivanka might be about her own apparent presidential ambitions.
I really dislike “royal families”. I will only tolerate it if the opposition is so bad I am forced to!
Agreed. The whole family dynasties thing shouldn’t touch politics—and the presidency especially.
Yuck—just listen to Ivanka brag about her fundraising capabilities. She really thinks it is her and not her father.
I think I could mentally make a case for Donald Jr. I still would not be happy about it. Ivanka almost impossible to do unless the Rat nominee is Occasional-Cortex, Warren, Butt-Giggily, or some other Rat sociopath.
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