Ever notice how a person’s second marriage is radically different from the first? After a divorce, people often marry someone totally unlike their original spouse. A man married to a socialite may choose a waitress the second time around. A woman may choose a modest gentleman over her boisterous first spouse, I think the same thing could happen with elected officials. After Nixon resigned, his VP Gerald Ford got beaten by the pious, soft spoken Jimmy Carter. Nixon’s deceptive practices made voters turn to someone they thought could trust. Four years later, they decided they didn’t want a small town Sunday school teacher, after all, and elected Ronald Reagan, a divorced movie star from California. The pendulum swings in politics.
Is that what’s happening now? Obama’s popularity as president was based partly on his refined, scholarly demeanor. He was a literate, elegant man who published beautifully written books. Obama wasn’t an experienced candidate, but he had class. Then, the public turned on his chosen successor, Hillary Clinton, and elected a brash, egotistical womanizer from New York City who never held a political office and brags that he never reads a book.
Now , a rising star in the Democratic politics is a soft spoken, gay intellectual with a hard to pronounce name who is the mayor of a small mid western town. Whether Pete Buttigeig wins the nomination or not, it looks like the voters are looking for someone in total contrast to Trump.